Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani has become the richest man in the Asia-Pacific region and the fourth in world rankings as per the 2010 Forbes list of world's billionaires released on Wednesday.

The number of tycoons from the Asia-Pacific region with a ten-figure net worth has risen to 234 from 130 in 2009. This accounts for 23 percent of the 1,011 billionaires on the global list against 16 percent of the 793 billionaires the year before.

India has 49 billionaires in 2010 as compared to only 24 last year.

The combined wealth of Asian billionaires has also more than doubled to 729 billion dollars compared with dollar 357 billion a year ago. This rate of increase far outpaces that of European tycoons, who saw their collective fortune has risen by fifty percent while their US counterparts enjoyed only an 18 percent increase.

Of the 234 Asian tycoons on the list, 62 are first-time billionaires out of a total of 97 new billionaires in the world.

The richest man in the world is Mexican telecom titan Carlos Slim Helu and his family.

With his fortune swelling to an estimated dollar 53.5 billion, up by dollar18.5 billion in 12 months, Slim surged ahead of Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates, who had held the title of world's richest man fourteen times in the last fifteen years.

Gates, now worth dollar 53 billion, is ranked second in the world. Buffett is ranked third with dollar 47 billion.

Eleven countries have at least double the number of billionaires they had a year ago, including China, India, Turkey and South Korea.

The seven top billionaires from India are as follows:

World Ranking Name Wealth

4 Mukesh Ambani $29.0

5 Lakshmi Mittal $28.7

28 Azim Premji $17.0

36 Anil Ambani $13.7

40 Shashi and Ravi Ruia $13.0

44 Savitri Jindal $12.2

74 Kushal Pal Singh $9.0 (ANI)