Indians crowd richest young Asians list | Fabulous firms

New York: Six Indians, including Ranbaxy’s Malvinder and Shivinder Singh, real estate firm Oberoi Constructions' Vikas Oberoi and online gambling entity PartyGaming's founder Anurag Dikshit have made it to the Forbes' list of 15 youngest Asian billionaires.

The other two Indians in the list are Suzlon Energy's Girish Tanti and Indiabulls' Sameer Gehlaut.

Pointing out that Asia is home to the world's fastest growing population of the wealthy, Forbes said India is keeping pace in the money race.

"The country's millionaires jumped 23 per cent last year. The billionaire count soared to 53 from 36 the previous year," the business magazine said.

India, which boasts a competitive demographic advantage of young population, is represented by six people under 40 with a cumulative worth of $8.3 billion in the Forbes' list released on Wednesday.

China has topped the list with eight representations, with a combined net worth of $20 billion.

Among the Indian representatives, the Forbes citation for Malvinder and Shivinder Singh reads that they "control generic drug maker Ranbaxy Laboratories, founded by their grandfather. Malvinder is chief executive of Ranbaxy. Shivinder runs Indian hospital chain Fortis Healthcare, which went public in 2007."

Vikas Oberoi is the second richest young Indian worth $1.7 billion. In 1998 he took control of Oberoi Constructions, started by his father, Ranvir. Morgan Stanley paid $152 million last year for stake in the company.

Anurag Dikshit, with net worth of $1.6 billion, spearheaded the development of technology that helped in the launch of online poker boom. He cofounded PartyGaming, which owns PartyPoker.com, with a college roommate.

PartyPoker stock is off its 2005 high, since US lawmakers cracked down on online gaming, but Dikshit still has plenty of chips, Forbes said.

Worth $1.3 billion, Girish Tanti is co-founder of Suzlon Energy, the world's most valuable wind power company. With 12 per cent holding in Suzlon, he looks after international business and human resources divisions.

Sameer Gehlaut, with a net worth of $1.2 billion, is India's youngest self-made billionaire. He started online brokerage Indiabulls in 1999, a company he still heads.

The list of youngest Asian billionaires is topped by Yang Huiyan of China with a net worth of $7.4 billion. She received a 58 per cent stake in real estate developer Country Garden from its founder, her father, Yeung Kwok Keung. She's now China's richest woman.