Seven Bangaloreans feature in the latest list of billionaires made by international business magazine Forbes.
IT czar and philanthropist Azim Premji is the third richest man in the country with an estimated value of $11.2 billion. Premji, whose global rank in the list is 91, recently transferred 12 per cent of his stake in Wipro (295.5 million shares) valued at over Rs 12,000 crore to a trust for philanthropic activities.
Premji’s deeds found a special mention during the presentation of Union Budget 2013 when Finance Minister P Chidambaram, while levying an additional tax on the rich, said there were only 42,800 persons who admitted to a taxable income exceeding `1 crore per year.
Infosys founder N R Narayana Murthy and family occupy the 965th position in the global list with a net worth of $1.55 bn. The value of another Infosys founder Senapathy Gopalakrishnan and family is estimated at $1.35 bn. His rank in the list is 1088.
Gopalakrishnan is closely followed by Nandan Nilekani and family and Manipal Group’s Ranjan Pai (both at No. 1107) with a net worth of 1.3 bn each.
Infrastructure company GMR’s G M Rao comes after them (No. 1268) with a fortune of $1.1 bn.
The last man with a Bangalore connection in the list (No. 1342) is Jitendra Virwani with a $1 bn fortune.
Missing from the list of billionaires is liquor baron Vijay Mallya, whose fortune last year was estimated at $ 1 billion.