gamercube

India Dominates Billionaires’

The Wealth Report - WSJ.com : India Dominates Billionaires' List

The most surprising news in Forbes’s latest Global Billionaire list isn’t that Bill Gates has been toppled as the world’s richest man. We knew that was going to happen months ago.

Lakshmi Mittal

No, the biggest surprise is the rise of the Indian rich — four of the top eight billionaires in the world are from India. Topping the ranks is steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, whose worth Forbes puts at $45 billion. Next up are the Ambani brothers, Mukesh and Anil, with $43 billion and $42 billion repsectively, largely from petrochemicals. Rounding out the list is KP Singh, the real-estate magnate, at $30 billion.

This is an encouraging sign for the Indian economy. It shows that a country long known for brutal poverty can now compete with the U.S. and others in creating personal wealth. The Merrill Lynch/Cap Gemini report says that India’s population of millionaires grew 20% last year, to about 100,000. That rate of growth was more than twice the growth of millionaires in the U.S.

This proves a point I’ve made before about the future of global wealth — that a greater and greater share of the world’s millionaires and billionaires will come from India, China, Brazil, and Russia. That’s not to say the U.S. won’t keep producing rich people of its own. Rather, it’s that the most rapid growth, and the billionaire “market share,” will move to emerging markets.

Clearly, Indian wealth has a different flavor than American wealth. All four of the Indian billionaires inherited substantial fortunes, suggesting that in India, wealth is still determined more by your parents than by your career or your ideas. While that’s changing, the number of large fortunes made by purely self-made entrepreneurs still lags far behind the U.S. And many of the biggest fortunes in India come from old-fashioned industries such as oil, steel and real estate.

Yet over time, I wouldn’t be surprised if an Indian — or a Russian or a Mexican — takes over Warren Buffett’s spot atop the list.

__________________
Hasta la Victoria siempre!

kuku

Must be very nice being that rich, oh well someones got to look after the camels i guess.

gamercube

Asia's booming billionaires

AFP: Asia's booming billionaires

4 hours ago

NEW YORK (AFP) — The number of billionaires in Asia jumped more than 30 percent last year, with tycoons from India and China leading the charge, according to Forbes magazine's annual billionaires list.

In total, this year saw 1,125 people around the world making the list, up from 946 last year, representing a total net worth of 4.4 trillion dollars and a dramatic increase from 3.5 trillion dollars in 2007.

Asians accounted for 211 people on the list, up from 160 last year, with India counting 53, up from 36 in 2007, and China, which had just 20 billionaires last year, now boasting 42.

Hong Kong saw five more entrepreneurs make the grade, giving it a total of 26 and meaning that China and Hong Kong, which has a special administrative status under Beijing, lead the Asian list if grouped together.

Japan, which last year lost Asia's leading spot after 20 years at the top, by contrast counted only 24 tycoons on the list, unchanged from last year and down from 27 in 2006.

"We see some trends that show that (China's) maybe several years or a decade behind the United States. We have a handful of Internet folks for the first time," said Forbes' Senior Editor Luisa Kroll, unveiling the findings.

"A lot of the fortunes in China and Asia in general are in real estate and infrastructure development as the booming economies basically build up to handle all of the growth," she said.

India placed third in the world for the number of billionaires, trailing the United States, which easily led the rankings with 469 billionaires up from 415 last year, and Russia with 87.

Four Indians figured in the top 10, with steel giant Lakshmi Mittal placed fourth with 45 billion dollars, followed by petrochemicals tycoon Mukesh Ambani with 43 billion dollars and his estranged brother Anil Ambani on 42 billion.

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

Hong Kong businessman Li Ka-shing was the top-placed billionaire from eastern Asia, with a fortune of 26.5 billion dollars, while China's Yang Huiyan was the top placed figure in China.

Twenty-six-year-old Yang inherited her 7.4-billion-dollar wealth when her father transferred his shares in the Country Garden Holdings property company he founded into his daughter's name.

Gautam Adani, an Indian college dropout who made his money building Mundra Port, a private sector port on India's west coast, was the richest newcomer in Asia with a personal fortune of 9.3 billion dollars.

Elsewhere, Australia counted the most billionaires in the Asia-Pacific region with 14, followed by South Korea with 12 and Malaysia with eight.

Taiwan had seven, Indonesia and Singapore both counted five, while Thailand had three and the Philippines two.

Mobbme

Heh, also dominates the poorest peoples' list.

Adux

Out through the fields and the woods
And over the walls I have wended;
I have climbed the hills of view
And looked at the world, and descended;


Gotta go and clean my ******* cart, there is a party at my office today

Bella

Quick question............
Where does Mexico rank on this list? I've heard that Mexico's' telecommunications giant, "WHATS HIS NAME", sometimes, or all the time, rivals Bill Gates as the, "WORLDS RICHEST PERSON."
I've also heard that many billionaires live in Mexico......

Thanks!!

Tronic

Mexico does not make the top ten. Though I think the person you are thinking of is Carlos Slim.

And I believe, the person who is the world's richest is not Bill Gates nor Carlos Slim; I think the title went to India's Mukesh Ambani; due to the Rupee's rise against the dollar was it? Don't know the current scene; but I think Warren Buffet leads the lot now.

__________________
Nabha Sparasham Deeptam
-Touch The Sky With Glory

HKDan

Bella,

Take a look on Business News and Financial News at Forbes.com they have a bunch of intersting info and some of their other lists are pretty interesting stuff as well. Congratulations to India for this achievement, Im sure that a lot of the posters here take some pride in this. On a side note I think its interesting that in the midst of all the news about rapidly expanding Asian wealth, few people noticed that even in difficult(by its standards) economic times it was America that created far more new billionaires than any other country.

On another note, since asian economic growth is a topic that I am especially interested in, I was wondering if any of you have any opinions or ideas on how China and India will address growing wealth disparity. Right now pretty much everyone who lives in China is really starting to notice the high rate of inflation. Its hitting all of us where it hurts, but it must be really hurting the 7 or 8 hundred odd million Chinese who have not really been able to benefit much from the very impressive growth going on here. I am die hard capitalist, but really think that the biggest key to long term growth in both China and India is going to be making sure that as many people are included as possible.

gamercube

India's current government's slogan is that of "inclusive growth". The last government under the right-wing BJP was the one who initiated India's economic boom, but they were thrown out of office because they also created vast disparities among the people. Congress came to power after that, and they started a gamut of schemes to make sure that the economic growth reached the poorest Indians in the villages. They started a employment scheme whereby every person earning below a certain threshold was guaranteed 100 days of employment a year by the government. In this years' budget, the Finance Minister announced the biggest giveaway in Indian history-he waived loans amounting to $15 billion that 30 million small farmers owed to government banks.

Of course, these policies need to be continued by the next government because without inclusive growth, the disparity between the rich and poor would further increase and could create fissures in society.

gamercube

According to this list:

List of countries by income equality - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

India has the least income inequality among the BRIC countries, and even lesser than the United States.

Adux

Farm Waiver the biggest blunder ever, We should have given them more money along with previous, giving them more time and lowest possible interest. Along with investment into Farming sector, and opening it for large players.

If this is kept as precedent, Heck even the Chinese doesnt do it. We will make slobs out of our people.

gamercube

I rather trust our Harvard educated finance minister to take care of the Indian economy than some bloke on the internet.

Bella

Thanks guys for your input!!!

I've heard that Carlos Slim has only become the world's second richest person in the world due to a monopoly in Mexico's telecommunications market!! Please correct me if I'm wrong! I also have to state that, when Bill Gate was running Microsoft, a lot of people believe he was running a monopoly also!!
As goes for countries with billionaires.........It doesn't mean anything!
What I believe that matters is the percentage of people living in poverty.
Your country could have the richest person on Earth, but if 75% of your country is at, or below poverty level............It means nothing!
It just shows the difference between the rich and the poor in your country.
For the U.S............The U.S. has more billionaires, and millionaires than most countries! However, the gap between the rich and the poor, is increasing.......
This is a "Wake Up!" call for the U.S.

Tronic

Bella, good post; and its true. Though, I believe that for developing countries, especially one like India which has just stepped out of a socialist economy; growing number of Billionaires in the country indicate the growing opportunities in the country. Most Indians used to flock to the US, which in India was described as a massive "brain drain", to find opportunities; but the changing scene in India has resulted in a "brain gain" with a lot of high skilled migrants coming back to India; some even cropping up their own companies. Also, a great example of growing opportunities would be of Infosys. Founded by 6 software engineers; the company has today grown to be one of India's largest multi-billion dollar software companies. So, this growth in billionaires is not necessarily a bad thing.

HKDan

This is clearly crap. I dont care how they came up with that ranking, but any country that has 4 of the 10 richest on the planet and the same share of the worlds desperately poor as India clearly has a problem with income inequality. Audx, would you care to elaborate a bit more on why you dislike Farm Waiver? I will to admit knowing nothing whatsoever about it, but I can't imagine how debt relief for rural poor can be a bad thing.