Forbes India's 100 Richest 2024: Indianstyle capitalism is on a roll

As Forbes India puts out the 2024 list of India’s 100 Richest, it’s perhaps worth wading into why the increasing abundance of entrepreneurs in this country is a good thing and why we need more of them to get rich and richer; why billionaires in a freer market—freer than it was three decades ago, although we still lug on fragments of socialist baggage—are a good thing; and how do we go about creating more entrepreneurs, a fraction of whom will go on to become billionaires?

Let’s begin with the need for entrepreneurship—and the value of those who succeed at it: Entrepreneurs create jobs and wealth, which fuel economic growth. Many of them are also innovators who improve people’s lives with their ideas.

India’s billionaires may seem an anachronism in a country in which almost 129 million (just under 10 percent of the population) live in extreme poverty, according to a recent World Bank report. The flip side, though, is the country is better off than it was pre-economic reforms—in 1990, Indians in extreme poverty stood at 431 million. The takeway? India is a freer economy than it was 30 years ago, although more and faster economic reform can help reduce inequality levels, even as governments nurture a culture of entrepreneurship. After all, if philanthropy is doing good—which is much needed—it’s the innovators who transcend from good to great.

That leads us to the next question: How does an economy create a culture that fosters more founders? Access to seed and venture funding has improved considerably, and governments too are facilitators of tax benefits and grants. But it’s in terms of education and skilling that the government can pull its weight in promoting entrepreneurship. 

To be sure, the building blocks are in place: Like the National Skill Development Entrepreneurship Policy 2015; and the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship’s autonomous institutes that are attempting to create entrepreneurial mindsets and capabilities among people from less-privileged backgrounds. Also, scaled-up skilling initiatives will help create, as Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy recently put it, “low-tech jobs in rural areas with good disposable income”.