Adgully Exclusive | 1,226 & counting, the Forbes billionaire list just keeps mounting

If you are racking your brains over what we are talking about - think no further. Forbes released its World Billionaire list earlier this month, showcasing the richest men and women on the planet.

Forbes has been the recognized leader in tracking global wealth. Adgully caught up with Indrajit Gupta, Editor of the Indian edition of Forbes to get an insight on the latest billionaires who have made the cut.

"The Forbes Billionaire list is considered the most qualitative parameter around the world. This year marks the 25th Anniversary of the Forbes Billionaire list," says Gupta.

"The process of research, run out of its New York office, is very robust as more than 50 reporters works on compiling it across 16 different countries. They meet the candidates, interview them, their employees and their rivals. The team has to keep track of every move that they make, the deals they negotiate, the land that they sell, the painting they buy, the causes they pay for and all of that and lots of careful vetting goes in.

"This data gives you a snapshot of wealth as on February 14, 2012 because you are locking the share prices and exchange rates around the world," he adds.

Gupta has worked with some of the top publications in India and has built a formidable reputation as a business journalist. During his career of two decades, he has served as Features Editor of Business Standard,Deputy Editor of Business world, National Business Editor of Times of India, and has also worked as the Resident Editor of the Mumbai edition of The Economic Times.

When the Forbes Billionaires Lists started for the very first time, there were about 140 names on the list that had ten figure fortunes. "The average wealth of a Forbes billionaire is about $3.7 billion. The big story is around the churn in the lists this year. So, we could see that quite a few people who have fallen out of the list are equally to the number of the ones who join in the list," says Gupta.

Forbes magazine reports that about 441 members have lost wealth and 460 have gained wealth, only 180 members have hailed steady and 117 have fallen off the list.

"From an Asian perspective, the slump in the Asian market has been eroded wealth pretty significantly. So, almost 36 billionaire in Mainland China and 16 billionaire in Russia are no longer part of the list," he adds.

According to the list, Mexico's Carlos Slim Helu tops this year's list--for the third year in a row.

Amongst the India's top 20, Mukesh Ambani retains the number one slot but his wealth has dropped this year to 22.3 billion. Ambani also lost his tag of being Asia's richest person, having been now overtaken by Li Ka-shing of Hong Kong. Besides that, Ambani's global ranking too has dipped to 19th as he lost $4.07 billion in wealth.

Laxmi Mittal too has lost ground, largely due to the slowdown in the steel industry, particularly in Europe. That dented his global rank as well as it dipped to 21st position from sixth last year. Mittal lost about $10.04 billion dollars in all. Among other Indians were Shashi and RaviRuia (Essar Steel), who were placed 42nd globally, but this year they are at 133, after facing a $ 8.08 billion drop.

There are, however, gainers as well - in fact two big ones in the top 20 lists -- Dilip Shanghvi (Sun Pharma) and Brijmohan Lall Munjal (Hero Motors). Globally Dilip Shanghvi has moved up from 159 to 124, whereas Brijmohan Lall Munjal has moved up from 833 rank last year to 401 this year.

Amongst the newcomers, Jamshyd Godrej (Godrej & Boyce Mfg Co Ltd.), Rishad Naoroji (Godrej Group)and Venu Gopal Bangur (Bangur cements) lead the race, while Anu Aga (Thermax),R.P. Goenka (CESC), Baba N Kalyani (Bharat Forge), Keshub Mahindra (Mahindra & Mahindra) and S D Shibulal (Infosys) were no longer the part of the list.

"The cumulative wealth of the top 10 people across country reported that, in India the top 10 accounts about $114.5 billion, in China it is $62.2 billion. Although China has lots of people in the billionaire list, but unfortunately there cumulative wealth is less," says Gupta.

Forbes India is working on more India specific list that are likely to make their debut later in the year.

When quizzed about the event route that most of the magazines have taken, Gupta explains, "We took a strong decision to focus on building out the print edition for the first two years - largely because the print edition defines the identity of the brand. Our objective was simple: produce a world-class edition every fortnight that sets the benchmark of quality in the business magazine category."

"The new event properties that we create is that these properties would be integral to the magazine's editorial agenda. We will use all the platforms i.e. forbesindia.com, the Forbes India print magazine, the Forbes India show on CNBC and our strong social media platforms to address each theme in a holistic way. Standalone events don't work in isolation, unless they tie in with the brand's core identity. We're trying to do our events as part of an integrated effort," he adds.

The trick, says Gupta, is to constantly look for contemporary themes that are relevant and meaningful for its community of influential, top-tier business readers. "On-ground events will be one way of communicating with that audience. Today, on forbesindia.com, many of our editors and writers begun conversations with the same community of readers through their blogs. Events help us get closer to our readers," Gupta said. The Forbes Global CEO Conference in Dubai in October this year will be a flagship event for global CEOs and leading entrepreneurs.

"The Forbes CEO conference which held around the world will be held in Dubai in October this year. This event is one of the distinctive events which would be organized by Forbes Asia. The event has set such a benchmark that billionaires who attend do so year after year," explains Gupta.

When quizzed about the fact that what makes magazines sustain in India, Gupta is quick to point out that it all boils down to the quality of content. "In India people are looking for quality content. Magazines like us focus on giving our readers a sharp point of view, backed by high-quality research done by experienced journalists. I think one should have a clear editorial charter and agenda and should stick to it," he says. Forbes India looks upon itself as the drama critic of Indian business--and has come to command influence and respect among a community of top-end readers in India Inc.