Azim Premji and Shiv Nadar bags their spots in the prestigious Forbes list of 100 richest people in the technology field

Forbes has released its first ever list of the 100 richest people in the technology field. This list is as usually dominated by Americans with Microsoft founder Bill Gates at the top. Two Indian tech tycoons, Wipro chairman Azim Premji and HCL co-founder Shiv Nadar bagged their spots in this prestigious list.

• The ‘100 Richest Tech Billionaires In The World 2016’ list has been topped by Microsoft founder Bill Gates with an estimated fortune of USD 78 billion. Azim Premji ranks 13th on the list with a networth of USD 16 billion and Shiv Nadar comes in on the 17th spot with USD 11.6 billion of net worth.

About Azim Premji :

Azim Hashim Premji born in 24 July 1945 is an Indian business tycoon, investor, and philanthropist. who is the chairman of Wipro Limited, informally known as the Czar of the Indian IT Industry.

• He was responsible for guiding Wipro through four decades of diversification and growth to finally emerge as one of the global leaders in the Software Industry.
• In 2010, he was voted among the 20 most powerful men in the world by Asia week. He has twice been listed among the 100 most influential people by TIME Magazine, once in 2004 and more recently in 2011.
• Premji owns 73% percent of Wipro and also owns a private equity fund, Premji Invest, which manages his $2 billion worth of personal portfolio. In 2013 he gave away 25 per cent of his personal wealth to charity and has also pledged to give away the rest of 25% in the next 5 years
• It is noted that Premji was ahead of Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors and Space X. The two Indian tycoons together beat Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Uber’s Travis Kalanick among others.
• Premji, 70, 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.

About Shiv Nadar :

Shiv Nadar(born 14 July 1945) is an Indian industrialist and philanthropist. He is the founder and chairman of HCL and the Shiv Nadar Foundation.

• His personal wealth is estimated at $13.7 Billion.He founded HCL in the mid-1970s and transformed the IT hardware company into an IT Enterprise over the next three decades by constantly reinventing his company’s focus.
• In 2008, Nadar was awarded Padma Bhushan for his efforts in the IT industry. Nadar, nicknamed by friends as Magus (Old Persian for Wizard), since mid-1990s has focused his efforts in developing the educational system of India through the Shiv Nadar Foundation.
• Shiv Nadar has a net worth of $14.4 billion and gets bulk of his wealth from software services outfit HCL Technologies.
• It is noted that HCL Technologies (HCLT) net profit came at Rs. 2,047 crore, a year-on-year rise of 14.8 percent in, for the quarter ended June 30, 2016.

The Top 10 list as follows