Azim Premji, Shiv Nadar grace Forbes' billionaires list in IT

MUMBAI, INDIA: Azim Premji, Chairman, Wipro Group and Shiv Nadar, co-Founder, HCL have been named in the top 20 richest people in the world of technology, according to an inaugural list recently released by Forbes.

Bill Gates, co-Founder, Microsoft, with a net worth of $79.6 billion, continues to dominate the top post. At number two, is Oracle’s Larry Ellison, a net worth estimated at $50 billion.

Ellison ceded the CEO spot at Oracle last year to two co-CEOs, Safra Catz and Mark Hurd; he still serves as chairman and chief technology officer of the company.

Two more Indian-origin technology giants Romesh Wadhwani and Bharat Desai are also in the list.

According to Forbes, Premji who has a net worth of $17.4 billion, is among Asia's most generous tycoons, having given away more than $4 billion of his fortune.

Nadar with net worth of $14.4 billion gets bulk of his wealth from the group’s software services outfit HCL Technologies.

Wadhwani ranked 73rd on the list with a $2.8 billion net worth, is an IIT-alumnus, and CEO and Chairman of Symphony Technology Group, a collection of 20 companies spanning big data, analytics and software with combined annual revenue of $3 billion.

Desai and family have been ranked 82nd with a net worth of $2.5 billion. The 62-year-old and his wife Neerja founded IT consulting and outsourcing company Syntel in 1980 out of their apartment in Michigan.

As per the list, the average age of the group is 53, which is a decade younger than the average age of all billionaires; 15 of the 100 are under age 40.