Carlos Slim richest in the world, Mukesh Ambani is 4th

Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim has emerged as the richest person in the world with $53.5 billion in assets, in the Forbes annual list of world's top billionaires.

There are 1,011 billionaires in the world now, up from 793 a year ago. There are two Indians in the list of top 10 richest persons across the world.

The United States has 403 billionaires, the most in the world, followed by China that beat out Russia to grab the second spot.

Although China has more billionaires than India (which has 23 billionaires), ten of Asia's top 25 are Indian, while one is Chinese.

Hong Kong and Japan each have five and China has one in Asia's top 25. Only 16 per cent of the 97 new members are from the US. Asia has to its credit 104 billionaires.

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"The Microsoft founder is now worth $53 billion, up $13 billion from a year ago," Forbes said.

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One of the world's biggest investors, Warren Buffet is at the third spot with assets worth $47 billion.

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Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani ranks fourth with $29 billion. Mukesh's younger brother Anil Ambani is at the 36th spot with $13.7 billion.

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The only woman to be on the top ten list, at number ten, is German entrepreneur Karl Albrecht, who founded the Aldi supermarkets and has a net worth of $23. 5 billion. New York has more billionaires than any other city.

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The list of Indian billionaires include Mukesh Ambani and L N Mittal in the top two along with Azim Premji ($17 billion), Anil Ambani ($13.7 billion), Shashi and Ravi Ruia ($13 billion), Savitri Jindal ($12.2 billion), Kushal Pal Singh ($9 billion), Kumar Birla ($7.9 billion), Sunil Mittal ($7.8 billion) and Anil Agarwal ($6.4 billion).