BANGALORE, INDIA: Forbes has named Reliance Industries CEO Mukesh Ambani as the richest Indian in its latest issue. Also on the list are Azim Premji and Lakshmi Mittal. Apart from their fortune, there is very little known about these billionaires of India. Here is what you may not know.
MUKESH AMBANI (55 years): Mukesh Ambani, the chairman and CEO of Reliance Industries Limited, with net worth $21 billion is the richest Indian on Forbes list of 2012 and is the second richest man in Asia and the 19th richest person in the world. He earns an annual salary of Rs 15 crore, which has remained unchanged since 2008-09. According to the list of richest sports owners, he is richer than owners of Chelsea and AC Milan.
LAKSHMI MITTAL (62 years): Lakshmi Niwas Mittal, chairman and CEO of ArcelorMittal, is second on the list with net worth $16 billion. Despite being the wealthiest man in Britain, he does not hold British citizenship. His residence at 18-19 Kensington Palace Gardens in London was purchased from Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone and is decorated with marble taken from the same quarry that supplied the Taj Mahal. It has 12 bedrooms and parking for 20 cars. He is a vegetarian.
AZIM PREMJI (67): Azim Hashim Premji of Wipro is worth $12.2 bn. Premji, who is from Gujarat, dropped out of Stanford University in 1966 while doing his MBA, but he went back and completed the degree in 1999. Azim Premji is married to Yasmeen and they have two children, Rishad and Tariq. Rishad is currently the Chief Strategy Officer of IT Business, Wipro.
PALLONJI MISTRY (83): Pallonji Shapoorji Mistry, chairman of Shapoorji Pallonji Group and owner of Eureka Forbes Limited, with $9.8 bn fortune, is the wealthiest person of Parsi descent. He is married to an Irish national Pat (Patsy) Perin Dubash. His son Cyrus has been named the deputy chairman of Tata Sons and shall succeed Ratan Tata in December 2012.
DILIP SHANGHVI (57): With $9.2 bn fortune, the founder and managing director of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Limited, is in the top 5 Forbes ranks for the first time as his company gained nearly 50 pc in 12 months, hitting a record high in October. An alumnus of University of Calcutta, Shanghvi is married and has two children. Son Aalok, who studied molecular biology at UMich, is in charge of international marketing.
ADI GODREJ (70): Adi Godrej, whose net is worth $9 billion belongs to Zoroastrianism religion. His biography, published by Penguin, is being released in December. Adi is married to Parameshwar Godrej and their Son Pirojsha, a Columbia University graduate, is chief executive of Godrej Properties while daughter Nisaba is tipped to head listed Godrej Consumer Products.
SAVITRI JINDAL (62): Steel baroness Savitri Jindal with net worth $8.2 billion is the wealthiest woman in India. She became the chairperson after her husband O P Jindal, died in a helicopter crash in 2005. Savitri, who is a mother of nine, also served as a minister of power in Haryana until 2010. Her youngest son Naveen runs Jindal Steel & Power.
RAVI RUIA: Ravikant Nand Kishore Ruia, vice-chairman of Essar Group has $8.1 billion property. Ravi is a mechanical engineer by profession, with a degree from Anna University in Chennai. In December 2011, Ruia was charged by Central Bureau of Investigation over alleged corruption involving the sale of India's 2G spectrum.
HINDUJA BROTHERS: Hinduja brothers Srichand and Gopichand are worth $8 billion. Hinduja Group set up its first international operation in Iran in 1919. Srichand Hinduja and his brother Gopichand moved to London in 1979 to develop their father's export business. In June 2012, Hinduja Group bagged its first overseas order of 50 units of vesitibule buses from Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation.
KUMAR MANGALAM BIRLA: Kumar Mangalam Birla ($7.8 billion) heads the Aditya Birla Group. When Kumar Manglam took over the reins of the group in 1995, the turnover was only $2 bn. Birla is married to Neerja Birla and they have three children: Ananyashree, Aryaman Vikram and Advaitesha. Neerja oversees the Aditya Birla World Academy, a school in Mumbai.
(Sources: Wikipedia and Forbes)
