The 40 richest Indians: L N Mittal tops with $20 billion

Forbes Asia's second annual list of the 40 richest Indians is quite a bit more exclusive this year. Folks needed a net worth of at least $590 million, up from $305 million last year, to make the cut.

Twenty-seven members are billionaires, more than double last year's count. The group's collective net worth soared to $106 billion, up from $61 billion; by contrast, China's 40 richest are worth a collective $26 billion.

India's wealthiest citizen is again steel tycoon Lakshmi N Mittal, who resides in London. Seven newcomers join the ranks, including four who took their companies public in 2005.

• The 40 Richest Indians List by:
• Rank || Name || Net Worth || City

They include former airline agent Naresh Goyal, who runs Jet Airways, the country's leading domestic airline; Anurag Dikshit and Vikrant Bhargava, executives at Internet casino outfit PartyGaming; and Tulsi Tanti, who built Asia's largest wind farm.

Forbes Asia also added two low-profile, privately held fortunes: Kushal Pal Singh, whose DLF group is India's biggest real estate developer; and Indu Jain, the matriarch of India's most powerful media house, Bennett, Coleman.

All returning Indian rich listers saw their fortunes rise. Tycoons with telecom interests did particularly well, including Sunil Mittal, the Ruia brothers and Uday Kotak.

Making peace among fighting family members was another theme. Feuding siblings Mukesh and Anil Ambani announced plans to part ways in June after their mother brokered a peace settlement, a move that Forbes Asia estimates makes both men much richer.

So, too, did Rahul Bajaj and his younger brother Shishir; the stock of Bajaj Auto, which Rahul will still control, has doubled in the past year.

Pharmaceutical tycoons didn't do quite so well. While seven returned to the list, three -- Dr Reddy's Laboratories' Anji Reddy, Zydus Cadila's Pankaj Patel and Lupin's Desh Bandhu Gupta -- dropped off because their stocks underperformed India's red-hot stock market.

Additional research by C.N. Krishnakumar with Kiri Blakeley and Matthew Miller.

Unlike Forbes' Billionaires list, this ranking has been broadened to include family fortunes. For people with fortunes in publicly traded companies, net worths were calculated using recent market prices and exchange rates.

Privately held companies are valued by coupling estimates of revenues of profits (or, in some cases, company-provided numbers) to prevailing ratios for similar publicly traded companies.