Explained: The rise of India's new billionaires and the fall of the old

A new breed of self-made entrepreneurs is vaulting into the ranks of the wealthy, offsetting billions lost by debt-burdened industrialists and members of the country's old dynasties.

India is going through one of the greatest periods of wealth creation -- and destruction -- all at the same time.

A new breed of self-made entrepreneurs is vaulting into the ranks of the wealthy, offsetting billions lost by debt-burdened industrialists and members of the country’s old dynasties. The changes are set to help India’s ultra-rich population grow at the world’s fastest pace.

It’s a shift shaped partly by a debt-fueled expansion that left businesses from power generation to airlines with $190 billion in soured loans.

Over the past few years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has cracked down on delinquent borrowers, and India’s banks moved to seize their assets, a dramatic change for a country where the wealthy once enjoyed almost complete protection.

While old business clans continue to dominate India’s rich lists, a tenfold expansion in its economy since its opening in the 1990s has spawned new tycoons in fields like technology.

The number of billionaires in India more than doubled to 119 between 2013 and 2018, according to Knight Frank. And the country will lead the global growth in ultrahigh net worth individuals, with its numbers rising 39 percent to 2,697 by 2023, the researcher estimates.

"The business environment has improved over the years," said Charles Dhanaraj, a professor at the Fox School of Business at Temple University in Philadelphia.

"The availability of venture capital and private equity has changed the opportunity space for promising businesses. So we should see more of these startups and scaleups in the coming years."

Business Standard

Why are banks not accepting my offer, Vijay Mallya asks Modi on Twitter

Vijay Mallya said on Twitter that his request could not be dismissed as 'frivolous' and that the shoe was 'on the other foot now'.

Article Source BS : Fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya on Wednesday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a series of tweets to instruct banks to accept the money he had offered to settle all dues. His comments came after the PM, while replying to the motion of thanks on the President's address in the Lok Sabha last week, said that those who had fled the country were crying foul on Twitter.

"The Prime Minister's last speech in Parliament was brought to my attention. He certainly is a very eloquent speaker. I noticed that he referred to an unnamed person who “ran away” with 9000 crores. Given the media narrative, I can only infer that reference is to me," Mallya tweeted.

He reiterated that he had offered to repay the full amount but his payback request was refused.

He urged Modi to instruct banks to accept his offer so that he could at least claim credit for funds lent to Kingfisher.

In a series of tweets, Mallya further said that his request could not be dismissed as "frivolous" and that the shoe was "on the other foot now".

In his fourth and last tweet on this issue, Mallya said he was "appalled" to read Enforcement Directorate's claims that he hid his wealth. He asked, "If there was hidden wealth how could I put approximately 14,000 crores worth of assets openly in front of the court?"

Earlier this month, an investigation carried by ED revealed that Mallya had no intention of paying back loans of over Rs 5,500 crore to a consortium of banks even though creditors agreed to restructure debt for Kingfisher Airlines. Read full report here

Mallya had left India on March 2, 2016. A court in London on December 10, 2018, ordered his extradition.

Facing cases registered by the ED as well as the Central Bureau of Investigation, he is wanted for alleged fraud and money laundering amounting to an estimated Rs 9,000 crore.

Not afraid of publicly standing beside industrialists, entrepreneurs: Modi

Mahatma Gandhi never hesitated standing beside Birlaji because his intentions were right, said PM Modi.

Hitting back for the first time at critics who questioned his perceived friendly relations with corporates, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said that unlike "some people" he was "not afraid of" publicly standing beside industrialists and business magnates because his intentions were "noble".

He said industrialists too contribute to nation building and it was not right to label them all as thieves but those who do wrong "will have to leave the country" or live in jail.

"We are not the people who will be afraid of standing beside industrialists. You would be knowing some people (who are such) that you would not find a single photo of them with an industrialist/businessman. But there is not a single businessman in this country who would not have gone to these people's places and bowed to them in reverence," Modi told a government-industry interface here as he inaugurated several development projects for Uttar Pradesh.

"If your intentions are noble, you won't be tainted no matter with whom you are standing," Modi said, adding that Mahatma Gandhi never had any qualms about living in the Birla household.

The opposition has been targeting Modi over his picture at Davos economic forum in January this year with fugitive diamondtaire Nirav Modi who is at the centre of multi-thousand crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam besides the Prime Minister's perceived closeness with another fugitive, Mehul Choksi, whom he once publicly addressed as "Mehul bhai".

The opposition has also been critical of Modi government's inaction while persons like Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi, Choksi, Jatin Mehta and Lalit Modi easily flew out of the country after being accused of committing huge financial frauds.

The Congress party has of late also targeting Modi for allegedly giving the offset contract in the Rafale jet deal with France to "one of his corporate friends" at the expense of state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd.

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