The Billionaire-club swells

Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft has been affirmed to be the leader of the rich list for the 13th consecutive year with a fortune worth $56 billion, up by $6 billion. Gates, who is as rapidly donating his wealth as he is accumulating it, is followed by Warren Buffett, the American investment guru known as the Sage of Omaha.

According to the latest Forbes rankings of the rich, Buffett is still at no. 2 but seems to be catching up with his richer friend as his personal fortune climbed by $10 billion to $52 billion. Like Gates, Buffett has also decided to give virtually all of his money to charitable causes.

Third on the list comes Carlos Slim Helu, the Mexican telecoms mogul, who added a massive $19 billion in his net worth taking him to $49bn.

The commodities boom, rising real estate values, the march of technology and the relative weakness of the dollar have been responsible for the addition of more people to the rich list. There are now a record 946 billionaires in the world, up more than 150 from last year.

Total net worth of the list grew by $US900 billion, a whopping 35 per cent from last year. The rising number of super-rich now stand worth $US3.5 trillion. Luisa Kroll who helped compile the list at Forbes described it as "kind of an extraordinary year".

Besides US businessmen and Russian oligarchs entrepreneurs from India and China are making their presence felt. The 178 new names on the list include 14 Indians, 13 Chinese, 19 Russians and 10 Spaniards. Cyprus, Oman, Romania and Serbia now have their first billionaires on to the list.

The top 25 now include three Indians, standing second only to the US. The list includes 415 billionaires from the US, 53 from Russia and 55 from Germany.

“This growth in the billionaires list is a mere reflection of a dynamic global economy. More people are better off on this Earth than ever before,” said Steve Forbes, the magazine’s editor-in-chief. “This is the richest year in human history.”