Richest Indians

Essar Group's Shashi and Ravi Ruia are the only new entrants in the list of the 10 richest Indians compiled by Forbes, while banker Uday Kotak jumped the most number of places among the top 40 billionaires.

The Ruias jumped five places to the 7th position with a net worth of USD 12 billion, while Kotak with USD 4.6 billion hopped 11 positions to the 16th rank.

Savitri Jindal with a net worth of USD 8.5 billion has leapfrogged 10 ranks to stand at 11th position and Jaiprakash Gaur advanced nine places in the list with USD 3.8 billion. The three saw their wealth soaring thanks to the surge in their companies listed on the country's booming stock market.

The scrip of Kotak Mahindra bank has nearly tripled in the past one year from a low of Rs 364 on Nov 23, 2006 to Rs 1,059 on Thursday on the Bombay Stock Exchange. Similarly, the share price of Jindal Steel and Power Ltd jumped more than six times from a low of Rs 1,889 on December 12 last year to a record high of Rs 13,580 on Nov 1 this year.

There are 10 new entrants in the top 40 - Gautam Adani at 13th, Anand Jain (19), Cyrus Poonawalla (22), Rakesh Wadhawan (26), Niranjan Hiranandani (31), l Madhusudhan Rao (33), Gautam Thapar (34), Vikas Oberoi (36), Anu Aga (38) and Gracias Saldanha (39).

Billionaires Lakshmi Mittal, Mukesh Ambani, Anil Ambani and Sunil Mittal held their ground while Unitech's Ramesh Chandra and DLF's K P Singh rose one position each. Kumar Birla and Tulsi Tanti slipped two places each, while Azim Premji dropped one spot to the fifth position this year.

"Twenty-nine people who returned to the list are richer than last year. The only exception is Rahul Bajaj, who is battling his younger sibling over dividing their empire and whose fortune was flat at 2.3 billion dollar," Forbes said.