Anil Ambani, vice chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries Ltd, has been adjudged the most admired chief executive in India, while his elder brother Mukesh Ambani occupied the fifth slot.

According to an opinion poll 2004 carried out by Business Barons, "Anil Ambani is India's most admired chief executive in the 2004 poll, leapfrogging over three-time winner Infosys chairman N R Narayana Murthy, Wipro chief Azim Premji and Reliance Chairman Mukesh Ambani."

Tata Group boss Ratan Tata and AV Birla Group chief Kumar Mangalam Birla made up the rest of the top six, the poll said.

Apart from the corporate world, Anil Ambani has also made a successful debut in politics, becoming a Rajya Sabha MP recently and ranked number one in the Business Barons-MODE opinion poll, dethroning last year's winner Narayana Murthy. Even as both Anil Ambani and Narayana Murthy tied on same points at 26.70, Ambani edged ahead on the basis of the turnover based criterion on tie-breaker where Reliance is comfortably ahead of Infosys, the poll said.

Among the top ten executives are Rahul Bajaj of Bajaj Auto, Nandan Nilekani of Infosys, K V Kamath of ICICI, Sunil Mittal of Bharti Group and Deepak Parekh of HDFC.

Among the four qualities -- leadership, integrity, vision and technology orientation -- Anil Ambani was ranked at the top in the first three, while in technology orientation, Narayana Murthy occupied the top slot.