INDIA'S WEALTH FACTORY

The maiden Rich List by Fortune India-Waterfield Advisors reveals that despite a challenging macro and volatile equity market, the coveted club of dollar billionaires based in India is collectively worth $832 billion (₹66.36 lakh crore) — more than 1/4th of the country's GDP.

-  V.Keshavdev

IF YOUR ONLY GOAL IS to become rich, you will never achieve it.” — John Davison Rockefeller. These pearls of wisdom by American oil magnate and modern history’s first billionaire, in a sense, define the fulcrum of entrepreneurship, one on which great fortunes are built. In a similar vein, Rockefeller, who started sweating it out at the age of 16, had also remarked: “He who works all day has no time to make money.” In essence, fortune favours the brave who pursue something out of the ordinary.

Rockefeller founded Standard Oil Company in 1870 as a 31-year-old and, going by public records, it took him 46 years to attain the status of a billionaire by virtue of controlling about 90% of the US’ oil production. He was 77, when he became the world’s first billionaire in 1916. Since then, the league of extraordinaires — the elite 1% club — has only multiplied at a faster pace. The $23-trillion economy — the factory of capitalism — is home to over 700 billionaires, who command close to $5 trillion in wealth. Tesla’s 51-year-old maverick founder, Elon Musk is the world’s richest billionaire at $251 billion, after first making it to the elite club as a 41-year-old in 2012.

They are the toast of capitalists, envy of the socialists, and loathed by the Marxists. But the reality of wealth is best surmised by Mark Twain’s quote — “I am opposed to millionaires, but it would be dangerous to offer me the position.” But what makes this gilded community unique is that they are a bunch of go-getters whose dope is not money but pursuing an idea whose time has come.

Back home, the story is no different.