New York/Mumbai

Industrialist Mukesh Ambani today regained his position as the world’s richest Indian with a networth of USD 19.6 billion, as pharma tycoon Dilip Shanghvi slipped to the second place after remaining on the top for about seven weeks.

Shangvi-led generic drug maker Sun Pharma saw its share price dip by over two per cent in a weak market today, but loss was much lower at 0.55 per cent for Ambani-led business conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL).

As a result, Shanghvi saw his networth dip by over USD 450 million — the third biggest loss among the world’s billionaires ranked by business magazine Forbes in its annual rich list.

According to a ‘real-time’ update provided by Forbes, Shanghvi today slipped to the second position with a networth of USD 19.3 billion among the richest Indian billionaires, while Ambani returned to the top.

On the global list, Ambani was today ranked 46th, while Shanghvi was 48th — the only two Indians among the top-50.

In the annual list released on March 2, Forbes had ranked Ambani at 39th — highest among Indians — while Shanghvi was at 44th place.

However, Shanghvi overtook Ambani as the richest Indian within two days on March 4 with a sharp rally in the valuation of Sun Pharma.

Globally, Bill Gates continues to top the list with a current networth of USD 80.3 billion, up from USD 79.2 billion in the annual list released on March 3.

As per today’s real-time update, Ambani and Shanghvi are followed by Azim Premji, Lakshmi Mittal, Shiv Nadar, Kumar Mangalam Birla, Uday Kotak, Sunil Mittal, Cyrus Poonawala and Gautam Adani among the ten-richest Indians.

The Annual Rich List had put Ambani’s wealth at USD 21 billion, based on share prices and exchange rates as on February 13. Ambani was ranked as the richest Indian for eighth consecutive year, although his ranking has come down sharply from among top-ten positions globally earlier.

– PTI