India's 40 Richest Men

India's rising fortunes are underscored by the increasing prosperity of its wealthiest citizens. Members of our third annual ranking of India's 40 richest businesspeople are worth a collective $170 billion, up from $106 billion last year. India's top 10, worth $112 billion, account for two-thirds of that wealth. The rankings include 36 billionaires, 9 more than last year. India's hot stock market, up 39% this year, and its robust real estate market helped swell most fortunes. The minimum net worth needed to make the cut rose to $790 million, up from $590 million

# 1 Lakshmi Mittal
$25 billion
Age 56
Marital Status Married, 2 children
Industry Steel

Steel titan finally won battle for rival Arcelor in June. $34 billion merger created industry behemoth that now accounts for more than 10% of world's production, dwarfs rivals. Mittal owns 44.7% of combined Arcelor Mittal; recently named its chief executive.

#2 Mukesh Ambani
$18.5 billion
Age 49
Marital Status Married, 3 children
Industry Diversified

Wrested title of India's richest resident from Azim Premji. Since splitting with brother Anil in June of last year and taking control of $20 billion (revenues) Reliance Industries, fortune has soared by $11.5 billion. Oil-refining subsidiary Reliance Petroleum, in which Chevron has 5% stake, listed in May. Betting $5.5 billion on retail ventures including Reliance Fresh, chain of food stores. Megaplans include $10 billion investment to develop special economic zones.

#3 Anil Ambani
$14.8 billion
Age 47
Marital Status Married, 2 children
Industry Diversified

Younger Ambani brother's net worth surged, thanks in part to March listing of telecom operator Reliance Communications, of which he holds 65%. Spat with brother continues: dispute with Mukesh over gas supply agreement for his new power plant now in court.

#4 Azim Premji
$14 billion
Age 61
Marital Status Married, 2 children
Industry Software

Runs technology services giant Wipro, which has been on buying spree, picking up such firms as Finnish telecom software outfit Saraware and Portuguese retail software group Enabler. Bangalore Tiger, a book on Wipro's rise, recently published.

#5 Kushal Pal Singh
$10 billion
Age 75
Marital Status Married, 3 children
Industry Real estate

Inherited father-in-law' s Delhi Land & Finance; turned it into India's leading property developer. Plan to list DLF Universal fell apart over complaint by minority investors. Building Mall of India, country's biggest. New hotel joint venture with Hilton. Son Rajiv, daughter Pia run operations.

#6 Sunil Mittal
$6.9 billion
Age 49
Marital Status Married, 3 children
Industry Telecom

Cofounded and runs, with two brothers, the Bharti group. Its Bharti Airtel, in which SingTel and Vodafone hold stakes, nation's biggest mobile phone operator. Plans to partner with foreign retailer, likely Tesco or Wal-Mart.


#7 Kumar Birla
$6.8 billion
Age 39
Marital Status Married, 3 children
Industry Commodities

Became chairman of commodities conglomerate at age 28 after father's death. $8.3 billion (sales) Aditya Birla Group India's largest aluminum, copper producer. After spat with Tata Group, paid nearly $1 billion to buy former partner's stake in mobile phone venture Idea. Also moving into retail.


#8 Tulsi Tanti
$5.9 billion
Marital Status Married, 2 children
Industry Wind energy

With three siblings founded Suzlon Energy 1995; took it public a decade later. Group's $8 billion market cap makes it world's most valuable wind company. In March acquired Hansen Transmissions, Belgian maker of wind turbine gearboxes. Order backlog now $1.5 billion, mainly from customers in U.S., Europe and China.

#9 Ramesh Chandra
$5.3 billion
Age 67
Marital Status Married, 2 children
Industry Real estate

Banker's son studied structural engineering in U.K., then returned home to start consulting firm. Moved into residential real estate, building middle-class housing in Gurgaon and later in southern and eastern India. The market cap of his Unitech has soared to $6.7 billion, from $302 million in January.

#10 Pallonji Mistry
$4.9 billion
Age 77
Marital Status Married, 4 children
Industry Construction

Low-profile construction magnate is single largest shareholder in Tata Sons, holding company of $22 billion (sales) Tata Group. Its Tata Consultancy Services is India's largest software exporter; its Tata Steel recently bid $8 billion to acquire Corus group, Europe's second-largest steel producer. Stepped down from Tata Sons board last year; younger son Cyrus took spot.

#11 Anil Agarwal
$4.5 billion
Age 53
Marital Status Married, 2 children
Industry Mining

Chairs $3.7 billion (sales) London-listed metals and mining giant Vedanta Resources; brother Navin is number two. Main assets in India, Australia and Zambia. Plans to build Vedanta University, India's answer to Stanford, in eastern India; has pledged $1 billion.

#12 Shashi & Ravi Ruia
$4.1 billion
Age 63/57
Marital Status Married, 2 children/Married, 2 children
Industry Diversified

Consolidating steel, shipping, oil and gas, construction, telecom into $2.8 billion (sales) Essar Global. Feisty Ruias are reportedly fighting partner Li Ka-shing over their biggest asset, 33% stake in Hutchison Essar, India's third-largest mobile phone operator in which Li's Hutchison Whampoa owns 67%. Differences have delayed its IPO.

#13 Adi Godrej
$4 billion
Age 64
Marital Status Married, 3 children
Industry Diversified

Chairs 109-year Godrej empire, best known for consumer products; also stakes in agro-foods, engineering, pesticides, software, chemicals. Extensive land holdings in Mumbai soaring in value lately.

#14 Shiv Nadar
$3.7 billion
Age 61
Marital Status Married, 1 child
Industry Technology

Heads $3.5 billion (sales) HCL Group, which makes PCs and provides software and outsourcing to such customers as Boeing, IBM. HCL, which celebrated 30th anniversary in August, has 41,000 employees in 17 countries. An engineer, funds private engineering school that runs courses in association with Carnegie Mellon.

#15 Indu Jain
$3 billion
Age NA
Marital Status Widowed, 2 children
Industry Media

Chairs India's largest media group, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Now run by sons Samir and Vineet. Businesses include newspapers (The Times of India), FM radio stations, music stores (Planet M). In surprising move, partnering with age-old rival Hindustan Times to launch New Delhi newspaper.

#16 Dilip Shanghvi
$2.7 billion
Age 51
Marital Status Married, 2 children
Industry Pharma

Founded and runs Sun Pharmaceuticals, maker of branded generics with factories in India, Europe and U.S. Investing in drug discovery. Its anti-allergy molecule undergoing U.S. clinical trials.

#17 Rahul Bajaj
$2.3 billion
Age 68
Marital Status Married, 3 children
Industry Manufacturing

Outspoken head of 80-year-old Bajaj Group. Its Bajaj Auto, India's second-largest motorcycle maker, run by sons Rajiv and Sanjiv, is closing gap with rival Hero Honda. Elected to parliament in June. Sits on New York Stock Exchange's international advisory board.

#18 Grandhi Rao
$2.2 billion
Age 57
Marital Status Married, 3 children
Industry Infrastructure

Former jute trader, split from brothers and moved into banking, later infrastructure. Shot into limelight this year after winning bid to modernize New Delhi airport.

#19 Baba Kalyani
$2.1 billion
Age 57
Marital Status Married, 1 child
Industry Manufacturing

Runs family's Kalyani group, world's second-largest forgings manufacturer. His Bharat Forge has joint venture with Faw, China's largest forging company. Along with state government setting up special economic zone in western India expected to attract investments of over $5 billion.

#20 Kalanithi Maran
$1.9 billion
Age 41
Marital Status Married, 1 child
Industry Media

Politician's son dabbled in family's modest publishing business before launching Sun TV when India's satellite television market opened up in the 1990s. Sun now owns 14 channels, 4 radio stations, newspapers and magazines. Group's April listing made Maran, who owns 90%, a billionaire. Brother Dayanidhi minister for communications and IT.

#21 Savitri Jindal
$1.87 billion
Age 56
Marital Status Widow, 9 children
Industry Steel

Husband, steel baron Om Prakash Jindal, died last year in helicopter crash. Her four sons each run parts of the family's $4 billion (sales) Jindal group, which also has interests in power, industrial gases and ports. She remains chairperson of several group companies.

#22 Yusuf Hamied
$1.85 billion
Age 70
Marital Status Married
Industry Pharma

With brother, runs Cipla, India's most valuable drugmaker. Products, which include AIDS drugs and a medicine to treat bird flu, are sold in 140 countries. Wife Farida gave him a Lexus with RC1PLAS on the license plate for his 70th birthday.

#23 Subhash Chandra
$1.84 billion
Age 56
Marital Status Married, 3 children
Industry Media

Founded and runs Essel group, with interests in media, packaging, amusement parks, online lottery and cable networks. Restructuring flagship Zee Television into three companies, to be separately listed.J Launched DishTV, a direct-to-home service, which competes with Tata Sky, Tata Group's joint venture with Star TV.

#24 Malvinder & Shivinder Singh
$1.8 billion
Age 34/31
Marital Status Married, 2 children/Married, 4 children
Industry Pharma

Brothers are largest shareholders in Ranbaxy Laboratories, India's largest pharmaceutical firm in terms of sales. With Malvinder now chief executive, company on acquisition binge. Paid $324 million in March for Terapia, a Romanian generics outfit. Shivinder heads Fortis Healthcare, a chain of hospitals, which he is readying to take public.

#25 Vivek Burman
$1.76 billion
Age 69
Marital Status Married, 2 children
Industry Consumer goods

Fourth-generation head of Dabur, maker of herbal products. Family also has stakes in Punjab Tractors, Centurion Bank of Punjab; life insurance joint venture with Aviva, U.K.; another with Fidelity to sell mutual funds in India.

#26 Venugopal Dhoot
$1.75 billion
Age 54
Marital Status Married, 2 children
Industry Electronics

With two brothers controls $3 billion (sales) Videocon group, consumer electronics and home appliances manufacturer with factories in India, Poland, Italy, Mexico and China. Is world's third-largest maker of color picture tubes. In October announced $700 million deal for South Korea's Daewoo Electronics. Also has oil interests.

#27 Uday Kotak
$1.59 billion
Age 47
Marital Status Married, 2 children
Industry Banking

Runs Kotak Mahindra Bank, which he cofounded as finance firm in 1985. In March bank ended 14-year partnership with Goldman Sachs when it acquired the American firm's 25% stake in two subsidiaries for $72 million.

#28 N.R. Narayana Murthy
$1.58 billion
Age 60
Marital Status Married, 2 children
Industry Software

Much-venerated cofounder of $2 billion (revenue) software services firm Infosys Technologies, which celebrated silver jubilee this year. Stepped down as executive chairman in August upon turning 60 but is still chief mentor and nonexecutive chairman.

#29 Anurag Dikshit
$1.5 billion
Age 33
Marital Status Married, 2 children
Industry Online gaming

Internet gambling mogul feeling pain: shares of PartyGaming, which he ran until recently, tanked after U.S. Congress passed law forbidding companies from facilitating payments to gambling sites. Sold $275 million worth of shares before crackdown.

#30 Jaiprakash Gaur
$1.4 billion
Age 76
Marital Status Married, 5 children
Industry Construction

Sits at helm of the Jaypee group, which he founded in 1972. Believes water is liquid gold: group leading hydropower producer, constructed 13 projects in India; one in Bhutan. Other interests in engineering, cement, hotels.

#31 Vijay Mallya
$1.3 billion
Age 50
Marital Status Married, 3 children
Industry Liquor

Flamboyant liquor tycoon, who sports diamond ear studs even to business meetings, took over the United Breweries group from late father in 1983. Built it into world's third-largest spirits company. Best known for such brands as Kingfisher, also the name of his lossmaking 18-month-old domestic airline.

#32 Rajan Raheja
$1.2 billion
Age 53
Marital Status Married
Industry Diversified

Moving beyond family's real estate business, low-profile Raheja now has interests in car batteries, cement, ceramic tiles, publishing, cable, petrochemicals, retail and software. Holds stake in some hotels and a mutual fund.

#33 Nandan Nilekani
$1.15 billion
Age 51
Marital Status Married, 2 children
Industry Software

Cofounded Infosys, which he runs as chief executive and managing director. In bid to diversify company's 66,000-plus workforce is hiring graduates from U.S. universities. Awarded the Padma Bhushan, one of nation's highest civilian honors. Recently appointed to Reuters' board.

#34 Senapathy Gopalakrishnan
$1.1 billion
Age 52
Marital Status Married, 1 child
Industry Software

Infosys cofounder also its president, chief operating officer.

#35 Brijmohan Lall Munjal
$1.08 billion
Age 84
Marital Status Married, 4 children
Industry Manufacturing

Patriarch of Hero Group. Its Hero Honda, a 23-year joint venture with Japan's Honda, is nation's top motorcycle maker. Rising costs, intense competition from Bajaj Auto dented net margin, stock price.

#36 Naresh Goyal
$1 billion
Age 57
Marital Status Married, 2 children
Industry Airlines

Founder of Jet Airways, India's biggest domestic airline. In bid to fight off emerging rivals like Mallya's Kingfisher Airlines, inked $500 million deal to acquire ailing rival Air Sahara in January then backed out. Unhappy investors drove stock down 46%.

#37 Keshub Mahindra
$930 million
Age 83
Marital Status Married, 3 children
Industry Manufacturing

Chairs $3 billion (revenues) Mahindra & Mahindra, country's leading tractormaker, now in its 60th year. Has joint venture with France's Renault to make cars (will launch next year) and one with British communications group BT, which listed this year. Nephew Anand runs show as vice chairman and managing director.

#38 Jignesh Shah
$840 million
Age 39
Marital Status Married, 1 child
Industry Finance

Cofounded and runs Financial Technologies, firm that specializes in trading and financial software for stock markets. Set up India's largest commodities exchange.

#39 Habil Khorakiwala
$825 million
Age 64
Marital Status Married, 3 children
Industry Pharma

Has 74% stake in $313 million (sales) pharmaceutical firm Wockhardt, which bought Irish maker of generics, Pinewood Laboratories, for $150 million.

#40 K. Dinesh
$790 million
Age 52
Marital Status Married 2 children
Industry Software

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