India's billionaires have never had it so good

India's billionaires have never had it so good.

The collective net worth of Business Standard Billionaires has gone up 71 per cent to Rs 3.64 trillion from Rs 2.13 trillion last year after computing current wealth on the basis of average market prices for promoters' stocks in August 2005.

As a matter of fact, the bull run in equities has meant that the Business Standard Billionaire Club membership has swollen a huge 80 per cent, from 178 last year to 311. Owing to a broad-based market rally, even the promoters of small and medium firms have seen their net worth zoom.

That is the reason why as many as 133 new entrants, two-thirds of them entirely self-made, have been able to make their way through the portals of The Billionaire Club.

These newcomers added over Rs 200 billion to their collective net worth last year, taking their aggregate wealth to over Rs 395 billion, according to BS Billionaire Club, which annually ranks the wealth of India's billionaires.

Mirroring the market's broad-based rally, billionaires now come from a wide variety of sectors.

India's richest moguls continue to come from software and other services sectors, while pharmaceuticals, steel, automobile and diversified businesses are other segments that have spawned a large number of billionaires.

Similarly, the new entrants are from sectors as varied as construction, retailing, sugar, media, services, engineering, information technology and pharmaceuticals.

Wipro Chairman Azim Premji remains India's wealthiest billionaire. Premji has added Rs 9,346 crore to his wealth this year, taking his net worth to Rs 41,888 crore.

He has topped the list six times in the last seven years, being briefly dismantled by the Ambani brothers in 2003.

Mukesh and Anil Ambani are in the second place, with a combined net worth of Rs 37,695 crore. Though the Reliance business empire split on June 18 this year, The Billionaire Club has taken their combined net worth into count as the formal process of splitting is still on.

Telecom magnate Sunil Mittal is ranked number three, with wealth of Rs 26,293 crore. HCL Technologies' Shiv Nadar, in the fourth slot, has ridden the technology boom with a 46 per cent rise in his net worth to Rs 12,390 crore.

Sun Pharma's Dilip Shanghvi takes the fifth position, up from sixth last year. He has added Rs 31.8 billion to his net worth to Rs 8,245 crore. Shanghvi has been ranked just above Naresh Goyal of Jet Airways, who debuts on the list after the airline's public float.

Goyal is also the wealthiest new billionaire, with a net worth of Rs 8,100 crore. Ranbaxy promoters Malvinder and Shivinder Singh have slipped from the fifth position they held last year to the seventh position this year.