Gautam Adani becomes Asia's richest man

New Delhi: Gautam Adani who owns diversified Adani Group has become Asia's richest person thanks to a push into green energy that has boosted his fortune to $88.5 billion.

Adani overtook fellow countryman Mukesh Ambani to enter the top-10 of the world's richest people, according to figures from Forbes and Bloomberg.

According to Bloomberg Billionaire Index, Gautam Adani saw his fortune increase by $12 billion this year while Mukesh Ambani, who owns Reliance Industries, lost $2.07 billion this year. As on Tuesday, Ambani's fortune stands at $87.9 billion.

Among the mega-rich whom Adani has leapfrogged to reach the world top-10 are Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who slipped down the table several places last week after losing $30 billion of his personal fortune.

Adani Group controls the port of Mundra, India's largest, in the mogul's home State of Gujarat and he also owns 74 per cent of Mumbai international airport.

But his push into green energy has paid off handsomely in the past year with the listed company Adani Green Energy now his most valuable after its share price almost doubled in the past 12 months, the report said. The group is in the process of ploughing $70 billion into green energy projects by 2030 with the aim of becoming the world's largest renewable energy producer.