Forbes India has released their list of 100 richest Indians and the Top 10 played out as expected with the Ambani’s, Ruia’s and Mittal’s on the list. More interesting were some notable people missing from the list such as Ratan Tata, Pallonji Mistry and Raghav Bahl – who are these people you ask?
Ratan Tata is the head of the Tata Group and for someone who has the authority to buy companies such as Corus Steel, Jaguar and Land Rover, I’m surprised he’s not on the list. Not to mention he is building a bungalow on Altamount Road – blocks away from Mukesh Ambani and Kumar Mangalam Birla.
Pallonji Mistry is the head of the Shapoorji Pallonji Group which owns over 18% of the Tata Group and therefore it’s single largest shareholder.
Raghav Bahl who runs Network18 a massive media conglomerate which includes many TV outlets and magazines such as Forbes India.
Part of the omission for the above 3 is that they may not be Indian citizens and hence excluded. Pallonji Mistry is an Irish citizen.
But, the big 800 pound gorilla in the room is the fact the list does not have a SINGLE politician from the Indian government on the list. Of course, we all know the money was gained illicitly but THAT would be the list everyone would talk about.
Getting back to the title of this post, Indrajit Gupta, Editor of Forbes India, summed it up best
Should we be celebrating the individual wealth of a 100 Indians in a country where more then 75% of the people earn less than Rs. 20 (50 cents) a day?
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