Mukesh Ambani retains position as India's richest person: Forbes

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: Chairman of Reliance Industries Limited Mukesh Ambani has retained his position as India's richest person in 2016 despite his shares of oil and gas taking a hit due to the fall in oil prices.

Ambani, 58, with a net worth of USD 20.6 billion is still India's richest, the magazine said which ranked him 36th on the list universally.

Microsoft's co-founder Bill Gates continued his reign as the world's richest person with a net worth of USD 75 billion, according to Forbes' annual ranking of billionaires.

Ambani led a list of 84 Indian billionaires in 2016 which includes the likes of pharma magnate Dilip Shanghvi (rank 44 and USD 16.7 billion networth), Wipro Chairman Azim Premji (55 with USD 15 billion networth) and HCL co-founder Shiv Nadar (88 and USD 11.1 billion networth); they all came in among the top 100 billionaires.

Other prominent Indian billionaires include ArcelorMittal Chairman Lakshmi Mittal (135), Bharti Airtel's Sunil Mittal (219), Ports and power magnate Gautam Adani (453), matriarch Savitri Jindal (453), Bajaj Group's Rahul Bajaj (722), Infosys chairman emeritus N R Narayana Murthy (959) and Mahindra Group's Chief Anand Mahindra (1577).

Also making to the list is investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala on the 1011 rank, Infosys cofounder Nandan Nilekani (1121), Former Amazon executive and Flipkart founder Sachin Bansal (1476) and pharma company Wockhardt chairman Habil Khorakiwala (1694).

According to Forbes, the list of the World's Billionaires in 2016 came down to 1,810 billionaires from a record 1,826 a year ago.