Trained doctor, who heads Manipal Education & Medical Group, Ranjan Pai saw a spike in his fortune after he bought back stakes in February that software tycoons Azim Premji and N.R.Narayana Murthy both personally held in Manipal, pegging the valuation of his privately held education firm at over $1 billion. It operates 6 colleges and 15 hospitals in locations such as Melaka, Antigua and Dubai. In an ongoing overseas expansion he recently opened 2 universities in Kuala Lumpur. Manipal is named after a town in Karnataka state where his grandfather opened India's first privately owned medical school in 1953.