Lakshmi Mittal tops Asian Rich List

NRI steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal and his family continue to head the Asian Rich List-2012 despite their wealth coming down by 2 billion pounds at 13.5 billion pounds.

This is stated in the Asian Rich List, naming Britain's '101 Wealthiest Asians 2012' and brought out by EasternEye, a publication of the Asian Media & Marketing Group (AMG).

The Rich List was officially released last night by Ramniklal Solanki, CBE Editor-in-Chief, Asian Media & marketing Group in the presence of Keith Vaz, MP, at the Asian Business Awards ceremony.

The Hindujas, whose activities span from transport to oil, have seen their fortune improve further with a wealth of 9.5 billion pounds during the year, up 500 million pounds, to finish second in the list.

Anil Agarwal, Chairman of Vedanta Group, is third in the list with a fortune of 3.2 billion pounds, down 1.3 billion pounds, from last year.

Lord Swraj Paul, Chairman of Caparo and Chancellor of Westminster and Wolverhampton Universities, is 7th in the list with a wealth of 675 million pounds -- up 75 million from last year.

According to the report, Lord Paul has looked into the future and what he sees is carbon fibre - or "composites" to use the correct technical term.  Objects that are constructed today from steel could tomorrow be made from carbon fibre, Lord Paul said.

Lord Paul who has witnessed many a technical innovation in his 81 years, does not rule out such a possibility.  "In future, I would not be surprised if it could be," he was quoted as saying.

Lord Paul pointed out that "Airbus uses a lot of carbon fibre parts and so does the latest aircraft from Boeing - the 787".