According to the latest Bloomberg Billionaires Index released, Mukesh Ambani is the eighteenth rchest person in the world with a personal wealth of $24.7 billion in 2012.

Mukesh Ambani, who is the Chairman & MD of Reliance Industries, retained his position as the richest Indian person for the sixth straight year and also improved his world ranking from 19th to 18th in 2012. The data released also showed that his personal wealth increased from $21 billion to $24.7 billion in 2012.

The Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a daily ranking of the world's 100 wealthiest individuals, showed that Mexican telecommunications magnate Carlos Slim remained the richest person in the world in 2012 with a wealth of more than $70 billion during the previous year. Microsoft founder Bill Gates was on the second position on the list with more than $60 billion and Amancio Ortega, the founder of fashion retailer Zara was on the third position.

Warren Buffett, legendary investor, fell to fourth position but added around $5 billion to his wealth while IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad saw his wealth grow by 16.6 per cent to about $40 billion and reached the fifth position on the Bloomberg's billionaire's index.

The latest data showed that the top 100 billionaires became even richer as their combined wealth increased 15 per cent to $1.81 trillion in the previous year.