36 Indians among world's richest people

Steel baron Lakshmi Mittal leads a pack of 36 Indian billionaires with a total net worth of $191 billion, according to the list of richest persons complied by Forbes magazine.

As many as 14 Indians have joined the coveted club, raising the net worth of the country's billionaires by around $90 billion.

Mittal, who heads the world largest steel company Arcelor Mittal, is the fifth richest person in the world with a net worth of $32 billion.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates continues to be the richest person in the world for 13th year in succession with a net worth of $56 billion among a record 946 billionaire pinned down by the magazine.

India's rich are marching towards the top the table with brothers Mukesh and Anil Ambani, who split up their family's conglomerate, joining Mittal for spots among top 20 richest people.

India now has the largest number of billionaires among the 20 after the United States.

Mukesh, chairman of Reliance Industries, with net worth of $20.1 billion finds 14th spot and Anil is the 18th richest person commanding a net worth of $18.2 billion.

An interesting statistic that the analyses throw up is that Japan's 20-year reign of cornering highest number of billionaires in Asia has ended and it now has only 24 billionaires with combined worth of $64 billion.

The list has 178 newcomers including 19 Russians, 14 Indians, 13 Chinese and 10 Spaniards as well as first billionaires from Cyprus, Oman, Romania and Serbia.

Two-thirds of the last year's billionaires are richer and only 17 per cent are poorer including 32 who dropped below the coveted figure and out of the list.

The billionaires' combined net worth climbed $900 billion to $3.5 trillion which equates $3.6 billion apiece, the magazine said.

The average billionaire is 62 years of age and ingenuity, and not industry, is their common characteristic. They made money in everything from real estate to coffee, dumplings and ethanol.

Among those on the list, 62 per cent made the huge fortunes from scratch.

The United States has 415 billionaires which translate into 44 per cent of the total. New faces include Starbucks chief Howard Schultz, ranked 840th among the richest. It has 55 new billionaires and total net worth of its billionaires is estimated at $1.36 trillion.

Hind Hariri, daughter of slain Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, drops off the list and Germany's 23-year-old Albert von Thurn und Taxis replaces her as the youngest billionaire.

China's Yan Cheung, ranked 390, makes a history as the country's richest person and is one of the three self made women in China to debut on this year's list. They join the exclusive rank of self made women including Oprah Winfrey ranked 664, J K Rowling (891) and Margaret Whitman (754).