The Indian Billionaires Club

The number of billionaires in India more than doubled from last year to 27 in the 2005 Forbes’ annual list of the richest Indians.

The group is led by the steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, whose $20 billion fortune makes him the third richest man in the world. He is followed by Azim Premji of Wipro at $11 billion, who is ranked 38 globally, and Reliance’s Ambani brothers, Mukesh and Anil, with a net worth of $7 billion and $5.50 billion respectively.

The 15 new Indian billionaires to make the list included real estate moghul Kushal Pal Singh ($5 billion) and Tulsi Tanti ,of wind energy maker Sulzon Energy ($3.7 billion). Anurag Dikshit, of the newly minited Internet casino company PartyGaming, weighed in at $3.1 billion.

The 40 richest Indians in the Forbes list had a collective net worth of $106 billion – four times, the magazine reported, than that of the 40 richest Chinese.

The “poorest” richest Indian to make the group, scraped in at $590 million – Narotam Sekhsaria, of the cement producer Gujarat Ambuja. What, just half a billionaire! Get him out of here!