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Mukesh Ambani leads the pack of wealthiest Indians

Times are tough, and it`s showing the richest Indians are now poorer by 60% than a year ago thanks to the global financial meltdown, the falling stock markets and slow down in gross domestic product growth rate to 7.5%.

The total net worth of 40 richest Indians now stands at USD 139 billion from USD 351 billion as per the Forbes list of Richest Indians.

Leading the pack is Mukesh Ambani who is the largest shareholder in India`s largest private company Reliance Industries. The second spot was grabbed by UK based NRI steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal who lost over USD 30.5 billion due to plunging steel prices. The third place went to Anil Ambani, Chairman of ADAG group who owns Reliance Capital, Reliance Communication and Reliance Infrastructure as well as Reliance Natural resources after the split between the two Ambani brothers.

Telecom czar Sunil Mittal whose family owns Bharati Airtel and Bharati was at the fourth spot. Real estate fortunes were among those hit the hardest. KP Singh lost USD 27.2 billion managing to keep the fifth spot.

Tulsi Tanti and his brother lost 91% of their fortune, amid reports about the poor quality of Suzlon`s wind blades and property tycoon Ramesh Chandra`s net worth dropped 91% to USD 1 billion. Realty firm Unitech owned by him lost half its market capitalization in one day last month.

Thirty-three of the 34 tycoons who returned to ranking of India`s richest are at least 20% poorer than they were a year ago.

Source:In.com

Google Earth Rebuilds Ancient Rome

Google Earth users can now tour a 3D reconstruction of Ancient Rome, with more than 6,700 buildings.


The glory that was Rome lives again in 3D splendor in Google Earth. The popular service has reconstructed the most famous city of the ancient world, giving visitors a chance to zoom around 6,700 buildings and more than 250 place marks. The 200 buildings already well known to scholars have been rendered as faithfully as possibly.

Google teamed with Virginia University and Past Perfect Productions on the venture, and the 3D models are based on a model of the city known as the Plastico di Roma Antica, which stands in Rome’s Museum of Roman Civilization, according to the BBC.

Bruce Polderman, Google Earth 3D production manager, said:

"Whether you are a student taking your first ancient history class, a historian who spends your life researching ancient civilizations, or just a history buff, access to this 3D model in Google Earth will help everyone learn more about ancient Rome."

New Quad-Core AMD Opteron Processor Available

AMD announced availability of its 45nm Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor that delivers up to 35 percent more performance with up to a 35 percent decrease in power consumption at idle.

With IT decision-makers looking to do more with less, the newest Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor can help drive data center efficiencies and reduce complexities with innovations that offer superior virtualization performance and increased performance-per-watt.

Global OEMs are expected to immediately offer enterprise and SMB customers more than 25 systems, available between launch today and the end of the year, based on the 45nm Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor, codenamed "Shanghai."

"Flawless execution in bringing the 45nm Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor to market early results in new performance leadership on x86 servers," said Dasaradha Gude, Managing Director, Computing, AMD India.

"In concert with our OEM and solution provider partners, AMD is addressing the need for enterprises to focus on their bottom line while giving them the innovations they need to build for the future. This enhanced AMD Opteron processor represents the most dramatic performance and performance-per-watt increases for AMD products since the introduction of the world's first x86 dual-core processors by AMD nearly four years ago. Simply put, the Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor is the right technology at the right time."

Source: In.com