Tidbits | wealthymatters

Dhirubhai Ambani

February 5, 2011 5 Comments

There is no official biography of Dhirubhai Ambani.In its absence a book like ‘ The Polyester Prince ” has to suffice.That Hamish McDonald was not close to Dhirubhai Ambani is a fact.That is why I kept this article – for the contrast.Here Mukesh Ambani speaks about his father to Pritish Nandy.Enjoy this read!

What were your father’s childhood years like? Does he ever speak to you about them?

Very frequently, in fact. Stories about his childhood have always inspired us, taught us how to cope with life’s vicissitudes.

Papa was always very responsible and enterprising. When he was in school, he went to the foot of Mount Girnar — the famous mountain in Saurashtra, where he grew up in a small town called Chorwad in Junagadh — and opened his own shop. To sell bhajias to pilgrims over the weekend. This is how he earned his own money though his needs were few. Until he left for Aden, he wore only half pants!

Why did he go to Aden? Yemen is not exactly an El Dorado.

He was fond of adventure. I guess Aden provided him an opportunity to experience it. To escape his own background, to see the world. He actually went with a recommendation for a job, like people go to Dubai these days. He had just completed school. SSC at that time. Even that on his second attempt! It was like MABF. Matric Appeared But Failed.

Luckily for him, he had admirers at that young age. One of them liked his spirit of enterprise so much that he sent him off to Aden for a job with an Indian trading company. A pedhi. A pedhi was like a proprietary firm. He started there and then moved on to a job with Shell.

What kind of job?

It began at the petrol pump. Then he went on to logistics. Loading all the ships and airplanes, making sure that the entire fuel logistics for Shell worked in perfect synchronicity. Read more of this post

Filed under Tidbits Tagged with Dhirubhai Ambani, Mukesh Ambani, Oil and Gas, Petrochemicals, Plastics, Polyester, Pritish Nandy, Refinery, Reliance, Telcom

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 Asian Billionaires, Asian Billionaires by Country, Asian Countries Ranked on the basis of the number of Billionaires, Billionaires, Distribution of Billionaires by Country

108 Names of Lord Kubera

February 4, 2011 16 Comments

SRI KUBERA ASHTHRA SATHA NAMAVALI

1. Om Kuberaya Namah 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 Hinduism, Kuber, Kubera, Kuver, Kuvera, Lord Kuber, Lord Kubera

Mukesh Ambani – In His Own Words

February 4, 2011 6 Comments

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 Agribusiness, Ambani, Anand Jain, Bill Sharpe, DuPont, Education, Fresh Produce, Kiran Manelkar, KK Malhotra, Life Sciences, Mahendrabhai Vyas, Manoj Modi, MM Sharma, Mukesh Ambani, Patalganga, Polesyster, Rasikbhai Meswani, Reliance, Retailing, SEZ, Stanford, Telcom, World Bank's Young Professional's Programme

Office Romance : How Bill Met Melinda

February 3, 2011 2 Comments

Since some visitors to my blog have been searching for details of how Bill and Melinda Gates got together,I thought I’d put up this article from the Guardian newspaper of the UK.

Office romance: how Bill met Melinda

Friday, 27 June 2008

In summer 1986, freshly graduated from Duke University with a degree in computer science and economics, Melinda Ann French was working as an intern for IBM. She told a recruiter she had one more interview – with a new company called Microsoft. The recruiter was keen. “If you get a job offer from them,” she said, “take it, because the chance for advancement there is terrific.”

Indeed. Six-and-a-half years later, Melinda Ann had advanced through the company, from software marketing tyro to general manager of information products such as Expedia and Encarta; more significantly, she had advanced to a senior role in the heart of the chief executive, Bill Gates, soon to become the world’s richest man. Today, she is one half of the world’s top charity foundation, with personal jurisdiction over the spending of $80bn (£40bn). Clever, raven-haired, strong-featured and tough as nails, she brings equal amounts of compassion, common sense and business nous to the small matter of alleviating world sickness and poverty.

Born in 1964, she grew up in Dallas, Texas, the daughter of Ray French, an engineer and house-rentals agent. At school, Melinda was earnest, driven and goal-orientated. Her introduction to the cyber-world came at 14, when her father brought home an Apple II, one of the first consumer computers available. She was soon playing computer games, and learning the Basic programming language.

It has always amused Bill Gates that his wife is better educated than him – he is America’s most famous college drop-out. They met in 1987, four months into her job at Microsoft, when they sat next to each other at an Expo trade-fair dinner in New York. “He was funnier than I expected him to be,” she reported, neutrally. Months went by before, meeting her in the Microsoft car park, he asked her out – in two weeks’ time. She said, “ask me nearer the time.” He had to explain to her the ceaseless daily flood of meetings. Read more of this post