Mukesh Ambani 19th richest person in the world; Jeff Bezos tops Forbes' billionaires list

Forbes' billionaires list has named Mukesh Ambani as the 19th richest man in the world. The World's Billionaires list has 2,247 names, out of which 119 are Indians. After adding 18 new names to the group, India came in third after China with 373 names and USA with 585 names.
 
Mukesh Ambani, the richest Indian for the 11th year in a row added $16.9 billion to his kitty, with assets amounting to $40.1 billion. Last year, Ambani was ranked 33rd on the list.

Amazon's Jeff Bezos tops the list. With $112 billion, Bezos is the richest man in the world, followed by Microsoft's Bill Gates with $90 billion. Bezos is also the first person whose assets crossed the mark of $100 billion, as mentioned by Forbes. He added $39.2 billion - almost Ambani's total assets - last year itself. Forbes refers to Bezos as the 'centi-billionaire', the only person with a 12-figure fortune, after this remarkable feat.

Much of Bezos soaring fortune came from his shares in Amazon that rose by 59% in 12 months. "It was the biggest one year gain since Forbes started tracking billionaires in 1987," Forbes mentioned.

This year's top 20 also include two women - Walmart's Alice Walton with net worth $46 billion on the 16th spot and L'Oreal's Francoise Bettencourt Meyers with $42.2 billion on the 18th spot. The richest Indian woman on the list is Savitri Jindal on the 176th spot with $8.8 billion net worth. She is followed by Kiran Mazumdar Shaw on the 629th spot with $3.6 billion.

The combined net worth of this elite group of billionaires is a whopping $9.1 trillion, up 18% since last year. Their average net worth is a record $4.1 billion.

Azim Premji is the second richest Indian and is ranked 58th on the overall list with a net worth of $18.8 billion, followed by Lakshmi Mittal on the 62nd position with net worth of $18.5 billion, Shiv Nadar, 98th with $14.6 billion and Dilip Shanghvi, 115th with $12.8 billion. The 10 richest Indians also include Kumar Birla, ranked 127th overall with a fortune of $11.8 billion, Uday Kotak, 143th with $10.7 billion, Radhakishan Damani, 151st with $10 billion, Gautam Adani, 154th with $9.7 billion and Cyrus Poonawalla 170th with $9.1 billion.

Acharya Balkrishna, co-founder of FMCG company Patanjali Ayurved, is ranked 274th on the list with a net worth of $6.3 billion. "Acharya Balkrishna derives his fortune from fast-growing consumer goods giant Patanjali Ayurved. Balkrishna owns 98.6% of the privately-held company, which he cofounded with politically well-connected yoga guru Baba Ramdev," Forbes said. Paytm's Vijay Shekhar Sharma also made it to the list with $1.7 billion net worth. He is ranked 1,394th.

Meanwhile, Anil Ambani, the younger sibling of Mukesh Ambani is ranked 887th on the list with a net worth of $2.7 billion.

Indian jeweller Nirav Modi is among the drop-offs from the list, along with Papa John's Pizza founder John Schnatter, Christoffel Wiese of South Africa, and Saudi Arabia s Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Al Saud.

Donald Trump, who became the first billionaire president in US history in January 2017, is ranked 766th on the list, down from 544, with a fortune of $3.1 billion. Trump's fortune fell to $400 million since March 2017.

There are 259 newcomers, including the first ever cryptocurrency billionaires, while 121 dropped out due to falling fortunes or political headwinds.

Forbes further noted that the gap between the really rich and the merely rich continues to widen, as fortunes soar to new heights so much so that the 20 richest people on the planet are worth a staggering $1.2 trillion, a sum roughly equivalent to the annual economic output of Mexico.

"In aggregate, they may represent less than 1 per cent of total billionaires but their riches amount to 13 per cent of the total fortune of all billionaires worldwide," Forbes said.

The Forbes World's Billionaires list is a snapshot of wealth using stock prices and exchange rates from February 9, 2018.

(With PTI inputs)