Billionaires list grows four times in seven years
Mumbai: The list of billionaires in India that had only 99 people when the listing began in 1999 has seen 89 new entrants in the past seven years which have all crossed the Rs billion threshold, taking the total membership of the club to 391.

Moreover in the past one year billionaires (those with assets of more than Rs1 billion, or Rs100 crore) has gone up by an unprecedented 74 per cent to Rs6,33,457 crore, from Rs3,64,000 crore.

The wealth is computed on the basis of the market value of direct holdings in listed companies and any share in cross-holding, with the valuation being done at the end of August 2006.

Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani is the country's richest billionaire this year, replacing Wipro Chairman Azim Premji, who comes in second.

Ambani's personal wealth was Rs76,509 crore, based on stock prices at the end of August. Premji is a distant second with Rs59,557 crore.

Mukesh Ambani's wealth has gone up by two-thirds in the last one year, partly because of restructuring in the wake of the split with his brother and fresh stock market listing. His younger brother Anil Ambani comes in fifth on the list with a wealth of Rs23,721 crore, but has done better in terms of percentage increase in wealth - 140 per cent. Between them, the Ambani brothers now have marginally more than Rs100,000 crore of wealth.

Bharti Airtel chairman and managing director Sunil Bharti Mittal comes third in the list (Rs35,034 crore), followed by Anil Agarwal of Sterlite Industries (Rs31,902 crore).

Tulsi R Tanti of Suzlon Energy is like Anil Ambani, a new entrant in the billionaires list, and ranking up there in the sixth position.

He is followed by Unitech Chairman Ramesh Chandra, who has jumped from 114th position in 2005 to the seventh slot this year, with Rs12,671 crore of wealth, courtesy a steep 2,100 per cent increase in Unitech's stock price over the last one year.

Kumar Mangalam Birla, Dilip Shanghvi and Shiv Nadar are the other three billionaires in the top ten.
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Rajeev Chandrasekhar acquires majority stake in Asianet
Bangalore: Former telecom czar Rajeev Chandrasekhar, is rapidly expanding his footprint in the entertainment space and has acquired a 51 per cent stake in leading Malayalam TV channel, Asianet, through a group company, Jupiter Entertainment Ventures.

The figure is estimated to range between Rs120-150-crore.
Chandrasekhar's interest in Asianet first broke out almost six-eight months back with the former BPL Mobile honcho, who unlocked over Rs1,200 crore by selling telecom business to Hutchison Essar, signaling his interest in the media space.

The remaining 49 per cent stake will be held by Menon and Asianet MD K Madhavan with Zee Group holding a small 3 per cent stake. Madhavan will continue to be the managing director of Asianet with the current management team, while Chandrasekhar will assume chairmanship of the company after receiving the normal statutory approvals for the same.

Asianet leads amongst Malayalam satellite television channels accounting for 35 per cent of Kerala's total advertisement market pegged at Rs260 crore annually.
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Dr Bharat Singh is new MD of Aditya Birla Nuvo
Mumbai: Aditya Birla Nuvo has appointed Dr Bharat K. Singh as managing director with effect from November 1. Dr Singh has been appointed in the place of Sanjeev Aga who has been nominated managing director of Idea Cellular Ltd with effect from the same date.
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