WASHINGTON: Reliance Industries chief Mukesh Ambani will become the world's richest man in 2014 with a net worth of $62 billion, overtaking Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim, Forbes magazine has forecast.
"Indian commodity king Mukesh Ambani tops Forbes' rich list at $62 billion. Former No. 1 Carlos Slim hit hard by Mexican political, financial chaos", are the two headlines from the US business magazine's peep into the next decade.
"One of the predictions is that Reliance Industries' chief Ambani, who currently has a net worth of 29 billion dollars, pips the world's richest man Mexican businessman Carlos Slim to top Forbes' rich list in 2014," it said. Ambani, 53, currently ranks fourth on Forbes' list of the world's billionaires.
Forbes also predicts that the US job scene will finally improve in 2018 as unemployment drops below seven percent and worst of quadruple-dip recession is likely over.
And with "successful India and Brazil expansions" Wal-Mart will employ five million people worldwide by 2020 and its sales would pass the $1 trillion mark.
In the field of finance and economics, Forbes also forecasts that in 2011, convicted Ponzi-scheme fraudster Bernard Madoff would be found hanging in his prison cell and "prison officials will not rule out foul play."
In 2012, social networking site Facebook debuts on NASDAQ. Its IPOs are valued at $40 billion and founder Mark Zuckerberg becomes the first 20-something who is worth $10 billion-plus, it says.
In 2017, Harvard endowment will double in seven years to $50 billion. It offers free tuition to lure top students from China.
In a special 2020 report on 'What Happens Next - Our Look Ahead', Forbes lists a number of "noteworthy events" that could happen in the field of politics, energy, medicine, finance, society and technology.
The magazine calls it "a vision of the coming decade sketched from real data, projections and facts whenever possible - though we've injected a dose of rigorous science fiction to fill the gaps."
"Futurism favours the bold. Look more than 30 years ahead...and critics will forgive your inaccuracies. We've attempted a thought experiment with far tougher standards: predicting the future that's just around the corner," Forbes said.