China and India Make A Mark On Forbes 2017 World’s Billionaires

Billionaires from China and India are making their presence felt this year in the Forbes’ well-known annual list of the world’s richest individuals. The World's Billionaires 2017 list was released earlier this week by Forbes and shows that China accounts for the largest number of new entrants.

Nearly 76 billionaires made it to the rankings for the first time this year.

Asia-Pacific now contributes the maximum number of billionaires – 720 of them and India alone has 101 billionaires on the list, the first time the country has crossed the 100-mark.

The Times of India

Overall, around 2,043 billionaires were included in this year’s list, an increase of 233 which is the highest jump in 31 years. The total net worth of these individuals is a staggering $7.67 trillion, an increase from $6.48 trillion in 2016 according to Forbes.

At the top, Microsoft’s Bill Gates retained his position, leading the rankings for the fourth year with a net worth of $86 billion. Legendary investor Warren Buffett regained the second spot with a fortune worth $75.6 billion. He replaced Amancio Ortega of the Spanish clothing brand Zara. The third place was claimed by Amazon's Jeff Bezos who is worth $72.8 billion while Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook founder entered the top five for the first time, reaching the fifth sport after his networth reached $11.4 billion over the last 12 months.

The United States continues have the greatest number of billionaires in the list at 565. But China is catching up with 319 entries this year. The top spot for Asian billionaires has been taken by Chinese real estate mogul Wang Jianlin who owns Dalian Wanda. He is ranked at 18th place having a net worth of $31.3 billion. Next is Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing and then it is Jack Ma of the Alibaba Group at number 23 with a fortune of $28.3 billion.

Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries leads the Indian billionaires list, taking the 33rd spot with a fortune of $23.2 billion. ArcelorMittal chairman and CEO Lakshmi Mittal took the 56th spot with a net worth of $16.4 billion. Some of the other well-known billionaires from India include Wipro chairman Azim Premji, Adani’s Gautam Adani and Bajaj Group chairman Rahul Bajaj. Only four Indian women who are billionaires featured in the 2017 list. Savitri Jindal of the OP Jindal Group, is the richest woman in India taking the 303rd spot with a net worth of $5.2 billion.

Chad Simmons

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