MUMBAI: The combined wealth of India's richest people has fallen nearly 20 percent over the last year, due to factors including inflation, falling stocks and corruption, Forbes magazine said on Thursday.
The business publication said the country's 100 wealthiest individuals were now worth a total of $241 billion, down from $300 billion in 2010, according to its India Rich List 2011.
The number of billionaires on the list also fell from 69 to 57 in the same period, while the top 10 saw their combined wealth fall 25 percent from $150 billion to $113.6 billion.
"This has been a turbulent year for India's richest," Naazneen Karmali, the India editor of Forbes Asia, said.
"Despite the economy growing at close to eight percent, a spate of corruption scandals and rising inflation has taken a toll."
Massive corruption allegations, coupled with a downturn in the global economy and spiralling input costs, have affected demand and company earnings, as well as investor confidence on the stock markets.
Mukesh Ambani was India's richest man for the fourth year running, according to the Forbes list. The chairman of oil and gas conglomerate Reliance Industries had a net worth of $22.6 billion, down $4.4 billion from 2010.
British-based steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal was in second spot with a net worth of $19.2 billion -- a 26 percent fall from last year, as shares in his ArcelorMittal steelmaking firm plunged.
Azim Premji, the head of India's third-largest software outsourcer Wipro, was in third with $13 billion, also down 26 percent.
The biggest name to be hit was Mukesh Ambani's younger brother, Anil, the chairman of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, who slid out of the top 10 for the first time.
He saw his net worth more than halved from $13.3 billion in 2010 to $5.9 billion this year, amid falling investor confidence and a probe into whether his firms were involved in a large-scale telecoms fraud.
The 10 richest Indians are:
1. Mukesh Ambani (Reliance Industries Ltd) $22.6 billion
2. Lakshmi Mittal (ArcelorMittal) $19.2 billion
3. Azim Premji (Wipro) $13.0 billion
4. Shashi and Ravi Ruia (Essar Group) $10.2 billion
5. Savitri Jindal (O.P. Jindal Group) $9.5 billion
6. Sunil Mittal (Bharti Airtel) $8.8 billion
7. Gautam Adani (Adani Group) $8.2 billion
8. Kumar Birla (Aditya Birla Group) $7.7 billion
9. Pallonji Mistry (Shapoorji Pallonji Group/Tata Group) $7.6 billion
10. Adi Godrej (Godrej Group) $6.8 billion
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