Gautam R Morarka joins the billionaires' club

Mumbai: Promoter and Chairman of Dwarikesh Sugar Industries Limited, Mr Gautam Radheshyam Morarka has been included in the latest Business Standard list of Indian billionaires. 311 Indian billionaires ' names figure in 'The Business Standard Billionaire Club' including Mr. Azim Premji, the Ambani brothers, Mr. Sunil Bharti Mittal and Mr. Shiv Nadar. 

Mr. Morarka, figures in the list at number 260, with a net worth of Rs. 144 crore. He, along with 132 other industrialists, promoters and entrepreneurs, has joined the club for the first time by registering a phenomenal growth of 227% in his net worth, during the past one year. His net worth, according to Business Standard, was Rs. 44.4 crore on August 31, 2004, which has now increased to Rs. 144.04 crore.

Mr. Morarka is among the industrialists whose net worth grew at the fastest rate. The newspaper has computed the current wealth on the basis of average mrket prices for promoters' stocks in August 2005. The collective net worth of BS Billionaires has gone up 71 per cent to Rs 3.64 trillion from Rs 2.13 trillion last year after computing current wealth on the basis of average market prices for promoters' stocks in August 2005. The BS Billionaires Club membership has swollen a huge 80 per cent from 178 last year to 311.

Wipro Chairman Azim Premji remains India's wealthiest billionaire. Premji has added Rs 9,346 crore to his wealth this year, taking his net worth to Rs 41,888 crore. He has topped the list six times in the last seven years, being briefly dismantled by the Ambani brothers in 2003. Mukesh and Anil Ambani are in the second place, with a combined net worth of Rs 37,695 crore. Though the Reliance business empire split on June 18 this year, The Billionaire Club has taken their combined net worth into count as the formal process of splitting is still on. 

Telecom magnate Sunil Mittal is ranked number three, with wealth of Rs 26,293 crore. HCL Technologies' Shiv Nadar, in the fourth slot, has ridden the technology boom with a 46 per cent rise in his net worth to Rs 12,390 crore. Sun Pharma's Dilip Shanghvi has taken the fifth position, up from sixth last year. He has added Rs 31.8 billion to his net worth to Rs 8,245 crore. Shanghvi has been ranked just above Naresh Goyal of Jet Airways, who debuts on the list after the airline's public float. 

Goyal is also the wealthiest new billionaire, with a net worth of Rs 8,100 crore. Ranbaxy promoters Malvinder and Shivinder Singh have slipped from the fifth position they held last year to the seventh position this year.