Forbes: One in 10 new billionaires is Indian

Stock market boom places 23 Indians in hall of fame.

With the unprecedented bull run in its stock market, India has spawned 10 new billionaires in the past year to take its tally in the latest Forbes list of billionaires to 23.

"India, whose BSE Sensex was up 54 per cent in the past 12 months, is home to 10 new billionaires, more than any other country besides the US," Forbes said on its website, adding that booming markets the world over, except the US, had led to the number of billionaires touching a record 793 this year, up 102 from last year.

With 23 of its 1.1 billion citizens in the list, India has become the seventh largest contributor to the club, behind only the United States, which has a whopping 371 billionaires, Germany (55), Russia (33), Japan (27), China including Hong Kong (25) and the UK (24). It is ahead of countries like Canada (22), France (14), Switzerland (8), Israel (8), Singapore (7) and Taiwan (5).

The 23 Indian billionaires are together worth $98.8 billion.

However, Lakshmi Niwas Mittal, the richest Indian with a net worth of $23.5 billion, has slipped from the third position "" regular fixtures Bill Gates ($50 billion) and Warren Buffet ($42 billion) continue their reign on the top at numbers one and two, respectively "" to the fifth this year, giving way to Carlos Slim Helu of Mexico ($30 billion) and Ingvar Kamprad of Ikea ($28 billion).

Azim Premji, who owns 82 per cent of the New York-listed Wipro, is at the 25th spot with a net worth of $13.3 billion, while Mukesh Ambani ($8.5 billion) is 56th and Anil Ambani ($5.7 billion) 104th.

Army officer turned property baron KP Singh of DLF ($5 billion) is 114th, Sunil Bharti Mittal ($4.9 billion)is 125th and Kumar Mangalam Birla ($4.4 billion) is 140th.

Notable Indian newcomers to the coveted list include Tulsi Tanti of Suzlon, liquor baron Vijay Mallya, online gaming mogul Anurag Dikshit, who made his fortune when he and two Americans took their partygaming poker company public in London last June, Naresh Goyal of Jet Airways, who took his company public last year, and Indu Jain, matriarch of media house Bennett, Coleman & Company. 

SWELLING MEMBERSHIP
Rank	Name	Net worth
5	Lakshmi Mittal	23.5
25	Azim Premji	13.3
56	Mukesh Ambani	8.5
104	Anil Ambani	5.7
114	Kushal Pal Singh	5.0
125	Sunil Mittal	4 .9
140	Kumar Birla	4.4
168	Shiv Nadar	4.0
185	Pallonji Mistry	3.6
207	Anurag Dikshit	3.3
245	Anil Agarwal	2.8
245	Ravi, Shashi Ruia	2.8
278	Adi Godrej & family	2.6
317	Indu Jain	2.4
317	Dilip Shanghvi	2.4
512	Naresh Goyal	1.5
562	Baba Kalyani	1.4
562	Tulsi Tanti	1.4
645	NR Narayana Murthy	1.2
698	Uday Kotak	1.1
746	Subhash Chandra	1.0
746	Habil Khorakiwala	1.0
746	Vijay Mallya	1.0
Amount in $bn