It's that time of the year again, when the UK's Sunday Times newspaper publishes its "Britain's Richest 1000" list. Two NRIs (well, three actually) have made it into the top 10 this year: at joint 4th place, it's the steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, and at 8th place, it's the good old Hinduja brothers (Sri and Gopi).
And just in case you're wondering, Mr Mittal is worth £2.2 billion (US $3.45 billion), and the Hindujas £1.95 billion (US $3.07 billion).
Of course, there are many other NRIs on that list, and it's getting to the point where it's no big deal to have NRIs feature on these lists (there are a total of 49 Asians - from the subcontinent - on the list).
But the magazine makes another point – that the third richest person in the world is now the Indian Azim Premji, founder of Wipro (he's worth £35 billion, US $55.16 billion). The importance of this being, that the "world is beginning to wake up to the skilled reservoir of human capital in India".
A Financial Times news report last week said that over 50% of India's software engineers are women. Given Mr Premji's success thus far, it's only a matter of time before an Indian woman cracks the world top 10 list!
And in case you are really curious, the number one position on the UK list goes to Hans Rausing, a Swedish industrialist based in Britain. He's worth £4 billion (US $6.30 billion), and made his fortune in packaging. Of course, this is peanuts compared to the wealth of one Mr Bill Gates, who's way ahead at £53 billion (US $83.53 billion).
- nriol.com report
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