ANIL AGARWAL (552nd on the Forbes list)
Sterlite Industries' Anil Agarwal is a risk-taker. And he has had its share of hits and misses.
In 1998, Sterlite made a hostile bid for Indian Aluminium Company but got pipped to the post by Hindalco in one of the most vitriolic takeover battles that corporate India has seen.
But in 2002, Sterlite bid for Balco successfully and turned Balco into a model for the government's divestment programme.
Agarwal set out as a cable manufacturer and then branched into telecom. Corporate India started taking notice of this first generation entrepreneur in the early 1990s, when he decided to integrate his cable business. Today, Sterlite is a near monopoly in the optic-fibre industry.
Meanwhile, Agarwal has become an integrated player in cables, copper and aluminum, all businesses integral to the fast growing telecom sector.
He plans to double Sterlite's annual turnover to around $3 billion by 2005-06. In 2002, he attempted to de-list Sterlite in Bombay with a share-buy back scheme. That de-listing paved the way for Sterlite to be headquartered in London - at an elegant former Rothschild family mansion. Ultimately, Agarwal wants Sterlite to list on the London Stock Exchange.
50-year-old Agarwal, with a worth of $1 billion, is ranked 552nd on the Forbes list and is poised to be the infrastructure king of the India's telecom sector.