Monday 10 March 2008

FORBES LIST - INDIA'S PRIDE?

Four of the top ten in Forbe’s list of the richest men are from India. Wow! Are we impressed?

Sadly, I am not.

One is a person who has settled and made his fortune abroad. The other two are in India, brothers from the same family, expanding a fortune founded by their father. And the last one is a real estate person. Well done to them.

But this is not representative of the real India. I admire the entrepreneurial spirit of the richest Indians, and do not envy them their wealth. But it is a misrepresentation of our country. The message that is going to the world surely will be a distorted one – of wealth abounding.

A quick look at last year’s suicides in Andhra Pradesh by devastated and debt-laden farmers alone is enough to show that India is not there yet. A government which has written off Rs. 60 thousand crores' worth of farmers debts, could have, with a little foresight, prevented this.

I am not qualified to find a solution, and I would love to see India there as one of the richest countries in the world, side by side, just like Warren Buffet with Anil Ambani. But I fear we have a long way to go. Many people in the rural areas still do not get a square meal everyday.

Till this anomaly is resolved, we need not feel proud of Indians’ presence in that list.

4 comments:

Ramesh Cheruvallil said...

hi
Nice thoughts Maa'm thease are the pearls (which takes years for it's birth)

please read and comment me at http://confession-of-a-lover.blogspot.com/

thanks

Unknown said...

it is really true Raji, we cant br proud of our prisperity till everybody gets the basic needs like roti, kapada or makan.

Karthik Narayan said...

whats the big deal - indians or no indians... rich men are of no use to anyone unless they are philanthropic like Gatesey or Buffetey :) - instead of spending millions on yachts, designer aircrafts on themselves, why dont our so called Indians do that huh?

RAJI MUTHUKRISHNAN said...

Ramesh, thank you.
Sivakami, nicely expressed.
Karthik, these are the sentiments expressed by my mother too - that the rich should be philanthropic as well.