Lakshmi Mittal, chief executive of Mittal Steel Co, retained his position as India’s richest person with an estimated wealth of $20 billion, Forbes Asia said asdemand for commodities boosted the tycoon’s fortune.

Azim Premji, chairman of Wipro Ltd, is second on the list with an estimated wealth of $11 billion in the annual Forbes Asia list of India’s 40 richest people, the magazine said in a news release on December 15.

The combined wealth of the list jumped 74% to $106 billion. Twenty-seven members on the list are billionaires, more than double last year’s count.

Indians’ have benefited as the government started opening up the economy in 1991, allowing overseas companies to own businesses and scrapping the licence system for local companies and lowering tariffs and taxes.

Those steps have helped Asia’s fourth-biggest economy to expand on an average 6.2% a year for the past decade. “An economy in transition produces geometric growth opportunities and that is what India is experiencing,” said Bharat Shah,CEO and managing partner at ASK Raymond James Securities Ltd.

( www.financialexpress.com)