Gates back as world's richest man; Mukesh Ambani is wealthiest Indian

Despite losing $18 billion over the last 12 months, Bill Gates has reclaimed his title as the richest man in the world with a total net worth of $40 billion

Despite losing $18 billion over the last 12 months, Bill Gates has reclaimed his title as the richest man in the world with a total net worth of $40 billion.

Indian downfall Only 24 of last year's 53 billionaires made the cut this year, and everyone but brothers Malvinder and Shivinder Singh, who sold their generic drug firm Ranbaxy at its peak, lost money. KP Singh, briefly the world's richest real estate baron, lost $25 billion and is now ranked No 98, worth $5 billion. Fellow property developer Ramesh Chandra is poorer by an estimated $9 billion from the $9.6 billion he was worth in 2008. The 28 other drop-offs include a number of well-known businesspeople. Among the notables is liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya, whose various liquor companies lost between half and 90 percent of their values. Also out of the billionaires' club are Jignesh Shah, whose financial software firm Financial Technologies dropped by 75 per cent, and Sameer Gehlaut, who was India's youngest billionaire briefly before the stock price of his Indiabulls Financial Services and Indiabulls Real Estate both tanked 80 per cent in the bear market.

As the number of billionaires on the planet shrank, Warren Buffett slipped to No 2 with $37 billion, after losing $25 billion in the past year due to the decline in value of Berkshire Hathaway stock, according to Forbes' 2009 list of the World's Billionaires.

Mexican telecom titan Carlos Slim Helu lost $25 billion, and came in at No 3.

The top 3 on Forbes' list have lost a combined $68 billion in the past year as the total number of billionaires fell to 793 from 1,125. This marks the first time since 2003 that the number of billionaires worldwide has dropped from one year to the next.

355 off the list

The 355 billionaires who fell off the list this year include former AIG chief executive Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, former head of Citigroup Sandy Weill, and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Even among those who have managed to remain billionaires, there has been a vast decrease in wealth: the total net worth of this year's list is $2.4 trillion, down $2 trillion from $4.4 trillion last year.

The average billionaire is now worth $3 billion, down from $3.9 billion in 2008.

Indians on the list

There are just two Indians in the list of top 10 richest persons across the world, down from four last year.

Indian petrochemicals giant Reliance Industries Chairman and MD Mukesh Ambani has been ranked as the richest among all the Indians with a net worth of USD 19.5 billion, followed by NRI steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal (19.3 billion dollars).

In the global list, Ambani is ranked seventh (down from fifth last year) and Mittal is at eighth position (fourth in 2008), with $25.7 billion wiped from his personal fortune during the past year.

Anil Ambani (No 34) was last year's biggest gainer and is this year's biggest loser: he lost $32 billion over the last 12 months.

The 2009 list represents citizens from 52 countries and one principality. As fortunes fell in Asia and Russia, Americans once again dominate the superrich, occupying 10 of the Top 20 spots, up from only four last year.

Russia has lost nearly two-thirds of its billionaires during the past year and is down to 32 billionaires. The 10 biggest dollar losers on this year's list lost a combined $238 billion in the past year, more than the GDP of Ireland or Israel.

Still, these tycoons are worth a combined $175 billion, and half of them are still among the 10 richest people on the planet.