The 40 richest Indians

India's rising fortunes are underscored by the increasing prosperity of its wealthiest citizens. Members of our third annual ranking of India 's 40 richest businesspeople are worth a collective $170 billion, up from $106 billion last year. India 's top ten, worth $112 billion, account for two-thirds of that wealth.

The rankings include 36 billionaires, nine more than last year. India 's hot stock market, up 39 per cent this year, and its robust real estate market helped swell most fortunes. The minimum net worth needed to make the cut rose to $790 million, up from $590 million.

Lakshmi Mittal, who lives in London and in June forged a landmark deal to acquire Luxembourg rival Arcelor, remains No. 1, worth $25 billion. Azim Premji, for years India 's richest resident, was unseated by Mukesh and Anil Ambani.

THE 40 RICHEST INDIANS
#	Name	Worth ($ billion)	Age	Industry
1	Lakshmi Mittal	25.00	56	Steel
2	Mukesh Ambani	18.50	49	Diversified
3	Anil Ambani	14.80	47	Diversified
4	Azim Premji	14.00	61	Software
5	Kushal Pal Singh	10.00	75	Real estate
6	Sunil Mittal	6.90	49	Telecom
7	Kumar Birla	6.80	39	Commodities
8	Tulsi Tanti	5.90	48	Wind energy
9	Ramesh Chandra	5.30	67	Real estate
10	Pallonji Mistry	4.90	77	Construction
11	Anil Agarwal	4.50	53	Mining
12	Shashi & Ravi Ruia	4.10	63	Diversified
13	Adi Godrej	4.00	64	Diversified
14	Shiv Nadar	3.70	61	Technology
15	Indu Jain	3.00	NA	Media
16	Dilip Shanghvi	2.70	51	Pharma
17	Rahul Bajaj	2.30	68	Manufacturing
18	Grandhi Rao	2.20	57	Infrastructure
19	Baba Kalyani	2.10	57	Manufacturing
20	Kalanidhi Maran	1.90	41	Media
21	Savitri Jindal	1.87	56	Steel
22	Yusuf Hamied	1.85	70	Pharma
23	Subhash Chandra	1.84	56	Media
24	Malvinder & Shivinder Singh	1.80	34	Pharma
25	Vivek Burman	1.76	69	Consumer goods
26	Venugopal Dhoot	1.75	54	Electronics
27	Uday Kotak	1.59	47	Banking
28	N R Narayana Murthy	1.58	60	Software
29	Anurag Dikshit	1.50	33	Online gaming
30	Jaiprakash Gaur	1.40	76	Construction
31	Vijay Mallya	1.30	50	Liquor
32	Rajan Raheja	1.20	53	Diversified
33	Nandan Nilekani	1.15	51	Software
34	Senapathy Gopalakrishnan	1.10	52	Software
35	Brijmohan Lall Munjal	1.08	84	Manufacturing
36	Naresh Goyal	1.00	57	Airlines
37	Keshub Mahindra	0.93	83	Manufacturing
38	Jignesh Shah	0.84	39	Finance
39	Habil Khorakiwala	0.83	64	Pharma
40	K Dinesh	0.79	52	Software

The two brothers, who split their business empire last year after a much-publicized feud, have found life alone much richer: Mukesh's fortune rose by $11.5 billion, Anil's $9.3 billion. Still the spat continues, with one of Anil's companies recently taking Mukesh's Reliance Industries to court over a gas supply agreement.

Many tycoons have been in the news lately for negotiating big deals. Venugopal Dhoot is set to acquire Daewoo Electronics for $700 million. Commodities magnate Kumarmangalam Birla paid $1 billion to buy the Tata Group's stake in their telecom joint venture, Idea. Banker Uday Kotak bought out Goldman Sach's stake in his bank's investment banking and brokerage arms.

There are five newcomers, including politically connected Kalanithi Maran, who runs regional broadcaster Sun TV; Ramesh Chandra, who made a fortune building middle-class housing; and Jignesh Shah, who set up India 's largest commodities exchange. Two others, tractor tycoon Keshub Mahindra and Infosys Technologies co-founder K. Dinesh, return to the list after having previously slipped off.

This year's seven dropouts include India 's richest self-made woman, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw. The stock of her biopharmaceutical firm Biocon dropped 26 per cent in the past 12 months. The list's biggest loser was Anurag Dikshit, No. 29, who saw the stock of his Internet gaming outfit, PartyGaming, tank over regulatory issues.

Methodology: Unlike Forbes' World Billionaires list, this ranking has been broadened to include family fortunes. For instance, Tulsi Tanti's $5.9 billion fortune represents his family's entire 70 per cent stake in Suzlon Energy, not just his personal 30 per cent stake.

For people with fortunes in publicly traded companies, net worths were calculated using Nov. 6 market prices and exchange rates. Privately held companies are valued by coupling estimates of revenues or profits (or, in some cases, company-provided numbers) to prevailing ratios for similar publicly traded companies.