India's reluctant billionaire

[praka123]

article as of February 2007-posted it as it is a interesting read esp with a IT billionaire Wipro chairman Azim Premji wears his crown as India's richest man lightly.
He still drives a Toyota Corolla, flies economy class, and lives on campus at Wipro's headquarters in Bangalore.
But Mr Premji is one of India's most important hi-tech entrepreneurs.
He built his father's vegetable oil company into a $25bn global outsourcing giant which is challenging the likes of IBM and Accenture, and transforming the way many multinationals do business.

In an exclusive interview, Mr Premji said that with wealth came responsibilities - to his employees, to his clients, and above all to society.



"At the end of the day there is only x-amount you can consume, frankly, so that itself becomes a limitation," he told the BBC.
"I think that any wealth creates a sense of trusteeship ... it is characteristic of the new generation which has created wealth to have some amount of responsibility for it."

Admired, not envied
Mr Premji believes that his success in business, rather than causing envy, has inspired a new generation in India to become more entrepreneurial.



"With the attention I got on my wealth, I thought I would have become a source of resentment, but it is just the other way around - it just generates that much more ambition in many people," he says.
Many admire men like Mr Premji, or Nandan Nilekani, the boss of Infosys, who has become a millionaire from his share options.
Indians are proud that they are at last joining the ranks of the world's billionaires, with the number of Indians on the Forbes Rich List doubling from 13 to 27 last year.
Many of the new billionaires are also self-made men, like the head of Jet Airways, Naresh Goyal.
Many of India's biggest companies are still family firms, such as Wipro, Tata and Reliance.
And some, like steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, have become global players and no longer live in India (Mr Premji is the richest Indian businessman who lives in India; Mr Mittal, who doesn't, is wealthier).
Building India's IT industry
Mr Premji played a key role in building up one of India's most successful industries.
India is the most important global location for outsourcing of business services, and Bangalore is the heart of the IT industry.

Mr Premji believes India had two advantages in IT outsourcing: a skilled workforce that was literate in maths; and widespread literacy in English, the global business language.

Read full article:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6312195.stm

[Gigacore]

man.. how can he become india's richest when ambani is world's richest (which makes him india's richest too with his $70 Billion) ?

[praka123]

I think the news is as of feb 2007.i thought of posting it not reg most wealthiest Indian.it is Mukesh ambani.afair Mukesh ambani is not into IT?does he?

[Gigacore]

Oh ok... Mukesh ambani is not into ITs but money is MONEY!

[NucleusKore]

Originally Posted by praka123

And some, like steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, have become global players and no longer live in India (Mr Premji is the richest Indian businessman who lives in India; Mr Mittal, who doesn't, is wealthier).

That's the price he's paid, high taxes, but as long as he's happy, that's what's important

[Cyrus_the_virus]

Originally Posted by Gigacore

man.. how can he become india's richest when ambani is world's richest (which makes him india's richest too with his $70 Billion) ?

Mukesh Ambani is not the richest. That was a fake news created by a miscalculation where they doubled his assests.. it has already been discussed on other threads. So, forget that Mukesh Ambani is the richest in the world. It is not true.

[Gigacore]

^ Errrr. hmm... thanks for that correction

[ArZuNeOs]

Azim Premji....it was so good to know about U

Thanks a lot praka123