Letter From The Editor: The Real Power of Wealth

Welcome to the fourth instalment of the Forbes 100 Richest Indians. This latest annual edition comes at an extraordinary moment in India’s history. We need a new burst of entrepreneurial energy and fresh doses of creativity and innovation to lift our economy out of its self-induced stupor. After all, no society around the world has been able to progress without its entrepreneurs taking the lead to create new markets and new jobs. Or else, we could simply lose our way.

As always, this power-packed edition provides a clear picture of the entrepreneurs who dominate wealth in this country. Apart from the usual—the biggest gainers and losers, the newcomers, the dropouts— there are many new dimensions that we’ve added to give you a comprehensive 360-degree view of wealth. Much of the credit must go to my colleague and Senior Assistant Editor Prince Mathews Thomas, who led this project over several months with enormous discipline.


Here’s a quick sampler of what you can expect to find inside:

• Take a deep dive into Sunil Bharti Mittal’s telecom empire as he deals with serious headwinds
• Come face-to-face with the two friends behind Emami who run an incredible ‘joint family’ back in Kolkata
• Meet Satyan Gajwani, the son-in-law of media mogul Samir Jain, as he pursues his mission to overhaul Bennett Coleman’s digital strategy
• Figure out why Nisaba, Adi Godrej’s younger daughter, is the one to watch inside the Godrej group
• Listen to Harsh Mariwala and Kishore Biyani discuss how they’re trying to help entrepreneurs scale
• Travel with us deep inside Rajasthan’s Shekhawati region, home to India’s Marwari community, which accounts for nearly a fourth of our wealth list
• Catch a glimpse of the billionaires who own some of the most valuable pieces of art inside their homes

There’s of course plenty more. But let me get to another critical issue. There are still some who frown upon the idea of publishing the rankings of the richest people in India. For them, I have a simple answer. Wealth is just one side of the coin. On November 21, Hotel Leela Palace, Bangalore will play host to the inaugural Forbes India Philanthropy Awards, where the country’s biggest entrepreneurs will converge to talk about how they can solve India’s most complex problems. This promises to be a very special evening. So make sure you catch the live webcast on http://forbesindia.com.

Happy reading!

Best,
Indrajit Gupta
Editor, Forbes India
Email: indrajit.gupta@network18online.com
Twitter id: @indrajitgupta