6. Hinduja Brothers ($9 billion)Four brothers, Srichand, Gopichand, Prakash and Ashok, together control the Hinduja Group, a multinational conglomerate with a presence in 37 countries and businesses as diverse as trucks and lubricants to banking and healthcare. In India, they are best known for IndusInd Bank and truckmaker Ashok Leyland. Lubricants arm Gulf Oil, which bought U.S.-based Ho
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2/5
7. Shiv Nadar($8.6 billion) Fortune up $3 billion for Shiv Nadar, cofounder of $6.3 billion (revenues) HCL Group, as shares of his software flagship HCL Technologies rose 80% from a year ago, helped in part by weak rupee, higher earnings and new clients. Among its notable customers are Boeing, Microsoft, Cisco and UBS. Nadar, who has not been involved in running the operations of the comp
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3/5
8. Adi Godrej ($8.3 billion)Adi Godrej is head of family that controls 116-year-old Godrej Group, a $3.8 billion (revenues) consumer goods conglomerate. Its portfolio covers everything from mosquito repellants and hair dyes to refrigerators. Godrej often says listed real estate arm Godrej Properties, run by son Pirojsha, could be group’s biggest business in a decade. Meantime, its Godrej
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4/5
9. Kumar Birla ($7.6 billion)Undeterred by India’s slowing economy, Kumar Birla’s $40 billion (sales) commodities conglomerate Aditya Birla Group is continuing to expand at home. In September, its cement arm UltraTech inked a $600 million deal to buy a rival unit the combined group is now country’s largest cement producer. In October he was named by the Central Bureau of Investigation in
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5/5
10. Sunil Mittal ($6.6 billion)After a long downward spell, shares of Sunil Mittal’s Bharti Airtel which has 275 million customers worldwide, perked up when it reported higher revenues per user in last quarter. In June it sold a 5% stake for $1.2 billion to the investment arm of the state-owned Qatar Foundation. Company faced hitch when federal auditor recommended that Bharti along with o
