Five Indian Americans among Forbes 400 richest

Five Indian-Americans fi gure in the Forbes magazine's annual list of the richest people in America with Microsoft Corp chairman Bill Gates retaining his top spot with $66 billion, up $7 billion from 2011.

The Indian-Americans' list is topped by Bharat Desai and family with a net worth of $2 billion in the 239th place. Kenyaborn Bharat Desai started as a programmer for Tata Consultancy Services, only to leave the company four years later to start Syntel with his wife.

Next comes Romesh T. Wadhwani (No. 250), Founder and Chairman, Symphony Technology Group, with a net worth of $1.9 billion. Landing in the US with only a few dollars in his pocket, he developed business software fi rm Aspect Development. Today his portfolio includes more than 10 different enterprise software companies.

Third on the Indian-American list is Kavitark Ram Shriram (No. 298), Managing Partner, Sherpalo Ventures, with a net worth of $1.6 billion. He was one of the fi rst people to write a check to Google cofounders Sergey Brin and Larry Page in 1998. Next comes Indian-born Manoj Bhargava (No. 311) with a net worth of $1.5 billion. His two-ounce caffeine and vitamin elixir, 5-Hour Energy, promises to keep users alert without crashing —and claims a 90 percent-plus market share in the energy shot sector.

Last on the Indian-American list is Venture capitalist Vinod Khosla (No. 328) with a net worth of $1.4 billion. With a fi rm belief that the future lies in developing cleaner energy sources, the Khosla Ventures founder was a big backer of biofuel producers Kior and Gevo, both of which went public in 2011, according to Forbes.

[ BY VRN ]