Mukesh Ambani becomes world's richest man

NEW DELHI: Billionaire Mukesh Ambani on Monday became the richest person in the world, surpassing American software czar Bill Gates, Mexican business tycoon Carlos Slim Helu and famous investment guru Warren Buffett, courtesy the bull run in the stock market.

Five richest people in the world with their net worth
1. Mukesh Ambani ($63.2 billion)
2.Carlos Slim Helu($62.2993 billion)
3.William (Bill) Gates ($62.29 billion)
4.Warren Buffett ($55.9 billion)
5.Lakshmi Mittal ($50.9 billion)

Following a strong share price rally on in his three group companie, India's most valued firm Reliance Industries, Reliance Petroleum and Reliance Industrial Infrastructure Ltd, the net worth of Mukesh Ambani rose to $63.2 billion (Rs 2,49,108 crore).

In comparison, the net worth of both Gates and Slim is estimated to be slightly lower at around $62.29 billion each, with Slim leading among the two by a narrow margin.

Warren Buffett, earlier the third richest in the world, also dropped one position with a net worth of about $56 billion.

Ambani's wealth of about Rs 2,49,000 crore includes about Rs 2,10,000 crore from RIL (50.98 per cent stake), Rs 37,500 crore from RPL (37.5 per cent) and Rs 2,100 crore from RIIL (46.23 per cent).

Slim's wealth has been calculated on the basis of his stake in companies like America Movil (30 per cent), Carso Global (82 per cent), Grupo Carso (75 per cent), Inbursa (67 per cent), IDEAL (30 per cent) and Saks Inc (10 per cent).

According to information available with the US and Mexican stock exchanges where these companies are listed, Slim currently holds shares worth a total of $62.2993 billion, with more than half coming from Latin American mobile major America Movil. Slim is closely followed by Gates with a net worth of $62.29 billion currently.

Earlier last month, US business magazine Forbes had named Gates as the richest American with a net worth of $59 billion, calculated as on August 30. The magazine had said that a movement of two dollars in the share price for Microsoft, the world's biggest software maker, could "add or subtract a billion dollars" from his wealth.

Since August-end, Microsoft's share price has risen by $6.58 (based on yesterday's closing on Nasdaq at $35.03), which results into a gain of $3.29 billion in Gates' wealth based on Forbes assumption.

Besides a stake in Microsoft, Gates' wealth also includes the commission and license fees earned by him and gains through his shares in an investment holding company that invests across the market.

Gates is followed by Buffett at the fourth place in the league of the world's richest with a net worth of $55.9 billion through his holding in his investment vehicle Berkshire Hathaway and in other companies. At the end of August, Buffett's wealth stood at $52 billion, as per the Forbes magazine. Berkshire Hathaway's share price has gained by about 7.5 per cent since then.

Earlier on September 26, Ambani had overtaken steel czar Lakshmi Mittal to become the richest Indian in the world.

Mittal currently ranks as the fifth richest in the world with a net worth of $50.9 billion through his 44.79 per cent stake in world's biggest steel maker ArcelorMittal.

While most of Mittal's wealth comes from his steel empire, though he has also spread his wings into businesses like oil and real estate, those of Ambani and Gates are mostly through petrochemicals and software respectively. However, Buffett and Slim are making money from investments across a host of sectors.

Kannada has gone a long way : TOI article

BANGALORE: Two messages in English sent from Hubli may have made their way to the moon (3,84,000 kms from earth), but another one in Kannada has already passed Neptune - 500 crore kms from Earth — and is still going beyond!

Japan selected two goodwill messages from two residents of Hubli to fly in its spacecraft to Moon in 2007. A proud moment for Karnataka. But a greater moment came when one goodwill message in Kannada, send by two Kannadiga residents in the US, was selected to fly on-board Voyager I and II way back in 1977. These messages have gone beyond the Moon, to Neptune, currently the farthest planet from Earth.

The message has three words in Kannada — Kannadigara Paravagi Shubhashayagalu. The Kannada message has been incorporated in a metal disc called the Golden Disc designed by astronomer Carl Sagan. The disc, which has other languages, sounds, voices and pictures of Earth will remain inside the spacecraft — as long and far as they travel, and survive.

"Goodwill messages are invited by space agencies to be taken to any potential extra-terrestrial intelligent life form, to see whether they understand anything of the human being and the Earth, scientists observed.

What's fascinating is that the spacecrafts, which took off in 1977, are still flying with the Kannada message. "While one spacecraft has crossed Jupiter and Saturn, the other has crossed Uranus and Neptune too. The crafts are in the solar system but travelling away from it. We don't know when the crafts will reach the end of the solar system or whether there is an end. But they are heading that way," an ISRO scientist said.

Voyager I and II were launched to study and cross all planets and the solar system itself.

The crafts have been in space for the last 30 years and will continue to be there for many more years to come.

Incredibly, the crafts are running on nuclear batteries and will last as long as the batteries last.

That may be another 30 to 40 years, by which time they may be approaching a possible boundary of the solar system. Just imagine how far Kannada has gone!

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