In billionaire company

Pallonji Mistry, chairman of construction colossus Shapoorji Pallonji and Company Limited listed at No 231 with a worth of $ 2.3 billion (bn) and Adi Godrej and family of the Godrej group of companies worth $ 2.0 bn at No 277 are among the Forbes roster of world billionaires released on February 27, 2004. They are among the nine Indians in this exclusive billionaires club, whose number has shot up this year to 587 people, with a total net worth of $ 1.9 trillion, equal to almost one-fifth of the gargantuan US economy!

Mistry (left) (Courtesy: Bombay Parsi Punchayet) and Godrej

The ‘Business Times’ section of The Times of India of February 28, ’04 reports that software supremo Azim Premji of Wipro continues to be the richest Indian at No 58 with a fortune of $ 6.7 billion. Industrialists Mukesh and Anil Ambani are on No 65 with a combined worth of $ 6.0 bn while Kumara Mangalam Birla is listed at No 147 with $ 3.2 bn. While UK-based Laxmi Mittal with $ 6.2 bn is on No 62, Sunil Mittal of Bharti Tele-Ventures has made it to the list for the first time, at No 186 with a fortune of $ 2.7 bn. Shiv Nadar at No 310 with $ 1.8 bn and Anil Agarwal at No 552 with $ 1.0 bn complete the list of billionaire Indians.

At the top of the heap for the 10th year running is Microsoft chairman Bill Gates with a fortune of $ 46 bn! The oil-rich economic tides of this millennium have seen eight new Russian entrepreneurs join the select list, among the total of 23 billionaires based in Moscow, just behind the 31 in New York, with places like Hongkong and Paris far behind! The "billion dollar people” include a wanted man, a suspected arms trader and three jailbirds, says the agency report.