New York: Nine Indians led by Wipro chairman Azim Premji have found place in the list of billionaires worldwide this year, which is once again topped by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.

Premji with a net worth of $ 6.7 billion occupied 58th position closely followed by Lakshmi Mittal who is worth $ 6.2 billion and found 62nd slot on overall Forbes' list of a record number of 587 billionaires, including 64 newcomers.

Mukesh and Anil Ambani are worth $ six billion and placed 65th followed by Kumar Mangalam Birla who found 147th position and is worth $ 3.2 billion.

Sunil Mittal is placed at 186th position and has a net worth of $ 2.7 billion followed by Pallonji Mistry who is worth $ 2.3 billion and found 231st position.

Adi Godrej and family, according to Forbes, is worth $ 2 billion and got 277th slot. Shiv Nadar is worth $ 1.8 billion and Anil Agarwal $ one billion and they respectively are placed at 310 and 552 positions.

Together, Indian billionaires are $ 31.9 billion.

Gates continued his reign as the richest man in the world for 10th successive year with an estimated net worth of $ 46.6 billion up from the previous year's $ 40.7 billion but investor Warren Buffet was fast catching up and came within a few billions dollars from ousting him mainly because of rising stock prices, Forbes magazine reported.

The richest became richer last year as the wealthiest added half a trillion dollars to their worth to touch $ 1.9 trillion.

The list of billionaires contains some real surprises also. In a fairy tale as fantastic as her popular Harry Potter series, the single mother-turned literary sensation Joanne Kathleen Rowling made her debut on the magazine's 18th annual billionaire rankings.

So too, two geeks who have barely turned 30 Sergey Brin and Larry Page, who created the ultra popular Google search engine and are expected to take their company public this year.

Also joining the exclusive club is Canadian impresario Guy Laliberte, creator of Cirque du Soleil and Hong Kong's Michael Ying, whose Esprit line of apparel is spreading around the world.

Thanks to rising oil prices, Russia minted eight new billionaires and now has a total of 25, the third-highest concentration of billionaires in the world, trailing only the US and Germany, Forbes reported.