Jet Air's Goyal storms rich list

Jet Airways Chairman Naresh Goyal has stormed the Forbes' list of the world's super rich. Goyal holds 80 per cent stake in the company, which recently came out with its initial public offering to raise about Rs 19 billion ($435 million). His net worth has been put at $1.5 billion by Forbes.

Unlike many other billionaires, the 57-year-old Goyal began rather modestly. About 30 years ago, he ran an airline general sales agency in Delhi, before his entrepreneurial acumen saw his business boom.

He launched Jet Airways in 1993 with four leased Boeing 737 aircraft. Jet currently has a fleet of 42 aircraft fleet and is set to buy 10 new planes. The airline also flies to South-East Asian nations and will soon take to English and American skies.

India is a rising star. Since 2002, the aggregate net worth of Indian billionaires has risen by $47 billion, and the number of billionaires has more than doubled form 5 to 12.

Lakshmi Mittal ($25 billion) is the richest man in Asia, while Azim Premji ($9.3 billion) and Mukesh and Anil Ambani & family ($7 billion) are amongst the top 10.

Others from India in the rich list include AV Birla Group's Kumar Mangalam Birla ($3.7 billion), Bharati's Sunil Mittal ($3.3 billion), Tata Sons' Pallonji Mistry ($3.2 billion), HCL's Shiv Nadar ($2.3 billion), and Godrej Group's Adi Godrej & family ($1.9 billion).

The three newcomers to the list are Naresh Goyal ($1.5 billion), Sun Pharma's Dilip Shanghvi ($1.5 billion) and Jindal Steel's Om Jindal ($1.2 billion).

Highlights of Asia Pacific:

There are 90 billionaires in Asia Pacific.

Topping the list is steel titan Lakshmi Mittal ($25 billion). Hong Kong's Li Ka-Shing is placed second with net worth of $13 billion followed by fellow tycoons, Raymond, Thomas & Walter Kwok ($10.9 billion) and Lee Shau Kee ($9.3 billion). India's software supreme, Azim Premji is #5.

The net worth of Asian billionaires rose an average of nearly $183 million a day last year. The youngest billionaires is Wong Kwong Yu, 35 from China ($1.5 billion) and the oldest is Y C Wang, 88 from Taiwan ($3.1 billion).

The richest new billionaire is Chareon Sirivadhanabhgakdi form Thailand ($3 billion).

There's only female billionaire, Nina Wang, from Hong Kong ($3.1 billion).

New York has the highest number of resident billionaires with 34, Moscow and San Francisco tie for second with 20, and London and Los Angeles tie for third with 18 resident billionaires each.

Out of 691 total billionaires, 388 are self-made. 18 are high school dropouts.

17 people made their way back onto the list. 30 people fell off. 14 died.

Still languishing in a Moscow jail, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, saw his fortunate fall $12.8 billion, making him the biggest loser.

68 women billionaires, 7 of whom are self-made.

Average age is 61 with 29 billionaires under 40, 220 billionaires over 70.

Youngest billionaire is 21-year-ol Albert von Thurn und Taxis of Germany, with a net worth of $2 billion; Saad Hariri is the youngest new billionaire at 33 with a net worth of $1.2 billion.

In the past year, Sheldon Adelson increased his net worth at an average of $1.6 million an hour.

39 billionaires in the US derive their fortunes from media, with an average net worth of $3.3 billion.