New York, Oct 25,2012: Mukesh Ambani has retained his position as the world's richest Indian for the fifth year in a row, despite a decline in his networth to USD 21 billion, according to an annual rich list released today.Although Ambani's networth declined for the third year in a row, including a plunge of USD 1.6 billion in past one year, his fortune remains more than 30 per cent above that of the second-ranked Lakshmi Mittal, as per business magazine Forbes' latest annual ranking of 100 wealthiest Indians. Steel baron Mittal's networth fell by USD 3 billion to USD 16 billion.Ambani, who heads energy-to-retail conglomerate Reliance Industries group, and Mittal are followed by IT czar Azim Premji (USD 12.2 billion), construction major and Tata group's major shareholder Shapoorji Pallonji group patriarch Pallonji Mistry (USD 9.8 billion) and drugmaker Sun Pharma's Dilip Shanghvi (USD 9.2 billion) in the top-five.Mukesh's younger brother Anil Ambani is ranked 11th (USD 6 billion), as he movs up two positions from 13th last year.Others in top 10 include Adi Godrej at 6th position (USD 9 billion), followed by Savitri Jindal (USD 8.2 billion), Shashi & Ravi Ruia (USD 8.1 billion), Hinduja Brothers (USD 8 billion) and Kumar Mangalam Birla (USD 7.8 billion). Telecom czar Sunil Mittal and Gautam Adani have moved out of the top 10 and are now ranked 12th and 16th respectively. Last year, Mittal was ranked sixth and Adani was seventh.Even as the networth of top-ranked persons like Ambani and Mittal fell, the collective wealth of India's richest 100 rose by 3.7 per cent (USD 9 billion) to USD 250 billion in the past one year, Forbes said. In the preceding year, the total wealth of India's 100 richest had fallen by 20 per cent.The number of billionaires has risen to 61, from 57 last year. Sun Pharma's Shanghvi has made his debut in top five this year.
