As a more affluent India blossoms, the rich are getting younger. This year, five men under the age of 40 made our list of India's 40 richest citizens, and four of them are billionaires.
They made and grew their fortunes in diverse sectors that reflect the multifaceted Indian economy. Their talents are spread among online gaming, pharmaceuticals, commodities, finance, software and telecommunications. In aggregate, they are worth some $10.9 billion.
By the numbers: India's richest under 40
In picture: India's 40 richest
Most benefited from India's hot stock market, which rose 39 per cent this year, as well as from a robust real estate market. But these men aren't sitting around watching their assets appreciate. While some inherited a portion of their wealth, all are actively involved in managing and growing their empires.
There the similarities end. One of the five youngest is a newcomer to India's 40 Richest and a self-made millionaire. Jignesh Shah, 39, worth some $840 million, founded his Financial Technologies Group software company in 1995. Today, the company has a market capitalisation of $2 billion. Shah also set up and heads the Multi Commodity Exchange, India's largest commodity exchange.
Anurag Dikshit, 34, saw his shares in PartyGaming tank this year, but he still managed to maintain a net worth of $1.5 billion. The online gaming company he co-founded ran afoul of the US Congress, which passed a law forbidding companies to facilitate payments to gambling sites. Dikshit, though, was able to sell $275 million worth of shares before the crackdown.
At age 31, Shivinder Singh is the youngest on the list. He and older brother Malvinder are the biggest shareholders in Ranbaxy Laboratories, India's largest pharmaceutical firm in terms of sales. Together, they share a fortune of $1.8 billion.
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Malvinder, 34, is now chief executive of Ranbaxy, which recently paid $324 million for Romanian generics-maker Terapia as part of an ongoing acquisition binge. Shivinder heads Fortis Healthcare, a chain of hospitals, which he is readying to take public. The brothers have said they will soon expand their empire into a pharmaceutical retail chain and medical education.
Kumar Birla is not only one of the five youngest, he's also the seventh-richest Indian overall, worth $6.8 billion. The 39-year-old became chairman of commodities conglomerate Aditya Birla Group, the country's largest aluminum and copper producer, at the age of 28 after his father passed away.
Amid a peer group that generates no shortage of headlines, Birla may have been the biggest newsmaker this year. After a spat with Tata Steel, in which Aditya Birla holds a major stake, he resigned from Tata's board. He subsequently paid nearly $1 billion to buy Tata's stake in Idea, the mobile phone venture that the two companies had launched together.
Like his cohorts, Birla seems to have an appetite for diversification and shows no signs of slowing down. Barely out of their youth and with fortunes to play with, these dynamic players promise to dominate Indian business for decades to come.
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