Technology barons Azim Premji and Shiv Nadar are among seven Indians in U S-based business magazine Forbes' latest list of the world's 476 dollar billionaires released this week.

Premji, chairman and owner of an 84 per cent stake in Wipro Ltd, India's No 1 software services company by market value, remains the country's richest man, with an estimated worth of $5.9 billion, down from $6.4 billion in the previous list.

The overall ranking of the 57-year-old Bangalore resident, who zealously guards his privacy, dropped to 45 from 41st spot in the annual list of the world's wealthiest people.

Pallonji Shapoorji Mistry, a key shareholder in the privately held firm that controls India's salt-to-software Tata industrial empire, is a first-time entry on the list. He is a 73-year-old construction magnate who also owns vast tracts of prime land in Bombay.

Industrialist Adi Godrej, whose family name is a familiar household brand in consumer goods such as soaps and locks, returned to the list after an absence.

Brothers Mukesh and Anil Ambani, who run the business empire of the Reliance group, the country's largest private business conglomerate, were ranked second in the list of Indian billionaires, with a combined net worth of $2.8 billion.

Kumar Mangalam Birla, the 35-year-old chairman of the Aditya Birla industrial group, maintained his third-place ranking in the Forbes list with a net worth of $2.4 billion.

India-born steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, who controls British-based LNM Group and U S Steel, had an estimated net worth of $2.2 billion. Mittal's firms are known for turning around ailing steel companies in former communist-ruled nations.

Mistry had an estimated worth of $2 billion and Godrej $1.1 billion while Shiv Nadar, chairman of HCL Technologies, was estimated to be worth $1 billion.

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