India’s 10 richest could cover fiscal deficit: Forbes

The total net worth of India's 55 billionaires could cover the country's fiscal deficit twice over, according to Forbes magazine's annual study of the world's billionaires.

The collective worth of India's mega-rich has dipped since last year, even as their numbers have swelled. Their net worth has fallen to $189 billion against $194.6 billion a year ago; but the number of billionaires has increased from 48 to 55.

The Forbes rankings show that the 10 richest Indians alone command over $100 billion, with the other 45 sharing the remaining $89 billion.

India's estimated deficit for the fiscal ending this month is about $95 billion, which is 5.2 per cent of the country's total GDP.

Forbes has ranked Mukesh Ambani, with a net worth of $21.5 billion, as the richest Indian for sixth year in a row. He is one of just three Indians ranked in the global top 100.

Lakshmi Mittal is the second-richest Indian, with a net worth of $16.5 billion. He is followed by Azim Premji ($11.2 billion), Dilip Shanghvi ($9.4 billion), Shashi & Ravi Ruia ($8.5 billion) and Kumar Mangalam Birla ($7.9 billion).

Others in the top ten Indians are Savitri Jindal ($7.6 billion), Sunil Mittal ($6.8 billion), Shiv Nadar ($6.5 billion) and K P Singh ($6.3 billion).

Uday Kotak, Micky Jagtiani, Cyrus Poonawalla, Adi Godrej, Anil Agarwal, Subhash Chandra, B L Munjal, Rahul Bajaj, Rajan N R Narayana Murthy, K Anji Reddy, M A Yusuff Ali, Vikas Oberoi, S Gopalakrishnan, Venugopal Dhoot, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala and Yusuf Hamied are also on the list.