It is almost an annual ritual that many magazines publish the list of world's richest and wealthiest. Often the net worth of these people are calculated based on their assets such as holdings in their businesses, valuation and other parameters. Has anyone wondered whether these are really the richest? Many of us have.
In my opinion, wealth is not a function of nationality, but the means to become wealthy may somewhat be. The world of uber rich is a bunch of small networks indeed. In India, as in many countries, it is easy to become rich by questionable means and legitimize the wealth with good connections. Often, there is more wealth underground in India (and many other countries) than what is visible. I mean there is a lot of black money that is unaccounted and hence many of these rich do not show up (or at least like to show up) on the world's richest listings. One of the reports in 2008 mentions that of the estimated $2.1Trillion-$2.5Trillion black money, Indians hold an estimated $1.4Trillion, beating the trailers Russians, Britons and Ukranians combined hands-down... Here is the link to the article that mentions these facts.
There are politicians that have legitimized their earnings by owning large business empires ranging from retail chains, firms that only serve government contracts to film and every business conceivable, sometimes openly and sometimes as ghost investors...
So the richest lists represent only those with visible wealth (worth in white), though some of that wealth may have been acquired by dubious means.
Probably the true richest in the world can be easily found in the most corrupt countries (read Transparency International's research)
As (probably) Mario Puzo said, "behind every big wealth, there is a big crime".
K Venkatesh
In my opinion, wealth is not a function of nationality, but the means to become wealthy may somewhat be. The world of uber rich is a bunch of small networks indeed. In India, as in many countries, it is easy to become rich by questionable means and legitimize the wealth with good connections. Often, there is more wealth underground in India (and many other countries) than what is visible. I mean there is a lot of black money that is unaccounted and hence many of these rich do not show up (or at least like to show up) on the world's richest listings. One of the reports in 2008 mentions that of the estimated $2.1Trillion-$2.5Trillion black money, Indians hold an estimated $1.4Trillion, beating the trailers Russians, Britons and Ukranians combined hands-down... Here is the link to the article that mentions these facts.
There are politicians that have legitimized their earnings by owning large business empires ranging from retail chains, firms that only serve government contracts to film and every business conceivable, sometimes openly and sometimes as ghost investors...
So the richest lists represent only those with visible wealth (worth in white), though some of that wealth may have been acquired by dubious means.
Probably the true richest in the world can be easily found in the most corrupt countries (read Transparency International's research)
As (probably) Mario Puzo said, "behind every big wealth, there is a big crime".
K Venkatesh
