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Ambanis rank third among world's richest Indians

Samata Dhawade

The two richest Indians in the world made their fortunes in the United States through innovative ideas in the field of fibre optics while home grown petrochemicals pashas, the Ambanis, rank a fighting number three in a global list of rich Indians prepared by the Business Standard Research Bureau.

The ranking is based on the estimates of the wealth of the richest Americans by Forbes, the richest men in the UK by Sunday Times and the Business Standard Billionaires Club.

Topping the list is Sanjiv Sidhu ($9.8 billion or Rs 457.37 billion), followed by Gururaj Deshpande with a net worth of $7.6 billion or Rs 354.69 billion, according to the Forbes compilation of the richest Americans in 2000.

The Ambani family's net worth, independently estimated by Business Standard, is $7.4 billion at the most recent stock prices. Incidentally, UK-based Indians figure lower in the rankings. The richest Indians to figure in the US listing are all techie billionaires who were catapulted almost overnight to the select bracket by the happenstance of an innovative idea at the right time.

The wealthiest techie in India to merit a place in the unified ranking of the richest Indians worldwide is Wipro chairman Azim Premji, with a net worth of $6.2 billion. But the Ambani and Premji fortunes have been built over a relatively longer period of time. Most non-resident Indians who made it to the exclusive billionaires' list this year rode the optical fibre revolution.

Sidhu, of i2 Technologies, was ranked 25th in the Forbes list of the richest Americans for 2000. The Hyderabad-born US citizen came up with an idea for i2's supply chain management software while working in Texas Instruments' artificial intelligence lab. He was the key brain behind mapping of the supply chain management concept, which went on to become the cornerstone of business-to-business (B2B) exchanges and electronic marketplaces.

Today, hundreds of large and small companies are reinventing themselves on the web based on the concept.

Romesh Wadhwani, now i2 vice-chairman, with a net worth of $1.3 billion or Rs 60.67 billion, came to riches after the largest merger in software history. Wadhwani, who founded B2B software firm Aspect Development in 1991, sold the company, which makes software that helps clients track internal spending, inventory and buying habits, to Sidhu's i2 Technologies for $9.3 billion. He was ranked 218 in the Forbes list.

Deshpande, ranked 32nd by Forbes, entered the billionaires list after he made an initial public offering in October 1999 for his company Sycamore Networks. The company then produced two products, which manage the way data is transferred through optical fibre networks. Since the IPO, it has expanded its product list to six.

Another scientist/salesman, Pradeep Sindhu of Juniper Networks, replicated the strategy at his first, cash-strapped, start-up. He sold stakes in Juniper to, among others, AT&T, 3Com and Lucent and went public in June 1999 to land his current net worth of $2 billion.

UK-based steel baron Lakshmi Mittal and diversified group magnates Srichand and Gopichand Hinduja grew from rich to richer. Lakshmi Mittal, valued $1.9 billion, has been placed fourth in The Sunday Times list of Britain's 1000 richest people while Gopichand and Srichand Hinduja, worth around $1 billion, have been ranked eighth in the list.

Back home, the downslide in the technology counters has revised the pecking order of the Indian billionaires. While Dhirubhai Ambani and family, with a net worth of Rs 345.81 billion, is the richest Indian, Azim Premji, the earlier wealthiest Indian, has slipped to the second position with a net worth of Rs 289.62 billion ($6.2 billion).

Kumar Mangalam Birla has leapfrogged from the eighth position to displace Subhash Chandra of Zee Telefilms as the fifth richest Indian, with a net worth of Rs 46.55 billion ($1 billion plus).

B Ramalinga Raju, Ramalinga Raju and B Rama Raju of Satyam Computer Services have been displaced from the sixth rank while Vinay Rai of Information Technology has dropped down from the seventh spot and out of the top ten.

NR Narayana Murthy & Associates of Infosys Technologies remain at number three with a net worth of Rs 104.25 billion. With the market price of Infosys Technologies declining by 36.6 per cent, the net worth of Narayana Murthy and his associates has declined by Rs 58.31 billion since July 31, 2000.

Shiv Nadar of HCL remains at number four with a net worth of Rs 62.77 billion, down by a hefty Rs 92.12 billion since July 2000.

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