Daijiworld Media Network

New Delhi, Oct 27: Retaining his earlier position, head of Reliance Industries Group, Mukesh Ambani, is now the world's richest Indian with a net profit of $22.6 billion, according to Forbes list released on Thursday October 27 by the Indian edition of the magazine.

Mukesh is immediately followed by steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal with a net worth of $19.2 billion and technology czar Azim Premji with a net worth of $13 billion.

Mukesh Ambani, managed to take the top slot despite his minor slip of $4.4 billion in his net worth.

The 100 richest persons in India together saw their net worth falling by 20 percent in a year's time, to $241 billion, due to inflation, corruption scandals, falling stocks and currency prices affected the fall.

It is learnt that Mukesh's younger brother Anil Ambani saw the biggest erosion of his wealth, while power producer Lanco Infratech's Madhusudan Raw was at huge loss in percentage terms as his net worth fell by 78 percent in the past one year.

Anil Ambani, with a net worth of $5.9 billion, slipped out of the top 10 for the first time since his 2004 debut. This year he stands 13th in the list.

In the top five, Mukesh Ambani, Lakshmi Mittal and Azim Premji were followed by Essar group's Shashi and Ravi Rua ($10.2 billion at 4th position) and Savitri Jindal ($9.5 billion at 5th).