Forbes names the 40 richest Indians

Forbes has announced its maiden list of the top 40 richest people in India in its upcoming issue (December 20).

Steel titan Lakshmi Mittal tops the list with wealth of $11.2 billion. His Ispat International aims to become the world's largest steel company. He currently resides in UK and is also known as Britain's richest resident.

In second place is Indian software supreme, Wipro's Azim Premji with wealth of $10 billion. Premji owns 84 per cent of Wipro, India's second biggest infotech company by revenues. 

 Mukesh and Anil Ambani are ranked third with wealth of $6.4 billion, inherited from their father, Reliance Group's founder Dhirubhai Ambani. The two brothers are reportedly feuding over control of the group today.

Ranked fourth is Kumar Mangalam Birla with $3.5 billion. He is the fourth generation head of Aditya Birla Group, India's largest cement producer.

Construction magnate and real estate developer, Pallonji Mistry is fifth on the list with wealth of $2.9 billion.

India's biotech pioneer, co-founder of Biocon, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw is the sole female on the list with $455 million.

Sunil Mittal of Bharti Group with $2.6 billion is sixth, Shiv Nadar of HCL with $2.3 billion is seventh, Adi Godrej of Godrej Industries is eighth with a net wroth of $1.9 billion, Malvinder & Shivinder Mohan Singh of Ranbaxy are night with $1.5 billion, and Dilip Shanghvi of Sun Pharma is tenth with $ 1.4 billion.

With India's economic liberalisation, its people are capitalising on this trend in wealth creation.

New star does not only include the technology sector, but also the pharmaceutical sector. Half of the top 40 richest come from these two sectors -- 11 from technology and 9 from pharmaceutical.

While some of them are inherited wealth, it is interesting to note that 19 of them are entirely self-made billionaires and millionaires.

In terms of cities, 16 of them live in Mumbai, 8 in Bangalore and 8 in Delhi. The average net worth was $1.5 billion.

The net worth of the individuals is calculated based on the current share prices, exchange rate and in some cases, recent dividends for those with publicly traded fortunes, and for privately held fortunes, they were estimated based on the value the companies would be worth if they were public.

Forbes has honed over nearly two decades of tracking world wealth and is renowned for its ranking of billionaires and celebrities. This is the third in a series of such Asia Pacific rich lists that will appear in the coming months.

This series is sponsored by SG Private Banking (Asia Pacific), the private wealth management arm of the Societe Generale Group.

"We are delighted to be associated with Forbes in their series of Asia Rich list. SG Private Banking is fully part of the wealth creation cycle in Asia, meeting constant evolving high net wroth individual's requirements. To that respect, SG Private Banking has set in Asia a global worldwide hub both for Asian clients as well as European and other regions' customers. Considered as one of the fastest growing Private Banks in Asia, SG Private Banking became a major partner in building, managing and structuring high net worth individual's wealth. We fully share Forbes philosophy in the power of free enterprise. SG believes that this association is synergistic as it reinforces SG position as a global leader in cultivating fortune," said Daniel Truchi, CEO of SG Private Banking (Asia Pacific).