India Rising - One Billion reasons to care - ABC documentary

One of the world's fastest growing economies continued its onward march, boosting the fortunes of its 100 richest.

Amid further disenchantment with national infrastructure undertakings, such as the botched preparation for the Commonwealth Games, Indian tycoons continue to flourish, sometimes off those same public projects.

India rising stock market and a booming economy, expanding 8.5 per cent this year, swelled the top 100's net worth, as evidenced by the fact that 69 of them are billionaires.

The four richest Indians are worth a combined $86 billion, well short of the $180 billion record they set three years ago. Mukesh Ambani retains his No. 1 rank for the third straight year, followed by steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, though both are less well off than they were a year ago. Infotech tycoon Azim Premji moves up to third place, displacing younger Ambani sibling Anil Ambani, who despite making peace with his brother, dropped to No. 6.

The biggest gainer in percentage terms was media baron Kalanithi Maran, who made a splash with his purchase of a big stake in low-cost airline SpiceJet. His net worth rose 74 per cent.

This year's list signals a second wave of Indian capitalists accumulating fantastic fortunes, after an initial slew earlier in the decade. In between, Indian wealth suffered a huge correction in 2008, when only 27 were billionaires. If the first wave was typified by IT, steel and energy fortunes, this wave features more pharma and property titans. Vijay Mallya, who provides pharma of a different kind (booze), came in at No. 44, with a net worth of $1.45 billion. A revival in air travel perked up Naresh Goyal's fortune as he landed at No. 52 with a net worth of $1.2 billion.

Some fortunes took a hit. Property baron Kushal Pal Singh, owner of debt-laden DLF, lost nearly one-third of his wealth despite a real estate rebound. Also poorer is Brijmohan Lall Munjal, following a family split and reports that Honda may end its 26-year joint venture with his Hero Honda.

Wind energy entrepreneur Tulsi Tanti, whose Suzlon Energy got weighed down by debt, took a hit -- dropping to No. 69 from No. 33 last year--with a net worth of $1 billion. Slum redeveloper Rakesh Wadhawan dropped to No. 77 because of a division of the family's assets with his nephews. Falling off the list was Pravin Kumar Tayal, who sold his Bank of Rajasthan to ICICI Bank and was barred from the capital market by the Securities & Exchange Board of India.

There are five returnees to the top 40 from previous years, three of them pharma entrepreneurs: Ajay Piramal, who sold part of his domestic business to Abbott for an eye-popping $3.7 billion; Pankaj Patel, whose Cadila Healthcare launched India's first swine flu vaccine; and Desh Bandhu Gupta, whose Lupin has gained lately in the U.S. generics market. A prominent returnee is the reclusive Pallonji Mistry, the largest shareholder of Tata Sons, the holding outfit of the Tata conglomerate. He was excluded from the list after he became an Irish citizen but brought back due to his business ties to India.

A fortune of $500 million was needed to make the grade. The net worths are a snapshot of wealth, based on share prices and exchange rates on Sept. 9, 2010. Since then Mumbai's Sensex has gained 5%. Our slide show is of the top 40, but tear sheets of all 100 are included in our package.

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  Education

[Srinath Reddy]

INDIA IS VICTIM OF DIRTY POLITICS, OTHER WIS I T IS TOP 3 PLYR IN THE WORLD

[DaSnipy]

its all good .. now english will dance to OUR tune .. what we say will be the grammar .. check the windows dictionary .. its ENGLISH [ EN ] ENGLISH [ US ] .. if they think our accent is bad, our grammar is bad, our terms are wrong .. we really wont care .. we will just make ENGLISH [ IN ] =) .. COLOUR [ EN ] COLOR [ US ] .. pray that we dont make KALAR [ IN ] out of it ;)

[DharmProtectionGroup]

india is great only bad is the alot of the people there

[Tarun Singh]

well m a dr ..and yes what u r saying is true .. malnutrition and child death (India contributes abt 25 % of the world's child deaths) is an issue which cant be solved in one day 2nd yes corruption is another big problem but luckily in past few years things are changing ..may b a little slowly thn we expect but at least they are ..but thr is nothing to be ashamed of ..every single country have issues ..atleast we r working on it ..and in positive way.

[courtneyf0xx]

Who is to blame? it is us. superpower...

To me superpower means that every one gets nutritious food, education. Judiciary which works. not these phony GDP figures.

[K Vasavi]

No one has to die with shame, India is suffering from dirty politics, terrorism and if we would remove corruption no one would stop her from being the supreme power and we are in the process of removing corruption in spite of all the odds India is not the one who is in recession unlike US and Euro zones! we dont print money to come out of our problems we face them strongly and work hard to come out of it!

[bell4jar]

where can I get the song starting at 0:45

[Demi GodPeanut]

That is quite a lie you have said there.

[TheLonePantheist]

India has more people in its country than the whole of the African continent. India has its problems, but its population is stabilizing (to stabilize around 1.6 billion). Even if nothing changes in India, Africa is only going to worsen with its population bomb (exploding to near 3.5 billion by the end of this century). No infrastructure can catch-up with that type of explosion. India will be able to catch-up very soon because it no longer has extreme population growth.

[Lakshmi Narayanan v]

India is in top 3 inspite of dirty politics, imagine how it would be without a dirty politics :)

[lukebccb]

India will never advanced beyond the "almost modern industrialized state" until it faces the reality that "high tech" will NEVER bring economic prosperity to ALL of the people of India..... a "high tech" "industry" will ONLY bring about an India of a small prosperous westernized Indians in India cities, while the VAST MAJORITY of Indians will be stuck in poverty in city slums and in the countryside.