Kumar Mangalam Birla
Born into a many generation-old business family, Kumar Mangalam Birla has an estimated net worth of $7.4 billion. In 1995, Kumar Birla, then 28 years old, inherited the Aditya Birla Group, a commodities conglomerate named after his late father, and turned it into a household name in various countries, including Canada, Australia, Malaysia and China. After spending his early life in Mumbai and Calcutta, Birla earned an MBA from the London School of Business and is also a Chartered Accountant. At the age of 22, he had gotten married to an 18 year old Neerja Kasliwal, a full time housewife with no business ambitions, and fathered three children. Aryaman Vikram, the heir apparent to the Aditya Birla Group, is often spotted taking part in various charitable functions, while his sister is regularly spotted flaunting designer clothes. 7 year old Advaitesha, the youngest of Birla's children is known to help her father with his philanthropy work.Reuters

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has closed a coal scam case against billionaire Kumar Mangalam Birla and a former top bureaucrat that emerged in 2012 after an auditor's report on revenue loss to the exchequer from allocations of coal blocks.

The CBI had filed the case against Birla and former Coal Secretary P.C. Parakh last year in relation to a block allocated in 2005 to Hindalco Industries, part of the $40 billion Aditya Birla Group led by Kumar Mangalam Birla.

"The evidence collected during investigation did not substantiate the allegations leveled against the persons named in the FIR (first information report filed in the case)," the CBI said in a statement late on Friday.

India's federal auditor had alleged that the government's allocation of coal blocks may have cost the exchequer revenues of about $33 billion, although industry watchers and the previous government have cast doubts on the figure. Indian media has dubbed the scandal "coalgate".

Though the CBI has dropped the name of Birla, the Supreme Court of India this week ruled that allocations of coal blocks since 1993 were illegal. That would include blocks awarded to firms including Hindalco and Jindal Steel and Power Ltd.

The court will hold a further hearing on Monday, after which it will decide whether to cancel the allocations or impose some sort of penalty.