Merely staying ahead in alphabetical list, Andhra Pradesh is severely lagging behind in many issues. When ‘creation of money’ matters, we failed in making it to the list of richie-rich.
Tycoons who were selected as ten richest Indians could be blessed with runway laid by their fathers and forefathers to take their business to the zenith. But the many of those beginners were empty handed, when they started their journey. There are rich people in Andhra Pradesh too, heirs of kings, landlords etc. But what making to stop us to be on top at least within Asia.
However, being a proud son of India everyone should applaud the efforts of the following visionaries.
Lakshmi N Mittal
Steel tycoon Lakshmi Niwas Mittal is the richest Indian in the world,
with an estimated wealth of $25 billion. He resides in London, has
his company registered in the Netherlands, but still holds an Indian
passport. Although Mittal Steel was already the world's biggest steel
company, his king-sized ambitions were evident when he took over
steel giant Arcelor to create a new steel behemoth -- Arcelor-Mittal.
L N Mittal left India in the mid-1970s to start his career. He was
sent to Indonesia by his father to shut down the family's ailing
steel plant and sell the land. Instead, young Mittal saw an
opportunity and turned the plant around.
To prove that this was no fluke, Mittal acquired a 1.3 million tonne,
Iscot Steel plant in Trinidad & Tobago, which was losing $100,000 a
day. One year of Mittal-style management and it was making profits,
the LN Mittal legend was born. That move helped him get into America.
The Mexican government seeing the success that Mittal made of Iscot,
asked him to take over their ailing steel plants in 1992.
But it was not all that smooth. In 1994 Mittal had differences with
his brothers and father, and went on to form his own company. The
following year Mittal entered the European market, acquiring the 5
million tonne Kazakh steel plant, Karmet.
Meanwhile, Mittal had listed Ispat International on the New York and
Amsterdam Stock Exchanges in 1997. Eight years later Mittal Steel
became the world's largest steel maker when he took over the US's
largest steel producer -- the International Steel Group. He then
consolidated all his steel holdings into Mittal Steel.
Ratan Tata
Ratan Naval Tata, a bachelor, is the chairman of the Tata Group,
India's most respected conglomerate. He was born into a Parsi family
in Mumbai (then called Bombay) to Soonoo and Naval Hormusji Tata on
December 28, 1937.
He did a short stint with Jones and Emmons in Los Angeles,
California, before returning to India in 1962. He had earlier turned
down an IBM job offer.
He joined the family business in 1962 and worked with many of his
group's companies. He took over as group chairman from the legendary
J R D Tata in 1991.
Since then, he has been instrumental in boosting the fortunes of the
Tata Group, which has amongst the largest market capitalisations in
the Indian stock markets.
Tata Motors developed the Tata Indica in 1998. This was the
first 'entirely Indian' passenger car. Ratan Tata's dream now is to
manufacture a car costing just Rs 100,000.
Ratan Tata holds a degree in Architecture and Structural Engineering
from Cornell University. He has also done the Advanced Management
Program from Harvard Business School in 1974-1975.
Ratan Tata was honoured with one of India's highest civilian awards,
the Padma Bhushan, on January 26, 2000.
Mukesh D Ambani
Mukesh Ambani, the chairman and managing director of India's largest
private sector enterprise -- Reliance Industries Limited -- was born
on April 19, 1957.
His father, the legendary Dhirubhai Ambani, was then a small
businessman who later on rose to become one of the legends of Indian
industry.
Mukesh joined Reliance Industries in 1981 and was the brain behind
Reliance's backward integration from textiles into polyester fibres
and into petrochemicals. During the process of backward integration,
Mukesh Ambani led the creation of 51 new, world-class manufacturing
facilities involving diverse technologies that raised Reliance's
manufacturing capacities manifold.
The world's largest grassroots petroleum refinery at Jamnagar is his
brainchild. He was also the in-charge of Dhirubhai's dream project
Reliance Infocomm. But after the split in the Reliance Empire,
Reliance Infocomm went to his brother Anil.
Mukesh Ambani is now planning to enter retail sector in a big way and
will launch a chain of 'Reliance Fresh' retail stores. He also
entered into an agreement with the Haryana government to establish a
Special Economic Zone with an investment running into billions of
rupees.
He has a bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering from University of
Bombay and a master's in Business Administration from Stanford
University, USA.
Nandan Nilekani
Nandan Nilekani is the CEO and managing director of Infosys
Technologies. He, along with N R Narayana Murthy and five others, co-
founded India's IT jewel, Infosys.
Born in Bangalore to Durga and Mohan Rao Nilekani, he graduated from
the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.
After graduation, he met Narayana Murthy, who then led Patni Computer
Systems's software group, seeking a job. Murthy hired the young
engineer. That was the beginning of a relationship that was to create
Indian corporate history.
Three years later, seven enthusiasts (including Nandan) decided to
start their own outfit (Infosys Technologies Ltd) with Murthy in the
lead. Their decision rewrote the domestic software industry of India.
He became the chief executive officer of Infosys in March 2002. He
now leads the company with Narayana Murthy having retired in August
2006.
He is married to Rohini, an English-language novelist, and they have
two children: daughter Janhavi and son Nihar. He speaks Konkani at
home.
In 2006, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India.
He is regarded by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential
people in the world in its issue of May 2006.
Azim H Premji
Azim Hashim Premji, the chairman of Wipro Technologies, is one of the
richest Indians. He is an icon among Indian businessmen, especially
in the software industry.
Born on July 24, 1945, Premji was studying Electrical Engineering at
Stanford University, USA when due to the sudden demise of his father;
he was called upon to handle the family business at the age of 21.
Wipro was then Western Indian Vegetable Products, a small cooking oil
company. Premji diversified into bakery fats, ethnic ingredient based
toiletries, hair care soaps, baby toiletries, lighting products and
hydraulic cylinders. And then shifted focus from soaps to software.
He transformed Wipro into one of India's most successful IT
companies.
Under Azim Premji's stewardship, Wipro has grown from a fledgling Rs
70 million oil companies into an IT giant with a turnover of $2.4
billion and employee strength of 57,000.
Azim Premji has regularly featured in the Forbes' list of the world's
richest people. He was also rated among the world's 100 most
influential people by the Time magazine.
In 2005, the Indian government honoured him with Padma Bhushan, one
of the nation's highest civilian awards.
Anil D Ambani
The fourth richest Indian today, with a net worth of about $13.5
billion, Anil Ambani is chairman of Reliance Communications, Reliance
Capital, Reliance Energy and Reliance Natural Resources Limited.
Before the Reliance empire split, he was vice chairman and managing
director of Reliance Industries Limited. The Reliance group was
founded by his late father Dhirubhai Ambani.
Anil was born on June 4, 1959. He joined Reliance in 1983, two years
after his elder brother Mukesh, as co-chief executive officer. He is
credited with leading India's foray into overseas capital markets
with international public offerings of global depositary receipts,
convertibles and bonds. He also directed RIL's efforts to raise $2
billion from global markets.
Anil was elected as an independent Member of the Rajya Sabha with the
support of the Samajwadi Party, but resigned on March 25, 2006.
Ambani who was once ridiculed for being overweight at a shareholder's
meeting is now a fitness freak and runs the Mumbai marathon
regularly.
He has a bachelor's degree in Science from the University of Bombay
and a master's in Business Administration from The Wharton School at
the University of Pennsylvania. He is married to former Bollywood actress Tina Munim.
Sunil Mittal
Sunil B Mittal is chairman and managing director of Bharti group.
Bharti is India's largest GSM-based mobile phone service.
Son of a politician, he built his Bharti group, along with two
siblings, into India's largest mobile phone operator in just ten
years. Vodafone and SingTel both own stakes in recently renamed
flagship Bharti Airtel. The group also has partnerships with Axa for
insurance and with the Rothschild family for exporting fruits and
vegetables. He plans to go into retailing along with the world's
largest retailer Wal-Mart.
The 49-year-old has always been a pioneer. A first generation
entrepreneur, he started his first business in 1976 with a capital
investment of Rs 20,000. He decided not to be a politician and set up
a small bicycle business in Ludhiana. By 1979, Sunil Mittal realised
that his ambitions could not be fulfilled in Ludhiana, so he moved
out to Mumbai. He initially founded a number of trading concerns, and
established the first company to manufacture push button telephones
in India.
In 1982, Mittal started a full-fledged business selling portable
generators imported from Japan. He was one of the first entrepreneurs
to identify the mobile telecom business as a major growth area and
launched services in Delhi in 1995. Under his leadership the company
has gone from strength to strength.
K V Kamath Kundapur Vaman Kamath is the managing director and CEO of ICICI Bank,
the largest private bank in India.
Kamath, born on December 2, 1947, began his career with ICICI -- the
parent body of ICICI Bank -- in 1971 and has since then worked to
take ICICI places. He has helped the financial institution evolve
into a modern, tech-savvy organisation.
He joined the project finance division of ICICI in 1971 and moved on
to different departments to gather rich experience. In 1988, he
joined the Asian Development Bank, Manila in their private sector
department. He worked in most of the developing countries in the
region including China, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam.
In May 1996, he returned to ICICI as its managing director and chief
executive officer.
He is a graduate of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.
Kumar Mangalam Birla Kumar Mangalam Birla, born on June 14, 1967, is among the richest
persons in India and the eighth youngest billionaire outside India.
He is chairman of the Aditya Birla Group, one of India's largest
business groups. Some of the AV Birla group's companies are: Grasim,
Hindalco, UltraTech Cement, Aditya Birla Nuvo and Idea Cellular.
He took over as chairman of the group in 1995, at the age of 28,
after the sudden demise of his father, Aditya Birla.
When he took charge, there were doubts about his ability to handle
the giant business house, but he proved all naysayers wrong.
In the 11 years that he has led the group, he has won admiration,
recognition and praise for his management acumen and contribution to
the industry.
Under his leadership, the group has consolidated its position in
existing businesses and ventured into cellular telephony, asset
management, software and BPO.
He is a chartered accountant and also holds an MBA from the London
Business School.
Rahul Bajaj Rahul Bajaj is the chairman of the Bajaj Group, which ranks among the
top 10 business houses in India. He is one of India's most
distinguished business leaders and internationally respected for his
business acumen and entrepreneurial spirit.
He took over the reins of Bajaj group in 1965. Under his leadership,
the turnover of the Bajaj Auto the flagship company has risen from Rs
72 million to Rs 46.16 billion. The initiation of liberalisation in
India posed great challenges for Bajaj Auto. Liberalisation brought
the threat of cheap imports and FDI from top companies like Honda.
Rahul Bajaj became famous as the head of the Bombay Club, which
opposed liberalisation.
The scooter sales plummeted as people were more interested in
motorcycles and the rival Hero Honda was a pioneer in it. The
recession and stock market collapse of 2001 hit the company hard and
it was predicted that the days of Bajaj Auto were numbered.
However, Bajaj Auto re-invented itself, established a world-class
factory in Chakan, invested in R&D and came up with Bajaj Pulsar
Motorcycle. Bajaj Pulsar is currently a leader in its segment.
Recently, Rahul Bajaj was elected to Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra.
He is an alumnus of Harvard, St. Stephen's and Cathedral.
