Mukesh Ambani, who heads the oil-to-retail conglomerate Reliance Industries Group, has retained his position

RELATED ARTICLES Gail, OIL among 11 companies bidding for stake in RGTIL Ambani Sr gets fresh BofA shares; sells some for taxes Ambani Sr no longer counts among the world’s 20 richest

as the world's richest Indian with a networth of $ 22.6 billion, as per the Forbes India annual rich list.

Despite a fall of $ 4.4 billion in his networth over the past one year, Ambani managed to hold the top slot.

He is followed by steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal and technology czar Azim Premji, as per the list published today by the Indian edition of global business magazine Forbes.

Mittal was ranked second with a networth of $ 19.2 billion, while Premji was at the third position with $ 13 billion of networth, Forbes said.

The 100 richest persons in the country together saw their networth falling by 20 per cent in one year, to $ 241 billion, as inflation, corruption scandals and falling stock and currency prices diminished their wealth.

The list comprises of 57 billionaires, a dozen less than the last year.

Forbes said that Mukesh's younger brother Anil Ambani saw the biggest erosion in his wealth in absolute terms, while power producer Lanco Infratech's Madhusudan Raw was the biggest loser in percentage terms as his networth fell by 78 per cent during the past one year.

Anil Ambani's net worth declined by $ 7.4 billion to $ 5.9 billion and he "slipped out of the top 10 for the first time since his 2004 debut". He was ranked 13th in this year's list.

In the top-five, Mukesh Ambani, Lakshmi Mittal and Azim Premji were followed by Essar group's Shashi and Ravi Ruia ($ 10.2 billion at 4th position) and Savitri Jindal ($ 9.5 billion at 5th).