It’s that time of the year when the world gets to know about who the Ritchie riches are. Forbes Magazine is out with its latest list of the world’s richest. This time around too, it’s Carlos Slim Helu, the Mexican billionaire who has occupied the top list yet for the second year in a row with a fortune of $74 billion. This for sure is more than mind blowing.
Interestingly, one of the most famous former world’s richest men, Bill Gates is at the number two spot with a wealth of $56 billion. Considering their wealth difference, looks like Carlos is going to hit the hat trick next year. They are followed by Warren Buffett, the investor occupying the third place with a wealth of $50 billion. One of the most interesting things about this year’s is that it has 1,210 billionaires with a combined wealth of $4.5 trillion, which is a huge increase from last year’s $3.6 trillion.The powerful ones in the world for sure are minting the dough.
Forbes Magazine reports 214 newcomers in its billionaires’ list. Fifty four of them are from China alone while thirty one are from Russia. The two countries now have different things to boast about. If China takes pride in managing to double its number of 10-figure fortunes, then Russia’s captial city Moscow has regained the title of World Capital of Billionaires. It is reported that Russia has 101 billionaires of which 79 of them reside in Moscow. One of the renowned Russian billionaire is the steel tycoon, Vladimir Lisin who is ranked 14th in the top list with an estimated wealth of $24 billion.
One of the conspicuous paradigm shifts that has been seen in this year’s billionaires list is the fact that Asians surpassing the Europeans. India has 55 billionaires while China has 115 of them from just 69 reported last year. It is also reported that more than half of the new billionaires are from China, Inidia, Brazil and Russia, while the United States still has the biggest share of the wealth (US $1.5 trillion).
Amongst the top Indian billionaires, Lakshmi Mittal, the steel czar who is known more for conducting the most expensive wedding ceremony in the world for his daughter than his wealth tops the list. He is followed by Mukesh Ambani and Azim Premzi respectively. While Laxmi Mittal also occupies the sixth position in the world’s richest billionaires’ list with a wealth of $31.1 billion, Mukesh Ambani occupies the number 9 spot with a wealth of $27 billion, and Azim Premzi is at number 36 with an estimated wealth of $16.8 billion.
Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook rose to the 52nd spot with an estimated wealth of $13.5 billion from 212th position with a wealth of $4 billion last year. Along with him, there are also five others from Facebook who have made it to the billionaires’ list reported by Forbes.
