REQUEST TO MODERATORS
This article from the Times of India pertains to Indian Punjabis. However, I am posting it here as there have been complaints in the past about Punjabis being the dominating force in Pakistan :
If this belongs to the ‘‘World Affairs’’ Forum please shift this article accordingly - Many thanks in advance.
In Pakistan one hears about the domination of the Punjabis in Pakistan.
Well Punjabis form over 60 % of Pakistan’s population.
Please read the following about Punjabis in India – Indian Punjab’s population is about 25 Million i.e. less than 2.5% of the Indian Population.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/comp/articleshow?artid=32250851
The Punjabi beat: Money, money, money
TIMES NEWS NETWORK TUESDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2002 12:03:57 PM ]
Punjabi by nature… From Chintu di gaddi to Monty di hatti, from Nandas to Munjals, Parvinders to Oberois, Bhartis to Nirulas – the list is long. The ‘bijnis’ of making money – and, perchance, build empires – appears to be the natural calling of the collective hearts of the Punjabis.
There’s raw zeal with which the community has applied itself to the heady adventure of amassing wealth – and showing it off too. Look around Delhi, especially now that the festival season is around the corner.
You’ll find the city strewn with evidence of wealth. Flashy gold chains. Diamond studded watches. Dazzling weddings. Mercs, BMWs, Lexus, and sometimes an RR too. Among the Punjabis of Delhi, money talks, and given half a chance, it swears loudly.
It’s actually an attitude. The exuberance of the Punjabi spirit is often demonstrated in big spend. Of all the Indian cities, Delhi buys the highest number of cars, consumes the largest amount of ice-cream, washing machines, footwear, refrigerators, AC, and a lot of other consumer durables and non-durables.
Extravagant consumption has been sublimated here into joi’de vivre. You could say this is what differentiates the Punjabi from the traditional rich – say, the Marwaris, Gujaratis or Parsis – who cultivate an attitude of deliberate restraint.
But don’t mistake this exuberance for an easy come, easy go attitude. The Punjabis are a sturdy tribe. A number of them were uprooted by the Partition of 1947 and picked up the pieces of their lives here with the same unflagging energy.
They often overcame severe odds with hard toil and determination, and took to, once again, making money once again, recreating wealth and building empires.
The story of their grand revival is told from the fact that out of the BSE 100 companies, as many as 29 are from the Punjabi lay.
So, The Economic Times celebrates the indomitable spirit of the Punjabis, their infectious enthusiasm in ventures big and small, their talent in creating wealth for themselves – and society.
Who have been the leaders of the collective enterprise? We went around looking for the 10 richest Punjabi families. It wasn’t easy. Not all Punjabi companies are listed; so getting reliable figures is difficult. And even if their companies are listed, it’s difficult to get an accurate estimate of the promoters’ personal wealth.
We finally fell back on our tested methodology – the one ET has tried out to rank the top wealth creators in other communities, like the Marwaris of Kolkata and the Parsis of Mumbai.
We have taken the market capitalisation of companies that are listed and calculated the promoter family’s worth as a percentage of their stake in these companies.
In addition, we have tried to collate their wealth lying in unlisted companies and their investments in other businesses. For this, we have done a string of interviews with people in the know.
Finally, we have carried out a straw poll among the leaders of the community. At the end of it all, we seek to present an honest estimate of their wealth by factoring in all these.
And, ladies and gentlemen, the No 1 business family in Delhi are the Singhs of Ranbaxy. With a market cap of Rs 6,757 crore, the 20-something Malvinder and Shivinder, sons of the late Dr Parvinder Singh, are sitting pretty on a wealth of Rs 2,167 crore on the basis of their 32.07% holding in the company.
Informed estimates and the straw poll put their total networth at about Rs 4,000 crore — the remainder coming from their investments in other businesses, including Fortis Healthcare and Speciality Ranbaxy.
The pharma company came into being in Amritsar when Ranjit Singh and Gurbux Singh, employees of Japanese pharma company A Shionogi, fused their names to form Ranbaxy. Some years later, Bhai Mohan Singh took charge of the company.
Ranbaxy was incorporated in June 1961 as a private limited company. It has today grown to be India’s largest pharma company, largely due to the leadership role played by its late chairman Parvinder Singh. Today, Ranbaxy has more than $600m of global sales.
The other listed company of the promoters is Oscar Investments with promoters stake of over 80%. Among the unlisted companies of the promoters are SRL Ranbaxy, Fortis Healthcare and Fortis Heart Institute. The promoters have 100% stake in SRL Ranbaxy.
While the top 10 Punjabi families of Delhi are dominated by old economy businesses, one family – the Mittals – has blazed its trail in the sunrise arena of cellular telephony. Its brand, AirTel, operates in 16 circles and it has now started operations in basic telephony too.
The 44-year old Sunil Bharti Mittal began his dhanda by selling gensets for Suzuki. With Birlas tying up with Yamaha for producing gensets, and Shrirams hooking up with Honda, Sunil’s imported gensets lost their competitive edge.
Out of business, he scratched his head for the next dhanda and hit upon the import of telephone instruments.
From that to building a country-wide cellular network, Sunil Mittal has come a long way in building a telecom business with revenues upward of Rs 1,900 crore.
The Bharti group has a market capitalisation of Rs 4,402 crore, while the stake of Mittals in the group is 46.5%. This puts the family’s networth at around Rs 2,049 crore.
Over the years, the company has managed to raise foreign investment of over $1bn, considered to be the highest in India. Foreign shareholding in the Bharti group includes investments by Warburg Pincus, SingTel and New York Life Insurance.
Continued in next post