EDITORIAL

URGE TO SPLURGE
Have money, will spend seems to be the motto of the elite

A CHECK ON PAY
Who got the biggest raises? Which company was most generous?

SHAKERS BUT NOT MARKET MOVERS
The ones who did not have to tap the market to get the numbers

BILLIONAIRE CLUB
A definitive list of India Inc’s richest

HIGHEST PAY PACKETS
List of the best paymasters

METHODOLOGY AND INDEX
How we estimated wealth and earnings of billionaires

BILLIONAIRE CLUB 2006
BILLIONAIRE CLUB 2005

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Thus, of the 46 that were turned billionaires by initial public offerings, the top seven are real estate developers. Apart from Singh and Jain the other five are Housing Development & Infrastructure Ltd promoter Rakesh Kumar Wadhawan, Ravi Purvankara of Purvankara Project, Rohtas Goel and family of Omaxe, P N C Menon and Sobha Menon of Sobha Developers and Vyomesh M Shah and Mahipatray V Shah of Akruti Nirman. What is more, even if their wealth is denominated in the US dollar, the first six are still billionaires. This group has pushed up the number of new billionaires to a staggering 168, easily the highest-ever, and more than made up for the exit of 24 from the list.

Making money, it seems, has become easier than ever. There are now 48 Indians with wealth above $1 billion (Rs 4,000 crore, or Rs 40 billion), making them dollar billionaires. There were 23 last year and only three in 1999. Eight years ago, when Business Standard compiled its first list of the wealthiest people in the country, the 100 that comprised it were worth Rs 84,000 crore. This time, their number has increased to 533 and their combined wealth stands at Rs 12,32,000 crore. The top five are worth over Rs 50,000 crore each. Corroboration, if any was needed, came from US-based magazine Forbes’ list of India’s 40 richest. Coming five days after Diwali, it was quite a cracker. For the first time, everyone in the list is a billionaire. In aggregate, their wealth surged to $351 billion, a bit more than double last year's $170 billion, making India's 40 by far the wealthiest such group in all of Asia. On most development and growth parameters, India often finds itself finishing runner-up to China. But Forbes gave India the bragging rights. Its top four – L N Mittal, the Ambani brothers and Singh – are together worth more than the 40 richest Chinese combined.

Brother in arms Consolidation of his telecom businesses into one single entity – RELIANCE COMMUNICATION– and the surge in the share prices of his telecom, finance and power companies cemented ANIL AMBANI’s position as the SECOND RICHEST Indian with a net worth of Rs 97,090 crore

Back to the Business Standard list, Mukesh Ambani heads it this time with a net worth of Rs 1,45,000 crore. In the last two years, he has often found himself up against his estranged brother, Anil, in business and law courts. The case is not very different this time. Anil is second with a net worth of Rs 97,090 crore.

DLF’s Singh, when he was an 18-year-old cadet at the Indian Military Academy, hatched a plan to escape the institute’s rigours by running away to England, where he had earlier dabbled in aeronautical studies. The colonel in charge came to know of the plan and told Singh that he could go away provided he was willing to be forever branded the coward who ran away. Singh stayed. The escape to England may have left him repairing aeroplanes there. Staying the course has made him worth Rs 90,821 crore and third on the list.

The much-anticipated public issue of DLF – even before it, reports had started appearing about Singh’s wealth once the company was listed – hit a bump early on on account of issues pertaining to the interests of minority shareholders.

Business Standard • December 2007