Forbes top 40 richest indians

Forbes has announced its maiden list of the top 40 richest people in India in its upcoming issue (December 20).

Steel titan Lakshmi Mittal tops the list with wealth of $11.2 billion. His Ispat International aims to become the world's largest steel company. He currently resides in UK and is also known as Britain's richest resident.

In second place is Indian software supreme, Wipro's Azim Premji with wealth of $10 billion. Premji owns 84 per cent of Wipro, India's second biggest infotech company by revenues. 

The 40 Richest Indians
1	Lakshmi N Mittal	Mittal Steel
2	Azim Premji	Wipro
3	Mukesh & Anil Ambani	Reliance
4	Kumar Mangalam Birla	A V Birla
5	Pallonji Mistry	Tata Sons
6	Sunil Mittal	Bharti Group
7	Shiv Nadar	HCL
8	Adi Godrej	Godrej Inds
9	Malvinder & Shivinder Singh	Ranbaxy
10	Dilip Sanghvi	Sun Pharma
11	Anil Agarwal	Sterlite
12	Shashi & Ravi Ruia	Essar
13	Om Prakash Jindal	Jindal Group
14	Rahul Bajaj	Bajaj Auto
15	N R Narayana Murthy	Infosys
16	Subhash Chandra	Zee Telefilms
17	Yusuf Hamed	Cipla
18	Brijmohan Lal Munjal	Hero Group
19	Habil Khorakiwala	Wockhardt
20	Vivek Burman	Dabur
21	Nandan Nilekani	Infosys
22	S Gopalakrishnan	Infosys
23	N S Raghavan	Infosys
24	Narendra Patni	Patni Comp
25	Ajay Piramal	Nicholas Piramal
26	Vijay Mallya	UB Group
27	Pankaj Patel	Zydus Cadila
28	Baba Kalyani	Kalyani Group
29	B Ramalinga Raju	Satyam
30	Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw	Biocon
31	Karsanbhai Patel	Nirma
32	K Dinesh	Infosys
33	Uday Kotak	Kotak Mahindra
34	S D Shibulal	Infosys
35	K Anji Reddy	Dr Reddy's
36	Narottam Sekhsaria	Gujarat Ambuja
37	Jaiprakash Gaur	Jaiprakash Inds
38	Shyam & Hari Bhartia	Jubilant Organo
39	Keshub Mahindra	M&M
40	Desh Bandhu Gupta	Lupin

 Mukesh and Anil Ambani are ranked third with wealth of $6.4 billion, inherited from their father, Reliance Group's founder Dhirubhai Ambani. The two brothers are reportedly feuding over control of the group today.

Ranked fourth is Kumar Mangalam Birla with $3.5 billion. He is the fourth generation head of Aditya Birla Group, India's largest cement producer.

Construction magnate and real estate developer, Pallonji Mistry is fifth on the list with wealth of $2.9 billion.

India's biotech pioneer, co-founder of Biocon, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw is the sole female on the list with $455 million.

Sunil Mittal of Bharti Group with $2.6 billion is sixth, Shiv Nadar of HCL with $2.3 billion is seventh, Adi Godrej of Godrej Industries is eighth with a net wroth of $1.9 billion, Malvinder & Shivinder Mohan Singh of Ranbaxy are night with $1.5 billion, and Dilip Shanghvi of Sun Pharma is tenth with $ 1.4 billion.

With India's economic liberalisation, its people are capitalising on this trend in wealth creation.

New star does not only include the technology sector, but also the pharmaceutical sector. Half of the top 40 richest come from these two sectors -- 11 from technology and 9 from pharmaceutical.

While some of them are inherited wealth, it is interesting to note that 19 of them are entirely self-made billionaires and millionaires.

In terms of cities, 16 of them live in Mumbai, 8 in Bangalore and 8 in Delhi. The average net worth was $1.5 billion.

The net worth of the individuals is calculated based on the current share prices, exchange rate and in some cases, recent dividends for those with publicly traded fortunes, and for privately held fortunes, they were estimated based on the value the companies would be worth if they were public.

Forbes has honed over nearly two decades of tracking world wealth and is renowned for its ranking of billionaires and celebrities. This is the third in a series of such Asia Pacific rich lists that will appear in the coming months.

This series is sponsored by SG Private Banking (Asia Pacific), the private wealth management arm of the Societe Generale Group.

"We are delighted to be associated with Forbes in their series of Asia Rich list. SG Private Banking is fully part of the wealth creation cycle in Asia, meeting constant evolving high net wroth individual's requirements. To that respect, SG Private Banking has set in Asia a global worldwide hub both for Asian clients as well as European and other regions' customers. Considered as one of the fastest growing Private Banks in Asia, SG Private Banking became a major partner in building, managing and structuring high net worth individual's wealth. We fully share Forbes philosophy in the power of free enterprise. SG believes that this association is synergistic as it reinforces SG position as a global leader in cultivating fortune," said Daniel Truchi, CEO of SG Private Banking

Tips on Applying to Business School in the United States

During the past several years, international students have been flocking in ever larger numbers to U.S. business schools, where they’re greeted with open arms by admissions officers. Schools have been making a conscious effort to secure global perspectives for their classrooms by diversifying their student body. “We try to enroll at least 30 percent of our class from overseas,” says Kate Coffman, associate director of admissions at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business. Indiana is in good company: MIT Sloan admits upwards of 40 percent of its class from outside the United States, and Purdue’s Krannert, around 44 percent.

The terrorist attacks of September 11, however, prompted the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service to revisit its policies on foreign students. Notably, the INS is implementing the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), which, according to Danielle Sheahan, a spokeswoman for the government agency, essentially “enables us to make sure students who apply to school in our country are attending all their classes on a full-time basis.” American business schools will be required to use SEVIS by January 30, 2003, or else forfeit the right to enroll international applicants.

Liz Reisberg, executive director of The MBA Tour -- a company that helps U.S. business schools reach out to overseas applicants by arranging and promoting recruitment fairs in their respective countries -- is skeptical about the new service. “I fear that SEVIS might make our country a less welcoming destination,” she says. “Some of these precautions seem a bit unnecessary, considering that of everyone in the United States on a visa, students represent only around 1 percent. Many of the schools we work with were disappointed that we canceled our tour to the Middle East this year.”

As a result, many admissions offices are taking the initiative to make sure students from foreign countries—especially those where U.S. embassies and consulates have been more hesitant to hand out visas—feel welcome to apply. The University of Michigan Business School's Kris Nebel, director of school admissions, and Jim Hayes, director of academic services, say, “We’ve been more proactive in reaching out to the embassies in China and India” -- two countries singled out by several admissions officers as having the most problems with students' obtaining visas.

Although the transition to SEVIS might make it more difficult to get the necessary documentation, applicants shouldn’t be too worried. Most schools say there will be no change in the admissions policy for international students, and that their presence in the classroom is as important as ever. So if you're considering an MBA in the United States, here are a few tips.

Speak (and write) the language
According to several school officials, class participation and interaction are becoming ever more important in order to excel in business school. For this reason, all international applicants must be fluent in English. Those with another native language must take the Test of English as a Foreign Language (visit TOEFL.org for more information). Note that if you were schooled in an English-speaking institution or country, or have work experience in the United States, you might be eligible to have the TOEFL requirement waived.

If you do have to take it, don't stress. Recent Wharton graduate Marcio Boruchowski, who hails from Brazil, says, “The TOEFL really isn’t difficult if you know the language. The more arduous tasks are writing your essays in English and studying for the GMAT -- which is a much harder test.” Indeed, mastering the language is a must for both of these since they require you to think in -- not just translate into -- English.

Don’t expect admissions officers to be too lenient on this point. “We admit our international students much as we do our domestic ones,” says Tammy Greco, assistant director of admissions at the University of Texas-Austin's McCombs School of Business. “We expect to see all parts of the application in correlation with one another.” In other words, besides an equivalent to a four-year U.S. bachelor’s degree (a three-year degree will suffice in only some cases), you need to make a serious effort to write and revise your essays and study for the GMAT, especially the verbal section. Keep in mind that GMAT scores are usually required to be no more than five years old, while TOEFL scores are valid for no more than two years.

Make sure you can pay
To get the green light for entry, you’ll have to prove that you can pay tuition for one -- and sometimes two -- years. Grant-based financial aid is not plentiful at American business schools, and admissions and aid officers alike often maintain that most of their international students pay their own way. Ann Richards, director of financial aid and associate director of admissions at Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Management, offers this advice: “Students often get loans or sponsors in their own country and pay for themselves.” If these options aren’t available, Cornell and a few other schools offer loans that can be used toward your financial statement, provided you have verifiable resources to pay them off. Cornell’s loan – administered in conjunction with Citibank -- doesn’t require a U.S. co-signer, unlike some others. International students often find it easier to get extra funding after they’ve established a credit history in the U.S. But if you do try to borrow money for the first year, make sure you give yourself the time to find a co-signer who will assume the risk.

Apply as early as possible
Johnson’s associate director of international admissions, Kim Killingsworth, explains why this is necessary. “Because schools will be functioning with a new data collection system in SEVIS for the first time, processing the necessary documentation will take longer this year… so we strongly encourage our international applicants to apply no later than our second round (of three). ” Every school we spoke to echoes her advice: Apply early, not only so you can get your visa in time, but also to be considered for any merit-based financial aid.

“By our last round, we don’t have as much money to give to our students,” notes one financial aid representative. Additionally, students typically need this extra time to find a co-signer, since they’re notified about most loans when they find out they’ve been admitted.

Certain schools require their admits to attend special summer programs that emphasize improvement in English and communication. In such cases, it's even more crucial to give yourself plenty of time. So when researching schools, find out all of the requirements well in advance -- and be sure to put your hat in the ring as early as possible.

Try not to worry
A native of China, Wharton graduate Florence Hu recalls, “I spent the most time on my application. There’s really not much I could do after that.” Of course, the INS holds the cards, since it determines whether you get to enter the U.S. or not. On the whole, however, U.S. embassies and consulates have been efficient in distributing the necessary permits. “Our students are pretty much getting their visas,” says Maria Graham, the director of public affairs for Columbia Business School.

Michigan’s Nebel agrees: “Aside from more background checks in India and China, things have been running pretty smoothly.” And although the implementation of SEVIS might make the process of obtaining a visa a little longer, U.S. business schools are still determined to enroll a substantial part of their class from overseas. So after you’ve applied early, been accepted, and followed the instructions of the schools, U.S. embassy, and INS, you can savor your extra fifteen minutes of spare time, relishing the fact that you’ll get to work even harder next year.