New Delhi - Dipping stock markets and property values brought on by the global financial crisis have knocked 60 per cent off the combined value of the 40 wealthiest Indians, the business magazine Forbes said in a report published Thursday.

The total net worth of the 40 richest Indians fell by 212 billion dollars from last year to 139 billion dollars, the magazine said while introducing its latest list of the richest Indians.

Steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal dropped from the top of the list to second place behind Reliance Industries' Mukesh Ambani, after losing 30.5 billion dollars in asset values over the past few months.

Ambani made the first spot despite losing 28.2 billion dollars while his brother Anil Ambani, who runs a separate group of industries, took third place despite being the biggest loser with his net worth down by 32.5 billion, the magazine said.

The magazine said Mukesh Ambani's net worth on November 3 was 20.8 billion dollars, Mittal's 20.5 billion dollars and Anil Ambani's
12.5 billion. The net worth of the individuals were "snapshots of wealth," according to market prices and exchange rates on that day, the magazine said.

"These are painful times for India's richest as the ongoing global turmoil drastically reshapes their fortunes," the magazine said.

"The country's once-soaring stock market fell 48 per cent in the last 12 months, the rupee depreciated 24 per cent against the dollar and gross domestic product growth is expected to slow down to 7.5 per cent, partly owing to double-digit inflation," it said.

Tulsi Tanti, the owner of India's pioneering wind power firm Suzlon, along with his brothers and real estate player Unitech's Ramesh Chandra lost 91 per cent of their fortunes.

"Thirty-three of the 34 tycoons who returned to our ranking of India's richest are at least 20 per cent poorer than they were a year ago," Forbes said.

The only increase was that of brothers Malvinder and Shivinder Singh, who added 550 million dollars to their combined wealth after selling their 34-per-cent stake in the drug firm Ranbaxy Laboratories to Japan's Daiichi Sankyo.

Liquor and airlines tycoon Vijay Mallya and Gautam Thapar - head of India's largest papermaker, Ballarpur Industries - were among the six Indians who were pushed off the list. The collective losses of the six were 7.9 billion dollars.

While all 40 tycoons on the list were billionaires in 2007, only 27 in 2008 had 10-figure fortunes, Forbes said. (dpa)