Reliance Industries chief Mukesh Ambani has been ranked 33 on the Forbes list of “World Billionaires 2017”. India was ranked fourth among countries with the highest number of billionaires – it has 101 of them. Ambani has a net worth of $23.2 billion (around Rs 1.52 lakh crore), the highest among Indian billionaires.
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, with a fortune of $86 billion (approximately Rs 5.6 lakh crore), topped the list for the fourth time in a row. Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffet and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos came on second and third position on the list. United States President Donald Trump fell 200 positions on the list at 544th.
America continues to have the most number of billionaires in the world, followed by China and Germany.
Ambani “sparked a price war in India’s hyper-competitive telecom market” with the launch of Reliance Jio last year, Forbes magazine said. “It has notched up 100 million subscribers to day by offering free broadband and voice services,” Forbes added. With a net worth of $2.7 billion (Rs 17,500 crore) Mukesh Ambani’s brother Anil Ambani was ranked in the 745th position.
Other Indians who made it to the top 100 on the list were Arcelormittal chairman Lakshmi Mittal in the 56th position, Hinduja brothers (64), Wipro’s Azim Premji (72) and Pallonji Mistry of Shapoorji Pallonji Group (77). Acharya Balkrishnan, who owns a 97% stake in Ramdev Baba’s Patanjali Ayurveda, made his debut on the list at the 814th position.
There were only four Indian women on the list. Savitri Jindal and her family was at 303, Smita Crishna-Godrej (814), Biocon founder Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw (973) and USV India’s Leena Tiwari at 1030.
Other Indians who made it to the list were Infosys co-founders Narayana Murthy and Nandan Nilekani, Bajaj Group chair Rahul Bajaj and Gautam Adani. Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma was ranked 1567th, with a net worth of $1.3 billion (Rs 8,500 crore). Forbes said Paytm was one of the “biggest beneficiaries” of the government’s demonetisation move.
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