Industrialist Mukesh Ambani remains India’s richest person with a sharp surge of 30 per cent in his net worth to $26 billion, pushing his global rank to 21st on a worldwide rich list topped by Bill Gates. The total number of billionaires from India has risen to 111, consolidating the country’s third position after China and the US, according to Hurun Global Rich List 2016, a ranking of the US dollar billionaires currently found in the world.

Bill Gates retained the top spot with a fortune of $80 billion. “Gates has become the first person alive to have created a $100 billion fortune, having given away more than $20 billion to date,” the report said.

In the overall list, Gates was followed by Warren Buffett with a net worth of $68 billion further followed by Amancio Ortega with $64 billion net worth in the third place. Jeff Bezos, with $50 billion and Carlos Slim Helu with $53 billion made it to the top five billionaires in the world.

The world’s billionaires grew by 99 to 2,188 individuals, which is a new world record and which is 50 per cent more than 2013. Meanwhile, India consolidated its position in the third place with 111 billionaires, 14 more than last year.

Besides Ambani, the Indians who got featured in the coveted list include Dilip Shanghvi ranked 46th with a net worth of $18 billion, followed by Pallonji Mistry (rank 69, $13 billion), Shiv Nadar (rank 78, $12 billion), Cyrus S Poonawalla (rank 149, $8.1 billion), Uday Kotak (rank 152, $8 billion), Azim Premji (rank 155, $7.7 billion).