India''s 40 richest individuals worth four times more than China''s top 40

Chennai: Forbes'' latest list of the richest Asians says that inspite of China being hyped as an economic powerhouse, India''s richest 40 are collectively worth a whopping US$106bn, four times more than China''s richest 40, who have a collective worth of only US$26bn.

Steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal continues to be the richest Indian with a net worth of US$20bn, followed by Wipro''s Azim Premji with US$11bn. The Ambani brothers follow in the third and fourth slots with Mukesh Ambani worth US$7bn and Anil lagging behind at US$5.5bn.

The Forbes list sees seven newcomers in the line up of the richest Indians, with Tulsi Tanti of Suzlon Energy at number 8, Anurag Dikshit at number 10, Naresh Goyal of Jet Airways at the 16, and Vikrant Bhargava of PartyGaming at 30.

Only two women figure in the list with Ms Indu Jain, "the matriach" of Bennet Coleman, at No 17 with US$1.7 billion and Ms Kiran Mazumdar Shaw of Biocon at the 34th slot with US$0.71 billion.

Compared to only one from Wipro, three from Infosys feature in the Forbes'' list — N.R. Narayana Murthy (US$1.05bn), Nandan Nilekani (US$0.74bn), and S. Gopalakrishnan (US$0.7bn).