Distribution of Billionaires by Country

February 4, 2011 7 Comments


According to Forbes there are 1011 billionaires in the world.The following table shows the top 10 countries by the number of billionaires.China has about a quarter of the number of billionaires compared to the US and India at third place has a little more than half the number of billionaires found in China.

Rank Country Number of billionaires
1  United States 403
2  China 128
3  India 69
4  Russia 62
5  Germany 53
6  United Kingdom 29
7  Turkey 28
8  Hong Kong SAR, China 25
9  Canada 24
10  Japan 22
10  Indonesia 22

The table below ranks Asian countries on the basis of the number of billionaires.

Rank Nation/Region Number of billionaires
1  China 128
2  India 69
3  Hong Kong SAR, China 25
4  Japan 22
4  Indonesia 22
6  Taiwan 18
7  South Korea 11
8  Saudi Arabia 10
9  Israel 10
10  Malaysia 9
11  Kazakhstan 5
12  Philippines 5
13  Lebanon 4
14  Singapore 4
15  United Arab Emirates 4
16  Thailand 3
17  Kuwait 1
18  Pakistan 1

If we add the Chinese and HK numbers,China truly has beaten India hands down.The only twist in the tale is that India remains home to the region’s wealthiest individuals. Ten of Asia’s top 25 billionaires are from India.The wealthiest 100 Indians are collectively worth $276 billion, while their top 100 Chinese counterparts are worth $170 billion. (Put another way, the three wealthiest Indians have more cash than the top 24 Chinese.)

Filed under Tidbits Tagged with , , , ,

108 Names of Lord Kubera

February 4, 2011 16 Comments


SRI KUBERA ASHTHRA SATHA NAMAVALI

1. Om Kuberaya Namah                                                                                      wealthymatters.com                                                                                                                                             2. Om Dhanadaya Namah
3. Om Srimate Namah
4. Om Yakshesaya Namah
5. Om Gugyakeswaraya Namah
6. Om Nidhisiya Namah
7. Om Sankara Sakaya Namah
8. Om Mahalakshmi Nivasabhuve Namah
9. Om Maha Padma Nidhisiya Namah
10. Om Poornaya Namah
11. Om Padmanithiswaraya Namah
12. Om Sankaya Nithi Nadha Namah
13. Om Makaragya Nithi Priya Namah
14. Om Sookachhappa Nidhisaya Namah
15. Om Mukunda Nithi Nayakaya Namah
16. Om Kundakyanidhinathya Namah
17. Om Neela Nithyadipaya Namah
18. Om mahathe Namah
19. Om Varanithyadhi Paya Namah
20. Om Poojyaya Namah
21. Om Lakshmi Samrajya Dayakya Namah
22. Om Ilapilapadayaya Namah
23. Om Kosadeesaya Namah
24. Om Kulodisaya Namah
25. Om Ashvarudaya Namah Read more of this post

Filed under Tidbits Tagged with , , , , , ,

Mukesh Ambani – In His Own Words

February 4, 2011 6 Comments


wealthymatters.com Normally here are only 3 types of articles on the Ambanis: Awestruck journalists gushing about the Ambani fortune, trenchant criticism from people who seem to have the belief that all money is evil and that great wealth is singularly evil and society mags featuring the newest Ambani Toys and other tittle-tattle.Just because this article is so very different from the normal ones I have kept it so far.Thought I would share it here even though it dates from 2007. The highlighted bits are stuff I found interesting.I got a couple of good money making ideas out of reading this piece.I hope you do too.

“

But very little is publicly known of his beliefs, vision and motivation. In his most expansive interview ever to MoneyLIFE, a personal finance magazine, Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani tells
MoneyLIFE editors Sucheta Dalal and Debashis Basu, what drives him and his business decisions

A lot of details about your life are already known. But we don’t know things from your end. Your life has changed dramatically in just about three decades; will you take us through that process?

From my point of view, very little has changed (Laughs). In terms of attitude to life, little has changed. There are important lessons I have learnt during my upbringing. It is important to share these, though these are tough to practise as a parent (smiles).

We were like a joint family and I was the first child of the family of that generation. There were advantages in being the first child those days. My father navigated through life from Aden in Yemen to Bhuleshwar (a congested commercial precinct in Mumbai , to Usha Kiran (Mumbai’s earliest skyscraper) at Altamount Road to Sea Wind (an exclusive tower which is the Ambani residence).

My first memories are of the early ’60s at Altamount Road which was then an emerging area. We were a close-knit family and the four of us — Dipti, Nina, Anil and I — were left to do what we wanted. There were boundaries, of course, but within those, we were not micro-managed. Things have changed so much now. When my kids, Isha and Akash, were in the third standard, we behaved as though it was our exam.

Our own childhood was totally different. I guess when you are left on your own, you find your true potential. I remember my father never came to our school even once. Nevertheless, he was hugely interested in our all-round development for which he did some amazing things. Read more of this post

Filed under Tidbits Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Melinda Gates

February 4, 2011 3 Comments


wealthymatters.comI have never really been much of a fan of the Gateses.I have heard of their philanthrophy and it’s done on a truly gargantuan scale.The beneficiaries are in poor countries.The causes are important to countries like India.Obviously urgent problems are getting addressed.Normally this should get me interested.However I have never been able to find a connection with the Gates.I normally avoid reading or watching them in the news.It’s not so much any particular thing they say that is a turnoff as I can’t really relate to where they are coming from.

But while hunting around for the story of how Bill and Melinda met each other , today, I stumbled on an article from Fortune Magazine focussed on Melinda.It filled me in on the details of Melinda’s background and helped me get where she might be coming from.Thought I’d put it up here.

BTW I just figured that the real turn-off comes from her view of the world as a place of finite wealth which needs to be allocated in the best possible manner.I guess I believe that assets are infinite in nature.It just needs imagination and human ingenuity to literally create assets.So sand or silica has been known for just about forever, it’s just when we learnt to use it to make ever smarter computer chips that we humans started creating assets out of materials nobody considered as useful before.Not everyone is born with a silver spoon in their mouths but there is not that much variation in the mental faculties of humans.In fact necessity is the mother of creation and people who grow up facing more constraints are naturally more adept at being creative and seizing opportunity.So I believe it better to get all people to see wealth with their mind’s eye rather than battle to distribute existing wealth.Existing wealth is really puny if you think about it….The richest person in the world has not above US$60 .And there are 6 billion people in the world.So just redistributing the US$60 billion amongst all the people of the world will give each person only US$10……guess that’s not all that much.Don’t you think it’s better to learn how to be wealthy?

“

Years before Melinda French met and married Bill Gates, she had a love affair – with an Apple computer. She was growing up in Dallas in a hard-working middle-class family. Ray French, Melinda’s dad, stretched their budget to pay for all four children to go to college. An engineer, he started a family business on the side, operating rental properties. “That meant scrubbing floors and cleaning ovens and mowing the lawns,” Melinda recalls. The whole family pitched in every weekend. When Ray brought home an Apple III computer one day when she was 16, she was captivated. “We would help him run the business and keep the books,” she says. “We saw money coming in and money going out.” Read more of this post

Filed under Philanthropy Tagged with , , , ,