TOP 100 RICHEST PERSONS IN THE WORLD

Top 10 Richest Person in the World – 2008

1) The American investor and philanthropist Warren Buffet is worth an estimated $62 billion, up $10 billion from a year ago thanks to surging prices of Berkshire Hathaway stock, according to Forbes magazine's annual ranking of the world's billionaires.

2)Mexican telecom tycoon Carlos Slim Helu was named the world's second richest man, with a net worth of around $60 billion, up $11 billion since last March.

3) Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, is now ranked as the world's third richest person. At $58 billion, his net worth is up $2 billion from a year ago.

4) Steel giant Lakshmi Mittal placed fourth with 45 billion dollars

5) Petrochemicals tycoon Mukesh Ambani placed fifth with 43 billion dollars

6) Anil Ambani at sixth position with 42 billion dollars

7) Ikea store chain owner Ingvar Kamprad was seventh at $31 billion

8) Property magnate K.P. Singh came in eighth on the list, with a fortune estimated at 30 billion dollars.

9) Aluminum giant Oleg Deripaska was ninth at $28 billion

10) Aldi store chain owner Karl Albrecht was 10th at $27 billion

Corporate governance

Corporate governance is the set of processes, customs, policies, laws and institutions affecting the way a corporation is directed, administered or controlled. Corporate governance also includes the relationships among the many stakeholders involved and the goals for which the corporation is governed. The principal stakeholders are the shareholders, management and the board of directors. Other stakeholders include customers, creditors (e.g., banks, bond holders), employees, suppliers, regulators, and the community at large.

Corporate governance is a multi-faceted subject. An important theme of corporate governance is to ensure the accountability of certain individuals in an organization through mechanisms that try to reduce or eliminate the principal-agent problem. A related but separate thread of discussions focus on the impact of a corporate governance system in economic efficiency, with a strong emphasis on shareholders welfare. There are yet other aspects to the corporate governance subject, such as the stakeholder view and the corporate governance models around the world (see section 9 below).

There has been renewed interest in the corporate governance practices of modern corporations since 2001, particularly due to the high-profile collapses of a number of large U.S. firms such as Enron Corporation and Worldcom. In 2002, the US federal government passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, intending to restore public confidence in corporate governance.

Business Topics

Are you interested in starting an online business? By trading online you can save time and money, reduce your overheads and reach a much wider market. And you make it easier for your customers to do business with you.

If you plan to trade over the internet, you will need to register your business name in the state or territory you intend to operate. You also need find out what registration and licences apply to your business. Refer to our Registration & licences topic for more information on business registration.

Federal, state and territory governments offer a range of information and services to help you get into e-business

From horsehair and foam mattresses to drugs to sleep therapy, American merchants are trying to profit from sleep-related products in the way that diet and exercise products have paid off. Jon Mooallem talks about his New York Times story on the "sleep industrial complex."