Advertisment

Premji richest Indian despite tech crash

author-image
CIOL Bureau
New Update

BANGALORE: Technology baron Azim Premji is still India's richest man, and

his estimated net worth of $6.9 billion was steady over the past year

despite the high-tech meltdown which has sent paper wealth figures tumbling.

The annual list of the World's richest people estimated by Forbes

magazine, has Premji in 42nd spot, up one position from last year. The list

relies in part on market values of stocks, resulting in some volatile

changes in wealth over the last year.

Advertisment

The US business magazine said on its Web site that the reclusive Premji,

chairman of software service leader Wipro Ltd, stayed strong despite an 84 per

cent drop in the company's stock value since its record high in February 2000.

Premji owns 84 percent of the Bangalore-based firm, which has the highest

market capitalization of Indian software firms. Wipro is also listed on the New

York Stock Exchange. Forbes estimated the worth of Premji and his family at the

$6.9 billion, the same as last year.

Bill Gates, chairman of software giant Microsoft Corp, stays the globe's

richest individual, with an estimated worth of $58.7 billion.

Advertisment

Three other Indian businessmen



Forbes's rich list included three other Indian business barons and two
U.S.-based technology leaders of Indian origin. Dhirubhai Ambani, chairman of

petrochemical-led Reliance group, was the second richest Indian and 124th on the

world list, with an estimated family worth of $3.4 billion. Last year he was

ranked 45th richest in the world.

Shiv Nadar, chairman of HCL Technologies, was third on India's billionaire

list with $2.2 billion, but 209th on the global stage. Kumar Mangalam Birla, a

leading member of the Birla business clan, had an estimated wealth of $1.7

billion to be the world 292nd richest billionaire.

Advertisment

Five Indians or families dropped off the list, including the industrial

family of Hindujas, whose nationalities are diverse. Also dropping off this year

were the Vinay Rai family of the multi-product Usha group, Ramalinga Raju of

Satyam Computer Services, media baron Subhash Chandra of Zee Telefilms and steel

baron Lakshmi Mittal of the Ispat Group.

Flameouts



Among the Indians who are now US permanent residents, Silicon Valley venture
capitalist Vinod Khosla, with $1 billion, and i2 Technologies chairman Sanjiv

Sidhu, with $3.7 billion, remained on the list. Five Indians, who are permanent

residents in the US, were out of the billionaire list as their worth tumbled in

the hammering of high-tech stocks over the past year or so.

Advertisment

Naveen Jain, chief executive of InfoSpace.com, Raj Singh, founder of Teligent

and Romesh Wadhwani of Aspect Development, dropped out of the Forbes list. But

their exit was less surprising compared with those of Gururaj "Desh"

Deshpande, chairman of Sycamore Networks and Pradeep Sindhu, vice-chairman of

Juniper Networks, who Forbes described as "spectacular flameouts".

Deshpande's worth plunged to $700 million from $7.6 billion last August,

while Sindhu's wealth tumbled to $800 million from $2.5 billion, it said.

(C) Reuters Limited 2001.

tech-news