Ajay Piramal started out in his family's textile business in 1977 and went on to build a pharma empire. Piramal came into cash in 2010 when he sold the domestic formulations business of his Piramal Healthcare to Abbott Labs for $3.8 billion. Since then he has been stitching together a diversified conglomerate with interests in real estate, finance and infrastructure. In the past year he's invested in a road building firm, renewable energy and truck financing. He's looking to sell his company's 11% stake in telecom firm Vodafone India. The onetime polo player owns 4 horses.