To be considered rich you now need to have $790 million in your kitty — $200 million higher than last year. Still, India's rich got richer by 60 per cent and nine new billionaires have joined the list of richie rich Indians drawn up by Forbes magazine.

According to Forbes Asia, the combined net worth of the country's 40 richest people has gone up to $170 billion from last year's $106 billion. The ten richest make up for two thirds of that with a combined kitty of $112 billion.

Having won the Arcelor battle, last year's third richest man of the world, Mr Lakshmi Mittal, but naturally, continues his reign at the top with a net worth of $25 billion. The Ambani brothers stand at number two and three. Mr Mukesh Ambani dethrones Wipro Technologies' Mr Azim Premji as the "richest resident in India" with a net worth of $18.5 billion (against last year's $11.5 billion). Younger brother Mr Anil Ambani is only about four billion behind with a net worth of $14.8 billion, up from last years $9.3 billion with Reliance Communications' listing.

Mr Premji ($14 billion) now comes in fourth, with DLF's Mr Kushal Pal Singh in fifth place with his $10 billion. Having built mall city Gurgaon, Mr Singh turned the business he inherited from his father-in-law's into India's leading property developer.

Telecom major Bharti Group's Mr Sunil Mittal follows with $6.9 billion. Mr Kumaramangalam Birla ($6.8 billion), at seventh, recently paid $1 billion to buy out the Tata Group from his telecom venture Idea. He is followed by Mr Tulsi Tanti ($5.9 billion), the textile businessman who discovered wind power and made billions with Suzlon Energy.

The subject of a Harvard study and the biggest shareholder in Tata Sons, 76-year old Mr Pallonji Mistry comes ninth with his $4.9 billion with Mr Ramesh Chandra, real estate developer, rounding up the top ten list with his $5.3 billion. Mr Chandra is one of the nine new billionaires along with Mr Grandhi Rao ($2.2 billion) of GMR and media baron Mr Kalanithi Maran ($1.9 billion) of Sun Networks. The youngest member of the elite club is 31-year old Mr Shivinder Singh of Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd, who stands at number 24 with his brother Mr Malvinder Singh.

Biocon's Ms Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw has dropped out, thanks to the company's stock dropping by 26 per cent in the past 12 months, leaving behind just two women on the list of top four — Ms Indu Jain, Chairman, Bennett and Coleman, at No. 15 with $3 billion and Ms Savitri Jindal at No. 21 with $1.87 billion.