The latest rankings of India's mega-rich have confirmed what many suspected: that it has been a very, very bad year for the Bollygarchs.

As Bombay's stock market swooned - losing half its value in the past 12 months - India's 40 richest men have lost a combined $212 billion. The decline marks a jarring 60 per cent slide in their collective net worth, to $139 billion, according to Forbes, the business magazine.

Anil Ambani, the mobile tycoon behind Reliance ADAG and India's third-richest man with a personal fortune of $12.5 billion, was the biggest loser, with his net worth plunging some $32.5 billion - or nearly $90 a day.

The fiercely competitive, marathon-running Mr Ambani may feel all the more aggrieved since it is his estranged brother Mukesh who has been adjudged India's richest man.

Anil Ambani, who heads Reliance Industries, the petrochemicals giant, may have lost more than $28 billion, but still has an estimated $20.8 billion to his name. He just beat Lakshmi Mittal, the British-resident steel baron, to be named the richest Indian. Mr Mittal, last year's No1, saw his fortune drop by USD30 billion, to USD20.5 billion, as the price of steel plunged.

The figures underscore just how badly India's financial elite are suffering amid a burgeoning global downturn. They also torpedo any lingering notion that the fortunes of the emerging "BRIC" economies - a group also including Brazil, Russia and China - have "decoupled" from those of the West.

Adding to the new moguls' woes was a 25 per cent decline in the value of the embattled rupee against the dollar as foreign investors fled Bombay's bourses in the wake of the subprime crisis and concerns grew over India's yawning deficits.

The Forbes list of India's richest 40 tycoons is replete with sobering statistics: while all of those listed last year were billionaires, only 27 now have 10-figure dollar fortunes - nine fewer than in 2006.

Thirty-three of the thirty-four who maintained their place in the list from last year to this have lost at least a fifth of their wealth.

Some have been hit by unique factors: Tulsi Tanti, the man behind Suzlon, the wind turbine company, lost 90 per cent of his fortune. He was left with a paltry $930 million after reports emerged that the blades his company manufactures were snapping off its giant windmills.

Others have suffered as entire asset bubbles have burst - perhaps most notably in the Indian real estate sector. KP Singh, who controls DLF, the property developer, has lost a staggering $39 billion since the company's shares hit their peak in January (he has lost $27 billion since this time last year).

Those who suffered the ignominy of dropping off the rich list altogether included Vijay Mallya, the beer-to-airlines millionaire whose carrier Kingfisher, in common with its peers, is haemorrhaging cash. Mr Mallya yesterday said he was in talks with the British-based drinks giant Diageo, which could result in him offloading a minority stake in his brewery, United Spirits.

The proceeds of a sale could be could be used to reduce United's debt of $1.2 billion, a hang-over from the group' purchase of the Scottish distillery Whyte & Mackay in 2007.

Just how sympathetic most of his countrymen will feel for the famously flamboyant Mr Mallya and his ilk is debatable. That India supplied four of the world's richest ten billionaires in last year's Forbes global rankings - a feat unlikely to be repeated this time around - was a source of pride for the nation's financial newspapers. But more than 60 per cent of the country's population of 1.2 billion rely on the moribund agricultural sector for a living and tens of millions are mired in extreme poverty.

So jarring has been the trend towards conspicuous consumption by India's newly affluent middle class, Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister, last year warned India's high flyers that their ostentatious spending risked triggering "social unrest".

Perhaps men such as Mr Mallya, who wears diamond studs in his ears, drives a Bentley, is known to don golden bespoke suits and counts India's first Formula One team among a host of trophy assets, will now be foreced to set a more austere example.

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