According to the latest Forbes ranking, the global center of desi wealth is Bombay, not Silicon Valley (thanks, WGIIA). India is the only South Asian country with billionaire private citizens (though a Sri Lankan Tamil émigré to Malaysia made the list), and Bombay has the most.
Vinod Khosla fell below the cutoff, as did most desi American techies except Ram Shriram, an angel investor in Google who is now apparently the wealthiest desi in the U.S. So with India’s recent economic growth, Indians are making more money by staying home than emigrating, quite a reversal, even though most who emigrated were not born into ultra-wealthy families. And these figures are in dollars, not even adjusted for purchasing power in the desh.
I suspect the stats are off though. If you were to treat national wealth as personal wealth, as several South Asian ruling families do, I bet the stats would change.
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Where the wild things are |
The U.S. is still far and away the best place to generate wealth, and New York City alone has more billionaires than any country except Germany:
While New York has the highest number of resident billionaires with 40, Moscow is second with 25, and London comes third with 23. [Link]
Indian billionaires have surpassed Japan’s in terms of total wealth:
A worldwide economic boom has yielded a record number of dollar billionaires in the past year, according to Forbes. Their number rose by 15% to 793 with India taking the lead in Asia… India’s 23 billionaires have a combined net worth of $99bn, surpassing former Asian leader Japan’s 27 billionaires with their total worth of $67bn. [Link]
India, whose BSE SENSEX market was up 54% in the past 12 months, is home to 10 new billionaires, more than any other country besides the U.S. Notable newcomers include Tulsi Tanti, a former textile trader whose alternative energy company owns Asia’s largest windfarm; Vijay Mallya, the liquor tycoon behind Kingfisher beer; Kushal Pal Singh, India’s biggest real estate developer; and Anurag Dikshit (pronounced “dix-sit”), another online gaming mogul, who made his fortune when he and two Americans took their PartyGaming poker company public in London last June. [Link]
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Gurgaon malls in da house:
This former army officer [Kush Pal Singh], known as KP, joined his father-in-law’s Delhi Land & Finance in 1971. Singh later built DLF City in Gurgaon, his showpiece township on the outskirts of Delhi, by acquiring land from farmers. And transformed DLF into India’s biggest real estate developer. [Link]
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p>The Ambani brothers’ spat made it into the magazine:
The gloves came off in late 2004 when they began battling publicly for the group’s control. The situation became so untenable that their mother, Kokilaben, brokered a court-approved peace settlement that entailed breaking up the $23 billion (sales) group. Mukesh got control of Reliance Industries, a $16.5 billion (sales) petrochemicals concern. Anil got four companies with interests in energy, telecom and financial services…
The brothers continue to avoid meeting in public. They might run into one another in an elevator, though; both live in an 18-story high-rise their father built. [Link]
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p>These lists are like athlete rosters at the Olympics, too diverse to draw a lot of meaningful conclusions beyond high-level trends. Here are the individual rankings. Click the name to read their story:
| Rank | Name | Age | Wealth | Country | How made |
| 5 | Lakshmi Mittal | 55 | $23.5B | UK | Mittal Steel |
| 25 | Azim Premji | 60 | 13.3 | India | Wipro |
| 56 | Mukesh Ambani | 48 | 8.5 | India | Reliance telecom, conglomerate |
| 104 | Anil Ambani | 46 | 5.7 | India | Reliance telecom, conglomerate |
| 114 | Kushal Pal Singh | 74 | 5.0 | India | Gurgaon malls |
| 125 | Sunil Mittal | 48 | 4.9 | India | Airtel |
| 140 | Kumar Birla | 38 | 4.4 | India | Cement, commodities |
| 147 | Ananda Krishnan | 67 | 4.3 | Malaysia | Maxis wireless, built Petronas towers, Sri Lankan Tamil |
| 168 | Shiv Nadar | 60 | 4.0 | India | HCL |
| 185 | Pallonji Mistry | 76 | 3.6 | India | Tata Consultancy |
| 207 | Anurag Dikshit | 34 | 3.3 | Gibraltar | PartyPoker.com |
| 245 | Ravi & Shashi Ruia | NA | 2.8 | India | Hutchison Essar wireless |
| 245 | Anil Agarwal | 52 | 2.8 | UK | Vedanta Resources mining |
| 278 | Adi Godrej & family | 63 | 2.6 | India | Godrej consumer goods |
| 317 | Indu Jain | 69 | 2.4 | India | Times of India |
| 317 | Dilip Shanghvi | 50 | 2.4 | India | Sun Pharma |
| 512 | Kavitark “Ram” Shriram | 50 | 1.5 | USA | Angel investor in Google |
| 512 | Naresh Goyal | 56 | 1.5 | UK | Jet Airways |
| 562 | Baba Kalyani | 57 | 1.4 | India | Auto parts |
| 562 | Tulsi Tanti | 48 | 1.4 | India | Suzlon Power wind farm |
| 645 | NR Narayana Murthy | 59 | 1.2 | India | Infosys |
| 645 | Amar Bose | 77 | 1.2 | USA | Bose audio |
| 698 | Uday Kotak | 47 | 1.1 | India | Kotak Mahindra Bank |
| 746 | Subhash Chandra | 55 | 1.0 | India | Zee TV |
| 746 | Habil Khorakiwala | 63 | 1.0 | India | Wockhardt pharma |
| 746 | Vijay Mallya | 50 | 1.0 | India | Kingfisher beer |
A video version is shown on ABC news. A must see..!
Plenty of Baniyas, only a couple of Brahmins, at least one Most Backward Caste…no Dalits.
Explain this point…
Its mumbai, Mumbai, MUMBAI. How many times do I have to tell you before I kill you??
global center of desi wealth — LOL! Nice phrase, sums it up 😀
That was informative 🙂
So in other words wealth inequality in India is increasing? The gini index, which tracks income distribution, should be interesting to watch. According to this, India is more unequal than others in South Asia. Since 1997 I bet this has gotten worse.
Interesting also that the Hinduja bros don’t seem to feature on the list.
The list of # of billionaires per country shows only one important thing to me. China has is no where near India in the #of billionaires and they had 20 year head-start in the Globalizing of their economy. This actually shows the edge India has over China — Enterpeunerial culture — NOT “ENGLISH speaking workers”.
Another edge India has over China is transparent equity markets — NOT “English speaking workers” As an example Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Petro largest IPO in Indian history which is a $1.3 billion offering. Following that Reliance Pertro is planning to raise another $3.5 billion for the new refinery project. This type of ground up business building is unheared of in China, more than 30 years into their liberlization.
Indian enterpeunerial spirit is about to take off big time. They need a little more pro-business government.
The image of India is shown with a severed Kashmir. Just because you folks were cradled in the sheltered west does not mean you go about pasting every damn picture with a severed Kashmir out there. Pay attention to the sensitivities of native people and 50,000 people who have died due to terrorist attacks since independence. This is ridiculous. You are in a way propagating this map of India, which is a serious transgression if you ask me.
And I thought the correct pronunciation was “dheek-shith” – with the ‘h’ representing soft consonants rather than the aspirated hard consonants.
The wealth increase in a country must be absolutely equal and all the 1.1 billion people must have the same increase in per capita income down to the last paisa. There should not be something like a top 1%. But if God forbid there is, and if those guys get a Rs.10,000 p.a increase and the lowest get only a Rs.1,000 p.a increase, well then, those kulaks need to be lined up against a wall and given what they deserve, right?
Sarcasm aside, guys like (Dhiru) Ambani and Narayana Murthy should, in a just world, be idolized and have their statues in every village in place of the statues of people like Nehru and Indira Gandhi. They have done more good for India than the latter, especially I.G.
Enterpeunerial culture is one aspect, but the liberalization in terms of international trade and local business laws allowed Entreprenuers to leverage skills like they could not do before. NR Narayana Murthy had said the following
The elimination of certain tax/licensing structure led to the boom.
If Chidambaram gets further indian labor laws reform Well only 1 law ie the requirement that a firm with more than 100 can not lay off without government permission more people will take risks. This is one reason medium to small scale manufactures are not increasing indian presense. One of the reason blue collared productivity is the lowest in india where as white collared is increasing(and eventualy that will catch up to US) is b/c laws like this dont apply to them. Regarding english speaking workers, one has to be able to have some degree of understanding of written english to thrive in indian business and technical jobs, this is true for most of the white collared jobs.
Yes! the dude on mad money said that thing in a very straightforward but technical way.
I am hoping manmohan is making sure that his successor in congress does not come from gandhi family I would hope that its mr chidambaram. Also increasing primary education both interms of quality and quantity will cause a multiplier effect.
To complete the picture on income distribution raised by Sunny, here is how India compares with other economies:
Income share held by highest 20% of population: India 41.6%; Germany 38.5%; United Kingdom 43.2%; Brazil 64.1%; China 46.6%; United States 46.4%; Canada 39.3%
Income share held by lowest 20% of population: India 8.1%; Germany 8.2%; United Kingdom 6.1%; Brazil 2.2%; China 5.9%; United States 5.2%; Canada 7.5%
My view is that income distribution stats, of themselves, do not say much & should be analyzed in tandem with GDP growth rates. This is because most nations have a very hard time balancing growth with equitable distribution.
Consider the example of Germany, a mature, developed economy that has a growth rate of less than 1% & an income distribution profile not much different from that of India’s. This means that, even with growth rates close to zero & the leftist Green party in power, Germany has not been able to achieve an income parity profile much different from that of India’s. Today, Germans are very concerned about their declining economy & have elected Merkel (Protestant, female), a more liberal free market advocate.
That point of view has a much more serious problem than one magazine: almost every Asia map on the first couple of pages of Google images shows the map that way. Border disputes which nations are serious about resolving are resolved within 5 years, maybe 10. 50 years says it’s just become a perpetual tool of electoral politics, like the LTTE milking the conflict in Sri Lanka. So mapmakers almost unanimously show the LOC as the de facto border which it is. 50 years on, can you blame them?
Is it more productive to rant at mapmakers or agree on a frickin’ border before your grandchildren die?
Manish: “So mapmakers almost unanimously show the LOC as the de facto border which it is. 50 years on, can you blame them?”
Huh???…….( i sincerely hope, you are just trying to play pratical joke on some people here)
Manish: “Is it more productive to rant at mapmakers or agree on a frickin’ border before your grandchildren die?”
AND THIS I AM READING IT IN “SEPIA MUTINY”????…..can’t be any more abrasive and unmindful of the Kashmiri Pandits who are the “largest refugee group” to be found in one’s own country!!..
I am afraid your hopes are misplaced. Rahul is being groomed like a prize puppy to be Emperor. What India needs is irrelevant, what matters is that ‘the family’ stays in control.
Both India and Pakistan should make LOC the official border and just move on.
I wonder who long before India has more billionaires than any nation except for the US. India will almost certainly take over Russia, Japan, and the UK in the next few years. It might take a little longer to get past Germany.
, well then, those kulaks need to be lined up against a wall and given what they deserve, right?
I’ve nothing against brothers going out there and making money through hard work and good ideas. But it’s sad that just as India is starting to grow economically, it’s meant greater economic inequality. I don’t know about Germany but the UK has grown more unequal a lot recently and its a developed economy. In some ways that is ok because at least people are not dying on the streets (in huge numbers). In a country like India, wealth inequality may mean social strife, resentment and upheaval. I sound like a communist – but I’m not. Socially, huge wealth inequality is nothing to be proud of.
what are you idolizing by making statues? if you are clear on the ideals you mean to celebrate, that would give others a better idea of what the issues are that one wants to support.
Anyway, I think the more indian society can build a meritocracy, the better. In the long run this ensures a stable society
That’s the very nature of meritocracy. It’s not that simple– you have to pair any income inequality analysis with a look at corruption and social mobility.
The BSE soars like eagle, bringing a great bounty to the Indians. One day the eagle will crash with the thunder clouds, and fall from the sky, bringing tears of rain to the guajratis of mumbai. I only hope it is after the tribe selects its elders or else…
The commenter in post #20 is not me, by the way…..Someone’s either impersonating me or a “lurker” has decided to pay SM a visit and has inadvertantly used an already-well-known handle (ie. mine).
Jai, there are more than one Jais in the world. Add a character or two. It does the body good 😉
Aargh, I could alter it Manish, but then I’d have to make another announcement declaring the change in my username (plus I’d have to think of something suitably creative to modify it to).
I’ll keep it as it is for the time being, but if another ‘jai’ appears here a second time then I’ll alter it as appropriate.
We’ve already had an Alleged Punjabi Boy here, we can’t have an Alleged Jai too 😉
There is some hope. ManMohan had no leverage with any one but was made one b/c no one acceptable could be brought up. SoniaÂ’s leverage is strong but she is not in the same league as Indira Gandhi. He has achieved the highest office and is an old man and does know that time will get him.
Speculation has been that he has threatened to resign 2wice. Internally him and Sonia were fighting over issues including rural employment deal.
He should take risks sometime down the road, b/c simply put he would be able to do so then. He has secured a good legacy for himself. He is up there in age. He can surely risk this in order to get something accomplished. It is analog to his financial sector reforms. Sure when you dismantle a legacy system there is apprehension about what the future holds, but does that mean not trying to change. “Feel the fear but do it anyways” 🙂
The games concerning power inside the party have always been played out in the open with bjp, and its predecessors, whereas in congress itÂ’s all behind the scene. If you believe as I do that incentive exists for marginally strong players inside the congress to play these games then the most likely games are being played. Rahul and Priyanka are playing the games but IÂ’m confident so are the others b/c of the nature of congress you donÂ’t know who the others are. They do exist and some of them are more competent than these 2 can ever be… Will they decide to play dirty? Will ManMohan take the risk?
Even if ManMohan fails politically he doesnÂ’t have much to loose. He is not connected enough to find the right person to derail SoniaÂ’s plan. But I am sure that there are plenty in congress who are ambitious for the coveted spot. They will approach him rather than other way round.
The question is of timing. He has to accommodate Sonia long enough to stay in power and but before he runs out of time he has to swiftly prop some one up and just say a small speech and an article in a couple of papers.
Will that cause congress to loose big time? No one knows but is it better than letting things the way they are? The general population is not afraid of ineffective coalitions anymore. We lived with that through out the 90Â’s to present.
ManMohan’s presented his reform package with the quote “No power can stop an idea whose time has come” That was impressive b/c not only it was one of the first sessions to be recorded and broadcasted on TV, but there was a genuine passion in ManMohan’s voice.
Is the end of political scene dominated by dynasty an idea whose time has come? Is the rise of political players who were accomplished individuals prior to joining politics an idea whose time has come? I hope so!
one thing about India; there are moments which make you marvel at humanity. The modern history of india includes such awe-inspiring things such as our freedom struggle, the democacy we fashioned, that we elected a secular government in a time when the tide was turning toward sectarianism, that 20 years after 84 Manmohan Singh is PM. hopefully Indian people can again astound the world by shaking off electoral dynasties
“almost every asia map shows the map this way” Well, then it must be true! Nice. P.S. Kashmir is part of India.
sorry about that.
Way to miss the point. Resolve this painful conflict. Don’t beat your chest about it for another 50 years, milk it for Hindutva votes and do nothing for Kashmiri refugees.
Some points to be noted the kashmiri refugees were not created 50 yeard ago but 17 years ago. They were created from the valley Gilgit,Skardu and Hunza are the parts shown on the other side. Those folks would have joined india but geography left then on the other side, it is only some fellas in the valley. Laddakh and Jammu well its still no contest where they would be. Interesting but speculative story is that General Zia ul Haq was killed by a person from Gilgit. Some speculation is that he was paid to do so by CIA others by RAW. Weather that is true or not is not certain. But mostlikely that zia was killed and it wasnt an accident.
Your argument sides with the escapist attitude seen amongst most of the hypocritical western intelligentsia when it comes to foreign policy and when the country in question is India. The United Nations is a joke to begin with and almost all the creators of these maps will reason that it is the presence of the UN observer that made them establish this line. Who the hell told the UN that this LOC was final? The Simla accord states that this is a LOC until the issue is resolved bilaterally. So a real map would either
[] Choose not to depict Pakistan Occupied Kashmir as a gift from their uncle to Pakistan and show Kashmir the way it should have been depicted, i.e., disputed. [] Blur the Kashmir map and slap a disclaimer.
LOC != Border.
Hey, try this for a change, mess up the Israel/Palestine map for a change and see what happens. Oh no, the Jewish lobby will go tora-bora on your ass. But thanks to people like you, our Indian lobby is quite strong.
Listen, all you had to do was plug-in a disclaimer. It is not like the whole world would come crashing into you if a war were to break out anyway, it is not up to you to draft conclusions on international borders. You should stick to blogs.
almost however aksai chin is shown in india! so now you have offended CPI-ML.
So based on this logic, anyone who suggests that Kashmir is a part of India is a Hinduvta-vadi. This is exactly why bloggers on this board should stay away from commenting on Kashmir. FYI, life isn’t exactly black and white back in desh. The Kashmiri people in Indian Kashmir are no longer refugees, they enjoy the fruits of democracy. There have been free and fair elections in Kashmir and people of Kashmir have proven their willingness to be part of such institutions in India.
This is not about beating our chests. This is about talking some sense into people with blogging tools, modems and browsers. This is not your fault, it is a probably a direct result of SAJA brainwashing.
you have to pair any income inequality analysis with a look at corruption and social mobility.
True Manish – and unfortunately there is plenty of the former and too little of the latter in Indian society. India doesn’t really have a meritocracy yet…. the barriers to entry for those at the bottom of the pile are still huge.
And this discussion about Kashmir really is obtuse. What difference does it make on the ground with that map other than two make a few of you feel a bit better. Pak controlled Kashmir isn’t going anywhere soon. I’d rather the whole damn state was made independent rather than being used as a lame political football.
This is not about beating our chests. Yes it is.
What about jammu and laddakh?
What about jammu and laddakh? I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.
The other side to Bombay shining.
sure you would like your power storage and generation plans hows that coming along
sure you would like your power storage and generation plans hows that coming along Run out of intelligent sounding things to say already GGK?
sure thing pointing out lack of intelligence in things that u have been posting lately is having an effect. But sunny boy when u do cross the bridge accross zanskar or come up with better plans for power generation oh and storage do enlighten or entertain me.
About the map thingy,well,i am pretty much used to seeing the indian map with the entire Kashmir so the truncated Kashmir did appear a bit odd and out of place but then again,it’s called brainwashing isnt it?Thats what how I have been made to see things, the way the Indian state wishes it were,not as they really are.I mean 1.India hasnt held that part of Kashmir since 1948 2.Well,if the Indian polity genuinely thought it had a claim to PoK,wouldn’t it make attempts/wage wars to do capture it?Even in 1971 when we had the Pakistani army by the scruff all we ended up negotiating was an LoC deal??
I think yeah a way to avoid the argument could have been to put in a disclaimer but maybe it would also have been a way to turn away from reality.And the reality is that the LoC is the de-facto international border.Indian polity already acknowledges that and the major army presence in Kashmir is to make sure the Loc doesnt inch towards SriNagar .There has NOT been a single serious atempt by the Indian governments down the year(BJP included) tp push the LoC towards Muzaffarabad.
De facto.
Since Indian education has apparently gone downhill after I left, I’ll put it plainer: this is a critique of Indian electoral politics.
What is baffling is why Aksai Chin is shown as Indian terrotory.Almost every Asia map on the first couple of pages of Google images shows Aksai Chin as disputed territory or Chinese territory. We should always exclude POK and Aksai Chin from Indian map to dispel colonial and orientalist myths and distortions.
We should even take a cue from Pakistanis.
The Line of Control, formerly the Ceasefire Line, has been removed on the map. The entire state, both the Indian-held part and Azad Kashmir, has been shown as one, single, undivided entity, identified as ‘Jammu and Kashmir state’ with the words “disputed territory” appearing in very small letters under this appellation.[Link]
The reason for [1] is that we have been fighting for it. [2] War with bullets and tanks will not win us Kashmir. It is quite clear. Only economy, Uniform Civil Code, prosperity and jobs will solve the problem. Kashmir is more than a state, Kashmir is an ideology, Kashmir is too strategic a location to lose. Losing Kashmir would give impetus to the Osama+Musharraf logic. One fine day, Hyderabad will break away, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar already have villages where they fly the Pakistan flag openly.
Who said so? Prove it. What documentation do you have? UN Observers? Screw the UN.
Right now, “let sleeping lions lie”. There is no point now, once we become economically strong and leave Pakistan hundreds of miles behind and achieve the strength to survive strife, the time will have come for a Kashmir resolution. Let us arm ourselves and get economically strong first. The nuclear deal is a step in the right direction. In the meanwhile, who knows, Mushy’s successor may not be as passionate as him. It is indeed good that Dubya is keeping a tight leash on Mushy. Mushy is the only leech out there who has won medals for his valour in 1965 war for Kashmir and he has been stuck with the ideology ever since. You want proof? just google for the names of paki missiles.
Losing Kashmir would give impetus to the Osama+Musharraf logic. One fine day, Hyderabad will break away, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar already have villages where they fly the Pakistan flag openly.
Thats silly and alarmist.
Map policy is a bit too pedantic even for me. But having the LoC (as well as the LoAC) as the border is sensible on a South Asian blog.
And if we want to get more obscure, should Junagadh be labelled as disputed territory?
(I joke, please no outraged Junagahdian flamewar!)
Thank You, you have made your point. You may get back to blogging about other sundry topics now.
🙂 Looks like I stomped on some nerve there. Yes, the urgency demands that I listen to some random guy on a blog tell me about education and pedigree in India.
Denial
Boy oh boy! I thought this post was about billionaires in India. Turns out it has shaped itself into Kashmir discussion. I won’t deny that it feels quite odd to see Kashmir map like that. Indian map is beautiful 🙂 but this takes a part away. Butttt…why should someone start bashing the blogger if s/he used a map published by article which s/he is blogging about. Quite childish isn’t it? Besides, I don’t agree why should he put a disclaimer when the magazine didn’t. Don’t say its SM. ‘Coz it IS SM (which is not just India)
The way things are going, Praful Bidwai and Arundhati will descend and virtually burn the Indian flag here. They are probably looking for some dude to come up with a Java applet to do so. Select flag and click “OK” to burn it.
Seriously, no one in India cares, people are sick of “India Shining” stories every single day, they have heard enough. People back home are secure, confident and they have moved on. They are no longer in awe. Yes, there are 23 billionaires in India. Why is it so hard to believe that? The exclamation marks, the oohs and aahs are basically no different than the “you speak English well” comments you get abroad. The bottomline is that it is the people over here that find a need to highlight these things day in and day out so as to revel in the limelight and feel better. Such news acts as fuel to keep the Indian support system going.
This is because, the map shown above is totally ridiculous and the absence of the map would have made no difference. Not only that, the blogger made a conscious choice to FTP an incorrect map onto the SM servers and link it from there. That crosses the limit in my opinion.
SM has got absolutely nothing to do with the map. I would have said the same thing had the post been made on jerryfalwell.com. Are you suggesting that the “South Asian” junta over here has collectively decided to gift POK to Pakistan? By the way, Musharraf called, he doesn’t want SM to steal his thunder.
You really are an angry man ain’t you. That too a presumptious one. Last thing you know my name could be really that. Anyways, lets stick to the point.
First, I see ignorance again and again on your behalf. Manish used the map which is used by Forbes. He didn’t search from google and used it. Its an article in Forbes, using the map in Forbes. Plain and simple.
What makes you say map is wrong and he did it on purpose? Please don’t be ridiculous. It upsets me to see map like this but doesn’t mean I would start blaming them. Write to Forbes please about it if you must.
Vikram, I have no intention on going on a tangent. What exactly did I presume?. How did my logic suggest that you were posting with a false name? You very well could be Vikram Seth. I don’t think I disagreed anywhere.
Vikram Seth would never write like that.
I never said he googled it. Yes it is from Forbes, so what? All said and done, he still had a choice to not plug the image or post a disclaimer.
It doesn’t matter, ignorance is not an excuse on the internet. I am not being ridiculous, I might have accused him of negligence and complacency. What makes you think I have not written to Forbes?