Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani along with three other Indians are among the world’s wealthiest ‘eco barons’ who continue to make investments in green technology and businesses.
The ‘Green Rich List’ compiled by The Sunday Times features 100 wealthiest people including four Indians and one India-origin person.
Apart from Ambani who is ranked at the fifth position, other Indians in the list are wind power major Suzlon Energy’s Tulsi Tanti (49th rank), Jaypee Group founder Jaiprakash Gaur (50) and former executive at engineering entity Thermax Anu Aga (78). India-origin venture capitalist Vinod Khosla is at the 52nd place.
The list is topped by legendary investor Warren Buffett with a “Wealth Green investment” worth £27 billion. He is followed by software czar Bill Gates and Sweden’s Ingvar Kampard, at the second and third positions, respectively.
“The Green List has unearthed 100 tycoons or wealthy families worth 200 million pounds or more who have made either serious investments in green technology and businesses or hefty financial commitments to environmental causes. In total, the Green 100 are worth nearly £267 billion,” the publication said.
Gates have green investment worth £26 billion while Kampard has invested £22 billion.
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At the fifth spot is Holland’s Marcel Brenninkmeijer with green investments worth £19 billion.
According to The Sunday Times, Ambani has a green investment of £15 billion in life sciences.
Tanti has investments of £648 million in wind turbines and Gaur has put in £620 million in wind power.
Aga has put in £250 million for energy conservation whereas Khosla has invested £560 million for alternative energy.
Writing on Ambani, the report said that among his interests in Reliance Industries operation is Reliance Life Sciences (RLS). On the seeds front, it noted that RLS is developing hybrid varieties of biofuels that would double the yield under irrigated conditions.
At the farm level, RLS has alliances with Indian farmers to build clusters of 100,000 acres feeding into 100,000-tonne biofuel extraction plants, the report added.
“Reliance Industries has taken a pounding during the recent stock-market turmoil. Forbes magazine in its November 2008 Indian rich list reckoned that Ambanis fortune had fallen $20 billion in a year, down to $15 billion, but he is still India’s richest person,” it said.
On Tanti who is at the helm of Suzlon Energy, the report said, “with factories on four continents, Suzlon is the fifth-largest wind-turbine maker in the world but collapsing values have hit him hard”.