The Forbes list of the richest men of 2015 is out. The Chairman of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), Mukesh Ambani, is announced to be the richest in the country for the eighth consecutive year. Mr. Ambani has a net worth of USD 21 billion and globally ranks 39th. The industrialist to top the global list is the founder of the software giant, Microsoft,Bill Gates.
To calculate the wealth, Forbes monitored the share prices and exchange rates on 13th February, 2015.
Richest Indians
90 Indians were named in the Forbes Rich List 2015 that was published yesterday. The next Indian in the list is the pharmaceuticals entrepreneur, Dilip Shanghvi, who ranks 44th globally with USD 20 billion. The Chairman of Wipro, Azim Premji is the next Indian who holds the 48th position with USD 19.1 billion.
Some other Indians mentioned in the list are Shiv Nadar at 66th position with USD 14.8 billion, Hinduja Brothers at 69th place with USD 14.5 billion, Lakshmi Mittal at 82nd position with USD 13.5 billion and Kumar Mangalam Birla at 142nd place with USD 9 billion. Other Indians in the order are UdayKotak, Gautam Adani, Sunil Mittal, Cyrus Poonawalla and Anil Ambani.
Global list
Gates, the topper, has a net worth of USD 79.2 billion. In the last 21 years, he has topped the list 16 times. The second name in the list is Carlos Slim Heluof Mexico followed by American investor, Warren Buffett.
Amancio Ortega of Spain has fallen to 4th place while Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg rose to the 16th from 21st, last year. Jack Ma of Alibaba and other three Chinese are said to be the biggest gainers as they feature in world’s top 50.
Warren Buffet added more than USD 14 billion to his wealth to make it USD 72.7 billion. He is thus termed as the biggest gainer. The 5th name in the global list, Larry Ellison is also said to make a huge jump with net worth of USD 54.3 billion.
Other statistics
As per the magazine, the global economic slowdown did not affect the rich. A record 1,826 billionaires were included in the list that hold an aggregate net worth of USD 7.05 trillion which was USD 6.4 trillion, last year. Of the total 7.05 trillion, 4.7 billion is held by the first 500 only. This means around 1/4th of the richest men hold 2/3rd of the riches.
In this 29th Rich List issued by the magazine, 290 new names were added. 71 of these belong to China. The industrialists aged below 40 have also increased. The magazine also informed that 1,191 of the names mentioned are self-made billionaires, 230 inherited their riches and 405 inherited a part of it.
197 of the total billionaires are women as against 172, last year. However, they contribute to a very small number equaling 11%. Inheritor of a stake of Wal-Mart, Christy Walton is again named as the richest woman of the world.