Wealth On A Roll

Money no doubt rules the world, but ever wondered who rules money! What happens to the pile that you have stashed away? Does it grow on its own, or does it rust and fret in a vault, only to be frittered away? Gold put to use, more gold begets; and it is this line of reasoning that drives wealth management experts, among whom Anirudha Taparia, the executive director of IIFL Wealth Management Ltd, is an outstanding example.

- Joseph Rozario

HAVING GROOMED HIMSELF RIGHT from his college days to be man of finance and then having spent all 16 years of working life honing his skills, Anirudha Taparia had to find his career graph rising steadily, and it has. As the executive director of IIFL Wealth Management Ltd today, he is responsible for bringing growth across the company’s various business verticals and geographies, his efforts having contributed remarkably to making the firm the largest in the Indian wealth management arena.

Finance in the blood 

But why did he train himself to be a finance expert? In response, Taparia says, “It was a natural calling. For Marwaris, finance is not taught; it is ingrained in our blood.” His claims may well be true, given Marwaris’ legendary number crunching abilities and, of course, their time-honoured practice of mastering finance as an indispensable step to running an enterprise successfully. And Taparia is as true blue a Marwari as they come!

“I grew up in a Marwari business family hailing from Jaswantgarh in Rajasthan,” says Anirudha Taparia, acquainting us with his background. “Our family had various businesses in diverse industries, including cement, fertilisers, chemicals, construction and trading.” As these businesses were based in Kota, which didn’t have good schools, rather than have him follow tradition and join the family business, Taparia’s elders sent him to Ajmer instead, where he schooled. After that he moved to Delhi for his graduation and then to Symbiosis Centre for Management & HRD in Pune for an MBA in finance.

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