Mukesh Ambani is now is 13th richest in world: Forbes

Agencies
March 6, 2019

New York/New Delhi, Mar 6: Richest Indian Mukesh Ambani jumped six positions to rank 13th on Forbes World's Billionaire list released on Tuesday that was again topped by Jeff Bezos.

E-commerce colossus Amazon founder Bezos, 55, remains the world's richest person, ahead of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, as his riches swelled by USD 19 billion in one year and is now worth USD 131 billion, Forbes said.

Ambani, 61, saw wealth soar from USD 40.1 billion in 2018 when he was placed 19th richest in the world, to USD 50 billion to be rank at 13th in 2019.

"Ambani chairs and runs USD 60 billion (revenue) oil and gas giant Reliance Industries, among India's most valuable companies," Forbes said. "In 2016, Reliance sparked a price war in India's hyper-competitive telecom market with the launch of 4G phone service Jio."

Jio, it said, has signed on 280 million customers by offering free domestic voice calls, dirt-cheap data services and virtually free smartphones.

Ambani leads the 106 billionaires from India on the Forbes list. Wipro Chairman Azim Premji is ranked 36th with a net worth of $22.6 billion dollars. Technology major HCL's co-founder Shiv Nadar, ranked 82nd and ArcelorMittal Chairman and CEO Lakshmi Mittal at the 91st rank come in within the top-100 billionaires in the world.

The list of Indian billionaires includes Aditya Birla Group Chairman Kumar Birla (122), Chairman and founder of the Adani Group Gautam Adani (167), Bharti Airtel head Sunil Mittal (244), co-founder of consumer goods giant Patanjali Ayurveda Acharya Balkrishna (365), Piramal Entreprises Chair Ajay Piramal (436), Biocon founder Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw (617), Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy (962) and RCom chairman Reliance Anil Ambani (1349).

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg dropped three spots and former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg rose by two.

Gates, 63, saw his wealth grow to USD 96.5 billion, up from USD 90 billion last year while investment guru Buffett, 88, at third position saw fortunes slipping by USD 1.5 billion to USD 82.5 billion, the magazine said.

Ambani was placed at the 33rd position on the 2017 listing of Forbes.

Forbes said he is the richest Indian and ranked 32nd on the 2018 Powerful People listing of the magazine. He was ranked Global Game Changer in 2017.

Bernard Arnault, CEO of French luxury good company, LVMH, held on to fourth places while Zuckerberg lost USD 9 billion in networth to slip from fifth the to eighth position.

Ahead of Zuckerberg now are Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim, Zara and Inditex founder Amancio Ortega of Spain and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison.

Forbes said the "list is a snapshot of wealth using stock prices and exchange rates from February 8, 2019."

Some people become richer or poorer within days of publication.

"We list individuals rather than multigenerational families who share fortunes, though we include wealth belonging to a billionaire's spouse and children if that person is the founder of the fortune," it said.

The 33rd annual ranking has 2,153 billionaires on the 2019 list, down from 2,208 in 2018. The total combined net worth of this year's billionaires is USD 8.7 trillion, down from USD 9.1 trillion in 2018, Forbes said.

"This represents the first decrease in billionaires and their combined wealth since 2016 and only the second decrease in the past decade," it said. "A record 994 individuals are worth less than a year ago; last year only 360 members got poorer. The average net worth of this year's billionaires is USD 4 billion, down from USD 4.1 billion in 2018."

Of the total, 1,450 members are self-made.

For this year's list, Forbes said "capitalism is taking some lumps" as for only the second year in a decade, both the number of billionaires and their total wealth shrank, "proving that even the wealthiest are not immune to economic forces and weak stock markets".

Among the regions, Asia-Pacific was the hardest hit, with 60 fewer 10-figure fortunes. That dip was led by China, which has 49 fewer billionaires than a year ago, Forbes said adding that Europe, the Middle East and Africa also lost ground.

The Americas, driven by a resurgent Brazil, and the US are the only two regions that have more billionaires than they did a year ago. There are now a record 609 in the U.S, including 14 of the world’s 20 richest.

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News Network
December 19,2025

Mangaluru: The Mangaluru CEN police have arrested a 23-year-old man for allegedly posting provocative and misleading content on an Instagram page named “mr_a_titude”, targeting the Bajpe police.

Mangaluru Commissioner of Police Sudheer Kumar Reddy C H identified the arrested as Abhishek M, a resident of Katipalla in Mangaluru.

A case has been registered at the Bajpe Police Station under Sections 353(1)(c), 353(2), 56, and 57 read with Section 189 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) in connection with the post.

According to police, the accused uploaded a photograph of a hotel on the Instagram page and alleged that accused persons in a murder case under the Bajpe police jurisdiction were being given “royal treatment” by the police, including being served beef meals daily from the hotel.

The post further accused the police of supporting criminals, misusing their authority, and betraying public trust. Police said the content was provocative in nature and aimed at inciting public outrage against the police.

Following the post, a case was registered at the Bajpe police station, and further investigation was transferred to the CEN police station.

Police records indicate that the accused has a criminal history, with multiple cases registered against him, including murder, attempt to murder, assault, and robbery at the Surathkal Police Station, and one case at the Kaup Police Station.

The Commissioner said the accused was traced and arrested using technical evidence.

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News Network
December 5,2025

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New Delhi, Dec 5: IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers issued a public apology this evening after more than a thousand flights were cancelled today, making it the "most severely impacted day" in terms of cancellations. The biggest airline of the country cancelled "more than half" of its daily number of flights on Friday, said Elbers. He also said that even though the crisis will persist on Saturday, the airline anticipates fewer than 1,000 flight cancellations.

"Full normalisation is expected between December 10 and 15, though IndiGo cautions that recovery will take time due to the scale of operations," the IndiGo CEO said. 

IndiGo operates around 2,300 domestic and international flights daily.

Pieter Elbers, while apologising for the major inconvenience due to delays and cancellations, said the situation is a result of various causes.

The crisis at IndiGo stems from new regulations that boost pilots' weekly rest requirements by 12 hours to 48 and allow only two night-time landings per week, down from six. IndiGo has attributed the mass cancellations to "misjudgment and planning gaps".

Elbers also listed three lines of action that the airline will adopt to address the issue.

"Firstly, customer communication and addressing your needs, for this, messages have been sent on social media. And just now, a more detailed communication with information, refunds, cancellations and other customer support measures was sent," he said.

The airline has also stepped up its call centre capacity.

"Secondly, due to yesterday's situation, we had customers stranded mostly at the nation's largest airports. Our focus was for all of them to be able to travel today itself, which will be achieved. For this, we also ask customers whose flights are cancelled not to come to the airports as notifications are sent," the CEO said.

"Thirdly, cancellations were made for today to align our crew and planes to be where they need to start tomorrow morning afresh. Earlier measures of the last few days, regrettable, have proven not to be enough, but we have decided today to reboot all our systems and schedules, resulting in the highest numbers of cancellations so far, but imperative for progressive improvements starting from tomorrow," he added.

As airports witnessed chaotic scenes, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) stepped in to grant IndiGo a temporary exemption from stricter night duty rules for pilots. It also allowed substitution of leaves with a weekly rest period. 

Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu has said a high-level inquiry will be ordered and accountability will be fixed.

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News Network
December 7,2025

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Mangaluru, Dec 7: A rare bamboo shrimp has been rediscovered on mainland India more than 70 years after it was last reported, confirming for the first time the presence of Atyopsis spinipes in the country. The find was made by researchers from the Centre for Climate Change Studies at Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai, during surveys in Karnataka and Odisha.

The team — shrimp expert Dr S Prakash, PhD scholar K Kunjulakshmi, and Mangaluru-based researcher Maclean Antony Santos — combined field surveys, ecological assessments and DNA analysis to identify the elusive species. Their findings, published in Zootaxa, resolve decades of taxonomic confusion stemming from a 1951 report that misidentified the species as Atyopsis moluccensis without strong evidence.

The shrimp has now been confirmed at two locations: the Mulki–Pavanje estuary near Mangaluru and the Kuakhai River in Bhubaneswar. Historical specimens from the Andaman Islands, previously labelled as A. moluccensis, were also found to be misidentified and actually belong to A. spinipes.

The rediscovery began after an aquarium hobbyist in Odisha spotted a shrimp in 2022, prompting systematic surveys across Udupi, Karwar and Mangaluru. Four female specimens were collected in Mulki and one in Odisha, all genetically matching.

Researchers warn the species may exist in very small, vulnerable populations as freshwater habitats face increasing pressure from pollution, sand mining and infrastructure development. All verified specimens have been deposited with the Zoological Survey of India for future reference.

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