Mittal tops Forbes list on rich Indians
New York: The Forbes magazine's maiden list of the forty richest Indians worldwide has Wipro chief Azim Premji, Reliance's Mukesh and Anil Ambani, London-based steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal and Biocon's co-founder, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw in it.

Of the top forty richest Indians, eleven are from the technology and nine from the pharma sector. While some of them are inheritors, nineteen of them are entirely self-made billionaires and millionaires.

The magazine's list of the top richest people in India, places Mittal, who is also Britain's richest Indian, at the top with a wealth of $11.2 billion (over Rs.50,000 crore). Mittal, who owns the world's fourth largest steel group, is ranked 272nd in the Forbes world rich list. Mittal is followed in the second place by Wipro's, Azim Premji, with $10 billion (Rs.1000 crore). Mukesh and Anil Ambani rank third in the list, with a wealth of $6.4 billion (Rs.640 crore).

Ranked fourth is Kumar Mangalam Birla worth $3.5 billion (Rs.350 crore), who is the fourth generation head of the Aditya Birla Group, the country's largest cement producer.

Construction magnate and real estate developer Pallonji Mistry is ranked fifth with a wealth of $2.9 billion (Rs.290 crore) and Biocon's Kiran Mazumdar Shaw is the only woman on the list with a net worth of $455 million (Rs.45.5 crore). Bharti Group's Sunil Bharti Mittal is ranked sixth with $2.6 billion (Rs.260 crore) and the "self-made infotech pioneer" HCL's Shiv Nadar is seventh with $2.3 billion (Rs.230 crore).
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Top-level appointments in PSU insurance companies
New Delhi: The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has appointed R. N. Bhardwaj as the new Chairman of the Life Insurance Corporation and R.K. Joshi as the Chairman and Managing Director of General Insurance Corporation (GIC).

The committee has also announced the appointment of new CMDs for three general insurance companies - Oriental Insurance, National Insurance and United Insurance.

M. Ramadoss, General Manager, New India Assurance Company Ltd, has been appointed as Chairman-cum-Managing Director, Oriental Insurance Company. He would take over when the current CMD, S.L. Mohan vacates office on February 28, 2005.

B. Chakraborti, General Manager, United India Insurance Company Ltd would take over as Chairman-cum-Managing Director, National Insurance Company, from H.S. Wadhwa on December 31, 2004.

M.K. Garg, General Manager, New India Assurance Company, would take over as CMD, United India Insurance Company with the superannuation of V. Jagannathan on October 31.

The committee has also appointed A.K. Shukla and K. Sridhar as the new Managing Directors of LIC. Both Shukla and Sridhar were earlier Executive Directors in the company.
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Cherian Verghese appointed CMD at Union Bank
Mumbai: K. Cherian Verghese has been appointed as the Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Union Bank of India. Prior to this appointment, he was the CMD of Corporation Bank, since November 2000.

Verghese whose career in banking spans over three decades, began as a bank probationary officer in Indian Bank, from where he rose to the position of a General Manager.

He has also held positions of Chairman and CEO of South Indian Bank and Executive Director of Central Bank of India prior to joining Corporation Bank. In the period 1979 to 1983, he was technical advisor to PT Bank Roma, Indonesia.

Currently, Verghese holds various positions of responsibility at the Indian Banks' Association, Indian Institute of Banking and Finance and Indian Institute of Bankers. Verghese is a gold medallist from the Kerala University, a Post Graduate in Physics and is an associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers, London.
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Intoto appoints Gary Wang as Director
Hyderabad: Intoto, a technology solutions provider to networking equipment manufacturers, has announced the appointment of Gary Wang, Vice-President of Joint Venture Company Technology with 3Com Corporation, to its board of directors.

As one of the architects behind 3Com's mobile communications division, Wang brings to Intoto a deep understanding of the requirements and challenges faced by Intoto's customer base of networking and communications OEMs, according to a release.
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New Polaris group CFO
Chennai: Prabal Basu Roy has joined Polaris Software Lab Ltd as Group Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice-President.

Prior to joining Polaris, he was Director (Strategic Alliances), Lucent Technologies, responsible for managing business operations, complex outsourcing relationships and trans-national mergers and acquisition deals, a Polaris release said.
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