The New Turks

Driven by a surging stock market (benchmark index up 53% in the past year) and a strong rupee (12% appreciation in the past year), this years list of India's top 40 richest are all billionares. This according to ‘Forbes’ magazine, which assesses Reliance's Mukesh Ambani’s net worth to have soared to $49 billion, ahead of his brother Anil Ambani’s $45 billion. ArcelorMittal chief executive Lakshmi Mittal retains his spot (for now) as the richest Indian with estimated assets of $51 billion. The reports says that "the four wealthiest Indians have more money ($180 billion) than the 40 richest Chinese. Had these four been worth as much in March, when Forbes published their annual list of the world's billionaires, they all would have ranked among the world's 10 richest--three would have been new to the top 10; Mittal was already ranked fifth."

An unfamiliar name (to me) making the top 10: Pune's Tulsi Tanti:

India's wind man runs Suzlon Energy, world's most valuable wind power company, which he founded with 3 brothers in 1995. In March won hotly contested race to acquire German rival REpower!

Hooohaaaa...for renewable energy! :) And three cheers also for Pune's serum & vaccine-man, Cyrus Poonawallah, who clocks in at #22. ...what a great story!

Another clear indication is that real estate is king in India - at least in the metropolises, which reflect such a small portion of India but where most of the money and power is concentrated - is that 2 other names in the top 10, which I was also not familiar with before today, are real-estate related billionares - Kushal Pal Singh at #4 (world's richest real estate developer!) and Ramesh Chandra at #8! Also, two builder most of us who are from Mumbai have heard about - Hiranandani and Raheja - have made the top 40 list!

Outsourcing is still a huge business for many Indian companies and Wipro's Aziz Premji is there at #5 but Infosys's Narayana Murthy is down at #37 - almost risking being relegated out of the top-40 -- not that he would care for this sort of inane lists.

Related reports from couple weeks back:

When Asia's Millionaires Splurge, They Go Big

According to a survey issued this week by Merrill Lynch and consultancy Capgemini, when they spend on luxury items, the wealthy in the Asia-Pacific region are the most likely to splurge on big-ticket things such as vintage yachts, private airplanes, high-end automobiles and sports teams.

Ranks of Asia's Millionaires Grow

Robust economic growth helped 200,000 people join the ranks of the Asia-Pacific's millionaires last year, with Singapore's rich club growing at the fastest rate

The newest billionaires: China's economy churns out dozens

Even as China's trade surplus jumped to a new all-time monthly high in October...# of billionaires in China leap-frogs. A year ago, there were 15 billionaires in China. Now, there are more than 100. The United States has more billionaires than any other country: 415 by Forbes's last count. Unlike America's rich, China's are hardly famous, even in China. Gates, Buffett and Brin are known around the world. But Yang, Guo and Zhang?