Listing the world’s billionaires 2007
They’re getting younger, wealthier and 60 percent made their own money

It has been a busy year for Forbes' team of fortune hunters. Strong equity markets combined with rising real estate values and commodity prices pushed up fortunes from Mumbai to Madrid. Forbes pinned down a record 946 billionaires. There were 178 newcomers, including 19 Russians, 14 Indians, 13 Chinese and 10 Spaniards, as well as the first billionaires from Cyprus, Oman, Romania and Serbia.

Ingenuity, not industry, is the common characteristic; these folks made money in everything from media and real estate to coffee, dumplings and ethanol. Two-thirds of last year's billionaires are richer. Only 17 percent are poorer, including 32 who fell below the billion-dollar mark. The billionaires' combined net worth climbed by $900 billion to $3.5 trillion. That equates to $3.6 billion apiece.

The average billionaire is 62 years old, two years younger than in 2005. This year's new billionaires are seven years younger than that. Of list members' fortunes, 60 percent made theirs from scratch.

Within the ranks are simmering rivalries. Microsoft founder Bill Gates, the world's richest man for 13 years, and his pal Warren Buffett, who holds the No. 2 spot despite enormous charitable donations, are quickly losing ground to Mexico's most-monied man, Carlos Slim Helú. Helú's net worth is up an astonishing $19 billion this year — the single biggest one-year gain in a decade — and is now just $7 billion shy of Gates and $3 billion less than Buffett. In Europe, Russia's mostly young, self-made tycoons are catching up to Germany's often-aging heirs and heiresses. Russia now has 53 billionaires (2 shy of Germany's total), but they are worth $282 billion ($37 billion more than Germany's richest). After a 20-year reign, Japan is no longer Asia's top spot for billionaires: India has 36, worth a total of $191 billion, followed by Japan with 24, worth a combined $64 billion.

India's rich are also marching toward the top of our rankings. Brothers Mukesh and Anil Ambani, who split up their family’s conglomerate in 2005, join Lakshmi Mittal, who heads the world's biggest steel company, Arcelor Mittal, among the world’s 20 wealthiest. India now has three in the upper echelons, second only to the U.S.
But even in such a prosperous year, 44 people dropped off the list for various reasons.

All our numbers are based on a snapshot of balance sheets taken on Feb. 9, the day we locked in stock prices and exchange rates. So the five executives who took their Fortress Investment Group public at 9:30 a.m. on that morning made the cut. Also on the list is Ernest Gallo, founder of E.&J. Gallo Winery, who died on March 6. But our numbers don't reflect the volatility that shook the markets three weeks later. Between Feb. 9 and March 2 the world's stock markets, as measured by the Morgan Stanley All Country World Local Index, fell by 3.7 percent. Some fortunes (those based on private accumulations of real estate, for example) didn’t feel a blip. But some suffered severe damage. One big loser was a Spaniard, Enrique Banuelos, whose fortune fell 30 percent in four days.

Are there billionaires we don’t know about? Surely, yes. For instance, we didn't uncover Ireland's Denis O'Brien, who pocketed $800 million in a junk bond offering, until 13 days after we'd locked in fortunes, so he is not reflected in the rankings.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17522267?GT1=9145

lol so this is where all the money from that 9% annual growth goes. I bet all them bastards spend all their money in Europe too.

Considering the state of their economy, I'm suprised theres 19 new Russian billionaires. They got some real robber barons out there.

wow!!! Go india

The richest Indian man Lakshmi Mittal (also the world's fifth richest man) bought the world's most expensive mansion in London last year and paid for the world's most expensive wedding for his daughter. If only he would use that money to help develop his country, that cheap brown bastard.

how much was the mansion and the wedding?

hahahaha....

His mansion cost £70 million ($128.25 million) and his daughter's wedding cost £30 million ($65 million).

He's under no such obligation.

But for the record, he has howere invested quite a bit into India nonetheless....

Rs. 40,000 crore is about $9 billion. That's over a 1/4 of his wealth. I guess he's not such a cheap brown bastard after all.

Comparing the richest people of the two emerging economies India and China. China is way behind.


China's richest man now-a-days Wong Kwong Yu has net worth of $2.3 billion. While India's richest Lakshmi Mittal has the net worth of $25 billion. Even the number 10 richest indian Pallonji Mistry has net worth of $4.9 billion, which is way ahead of the chinese richest man Wong Kwong Yu. And yes China has a big middle class same with India. India need to uplift its millions of poor people, corruption is the main obstacle behind poverty in India.

China has better wealth distribution though, if I was rich or middle class, I'd want to live in India but if I was poor, I'd rather live in China. What really drags India down is eastern UP and Bihar, those regions are poor as fu-k and over-populated. Then you have the tribals and dalits. Corruption isn't the only thing to blame, education and lack of family planning are also culprits, along with the culture of poverty Indian society creates for poor people.

Well, you also have to remember that China is communist. I doubt its a very good incubator for the super-rich.

Anyways, what's amazing about that article is that the average age for a billionaire is 62. India probably has the youngest population in the world (I believe half of all Indians are under 24, or something). So another words, out of a tiny pool of people, India has managed to produce a MASSIVE amount of wealth. I wonder how many Indian billionaires there will be in 20 or so years.

Spending $65 million on your daughters wedding isn't something that's bad. If I had kids and that sorta money to blow I'd do the same. I'm gonna atleast throw down $200,000 for my kid's wedding. I'm also wondering if you can rent an elephant in the states.

Ok folks, lets not turn this into a China vs. India thread please.

Lets stick to celebrating India's success. Thanks.

nice...but i mean you still gotta remember India's population in proportion compare to Japan's.

China is a partly communist country where wealth is more evenly distributed, so that wouldn't be a good comparison. I think it might be better to compare to a democratic capitalist Hong Kong instead. The richest man in Hong Kong, Li Ka Shing, is at #9, which is just four places behind India's Lakshmi Mittal at #5.

whoa, big pimpin

Lakshmi Mittal is still #5 in the world. I bet he can reach back up to #3 again in the future.....

Why would anyone want to spend 130 million on a house? Mittal already has several other multi million dollar homes. This is why I hate those millionaire yacht owners. Yachts serve no purpose other then to hide the fact that you have a micro penis. Do you really need a 130 million dollar home when a much cheaper home can get the job done? What are you going to do with all those spare rooms and pointless decorations worth millions? Do they serve any purpose?

If you're fellow countrymen are underpaid, poor and leading less then inspirational lives what are you going to do about it. Are you going to help them, or are you going to spend 130 million on a house that is completely unnecessary? The annual income of the average Indian is around 3K(maybe less). That house is worth the annual income of 43,334 Indians.

Your post shows that you have double standards. While giving all the credit to Japan of its economic success you don't bother about its population size. Now India toppled it by becoming 1# in Billionaires list, your comparing the populations.


China also has a lot of poverty. Its just that they are good at concealing things. Majority ofl ills in India are born out of corruption. Education and lack of family planning you are refering to are long term measures, the population is so huge that it will take time for all things to get better.

I agree with you partially. Because so many billionaires in China are a good indication that it a very good place to be a billionaire. On the other hand in China the Chinese parliament just recently legalized private ownership in China. Its means there are some ristrictions but they are getting people friendly. Chinese communists hardly act like real communists. If you think that China takes care of its poor then you shd know that millions of poor people come to cities from rural China, they have lowest standards of living. They don't have any health insurance and no benefits whatsoever. That is why so many foreign companies are flocking to China because there is no liability no insurance on the company for its employees especially labourers and normal factory workers. But yes China is fast catching up and it is a very good thing, considering it has one of the largest middle class in the world.

I have no idea what you mean by that.

^ Why you seem confused? I posted that as a reply to this

This has already been quoted in my original post. Japan is comparable enough to India. When people say that Japan is a very developed country as compared to India, then why they don't say that India is very populous that is why it will take time for it to become fully developed? Why reference to population now on this issue?

One more thing I want all you people to know that this has shown that if you work hard in India and have your luck your going to make it big. India has one of the largest middle class populations in the world. And every year a significant population crosses the line of poverty to have a descent living. I can see the progress is happening. There is promise for the future, and hope for a better tomorrow. This is India's contemporary reality.

It'd be nice if those billionares would help out more....

Just like Warren Buffett? I don't think other Billionaires are like him, others are more interested in expanding their businesses and make profits out of them. Even if they help, they expect something in return.

edit.

#1. Yuan is significantly undervalued.
#2. China is a manufacturing economy. Quality of Chinese goods is terrible.
#3. China has a pool of bad loans.

#1. India is undeveloped(Infrastructure)
#2. Corruption is rampant in India.
#3. Education reforms are miniscule compared to China.

India has an advantage over China. The population is younger, English is a second language, and quality of the exports is in pact with Western Standards; where as Chinese goods are seen as poor quality in Americas, me being a witness to this.

Overall both India and China have a huge domestic market of 400 million middle class. Well above the entire population of US and Europe and Canada and Japan.

The population of each country and the domestic damand will propel both India and China into a superpower stegnth within 5 years.

That is an UNFAIR comparison! You are talking as if Warren has been donating billions all his life? Has he? NO! It is highly doubtful he is going to live more than 10-15 years, so he is donating all of his wealth. Has he donated billions in his prime? or before hit his prime? If so, then maybe you can say that he is different than other billionaires.

Most Indian billionaires haven't even hit their prime, even bill gates is donating money AFTER he has hit his prime. The scope of him making any more significant billions are remote, so his wealth is pretty much going to be at the same level. So, he is donating all of his money. I don't doubt his generosity, but to say that they are better humans than others is absolutely stupid.

To Feroz:

All Hail Veerapan!

It's a shame the "Robin Hood of India" isn't alive anymore.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veerappan

Say this in front of the relatives and friends of scores of people he killed in cold blood. He had killed scores of policemen, normal civilians and elephants. He commited his first crime when he was only 10 years old, can you believe that. Please don't make a hero out of a big time murdrer, smuggler, kidnapper and a psychopath.

Veerapan is my idol. I wanna be a badass just like him.

lol there might of been some justification for some of the things he did, but this dude wasn't no Robin Hood.

That's what Wikipedia called him.

what double standards? do you want me to all smiles to make you feel better?

I was alluding to the fact that even though yeah India is somewhat progressing, having billionaires don't really mean as much. And I'm not just saying this about India, but all over the place. Having more billionaires just mean that the distribution of wealth just gotten worse. The ratio of billionaires compare to the population is still improportional to that and to the individual wealth of average citizen...and given the fact that India's is growing while Japanese is shrinking...

I'm not downing or raining on your parade. If you want to hear "great awesome, everybody's happy" then forget what i just said and imagined this was what i said. Yes if you work hard youll be better. Yes India has growing and big middle class. That's great, sincerely. Yet if you just want to look at the "good news" only one way, then it's all happy.

What? Who gives a damn about distribution of wealth? If there are a few people that have far more money than the rest of the population, but the common man has more money than he used to as well, then what is the problem? Billionaires generate wealth for a nation. Its not like all that bull$hit about the rich getting richer at the expense of the poor. Sure the rich are getting richer, but the poor are getting richer as well. Just look at the rate at which India's poverty is decreasing! And with the in-progress retail explosion, you ain't seen nothing yet in terms of poverty reduction. Well, that is if the government doesn't screw it up somehow (fuking communists).

but not as much :P

I'm no Communist, but that's a ONE CLASSIC (get it?) classical liberalism excuse. Like I said if and if it makes you happy about one sided view, go ahead, let's make a party. Cuz all chat's here only look for self-aggrindizing news right?

If I rained on your parade, I'm sorry. But that's what all want to hear is good news right? Let's toast on good news!

I'm not calling you a communist. I was swearing at those politicians that have held India back for the last 50 years, and are STILL holding it back by using excuses like the widening wealth gap. The fact is, the average person is getting richer in India. We can see this by the explosion in retail as well as in communications (7 million new cell phone users a month). What does it matter if a few people got extremely rich in the process of pulling millions of people out of poverty?? Sure, if the rich are getting richer while the poor are, indeed, getting poorer, the gap between the rich and poor is a bad thing. However, this is NOT what is happening in India. The super rich are playing an extremely important part in pulling the poor out of poverty. Its in their best interests to see the Indian people prosper.

What do communists have to do with this? Are you referring to West Bengal?

No, the Indian Communist party itself. Its been holding back reforms ever since the new government came to power in '04. And these reforms are needed pretty badly, if India is to keep its growth trajectories. If you would like to know more about India's economy, I encourage you to go to http://indianeconomy.org/.

You could have just given me a link to the Indian Communist Party instead:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_of_India

bah, i like my link better . But seriously, India Economy Blog is actually written by a bunch of economics phds, so its REALLY informative. You can seriously learn a great deal from that website, if you are interested in India's emerging economy.