the company is the largest telecom business in India
Today, in the world of business, world-renowned companies are run by some of the world’s youngest billionaires.
Take the co-founder of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg for example. He is worth an astonishing £55 billion (Rs. 50 Kharab), yet is still only 34.
Despite his age, his company has a huge impact on the world. In the second quarter of 2018, Facebook had 2.23 billion monthly users.
His impact on the wider society has made him the wealthiest billionaire under the age of 40, and by a long way.
The number of billionaires as a whole has risen over the course of 2018. The total number is 2,754 with a combined wealth of £7.1 trillion (Rs. 65 Neel).
Over 680 of the world’s billionaires come from the USA.
India also possesses a whole host of influential names from the world of business who have had impacted several international industries.
The wealthiest Indian billionaire is Mukesh Ambani who has a net worth of £31 billion (Rs. 28 Kharab).
The number of billionaires in India is always increasing and several of them are young compared to billionaires in Western countries.
We bring you seven of the youngest billionaires to come from India and how they came to be in the billionaire club.
Kumar Birla – Age: 51
Net Worth – £8.1 billion (Rs. 8 Kharab)
Kumar Birla is known as the commodities king in India, which is down to his role as chairman of the Aditya Birla Group.
He took over the company as chairman in 1995, following the death of his father Aditya Vikram Birla.
The company specialises in various sectors such as metals, chemicals and fertilisers, to name a few.
A multitude of sectors has made Aditya Birla Group one of the most well-known brands in the country so much that Birla is synonymous with wealth.
During his time as chairman, the annual turnover has massively increased from £2.6 billion (Rs. 2.4 Kharab) in 1995 to over £34 billion (Rs. 31 Kharab) in 2018.
Birla is focused on increasing that value with a series of mergers, demergers and acquisitions.
One of the main deals Kumar has led is the merger between his company Idea Cellular and Vodafone India earlier in 2018.
As a result, the company is the largest telecom business in India, rivalling Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio.
Vikas Oberoi – Age: 47
Net Worth – £1.48 billion (Rs. 1.3 Kharab)
Vikas Oberoi has amassed his fortune through real estate as he controls and operates Oberoi Realty.
The real estate developer focuses on the Mumbai market and is known for high-end suburban condos.
They also have interests in Office Space, Retail, Hospitality and Social Infrastructure properties.
Oberoi is not related to the family which runs the Oberoi hotel chain, but he is focusing on hospitality in Mumbai.
He owns a Westin hotel situated in suburban Mumbai and is opening the first Ritz-Carlton hotel in 2018.
Vikas is responsible for creating the second tallest tower in India, Three Sixty West which is still under construction.
Currently, the company has developed over 42 projects at locations across Mumbai.
Acharya Balkrishna – Age: 46
Net Worth – £5.3 billion (Rs. 4.9 Kharab)
Acharya Balkrishna amassed his wealth from Patanjali Ayurved, a consumer goods company based in India.
They specialise in food and cosmetics.
Balkrishna has a 98% stake in the company which he co-founded in 2006 with yoga guru Baba Ramdev.
Baba Ramdev acts as the brand ambassador for the company while Balkrishna handles manufacturing and sales among other things.
The company boasts an annual revenue of £1.2 billion (Rs. 1.1 Kharab) as of 2017.
In less than a decade, Balkrishna has made Patanjali Ayurved one of the frontrunners in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry.
It now rivals leading brands such as Dabur and Unilever.
The quick success of the company makes Acharya Balkrishna one of the most prominent Indian billionaires.
Ranjan Pai – Age: 45
Net Worth – £1.4 billion (Rs. 1.2 Kharab)
Dr. Ranjan Pai is a medical doctor who trained Kasturba medical college which was the start of his medical empire.
He has built up Manipal Group, which is an education and healthcare company focused on teaching the next generation of doctors.
The Manipal Group started in 1953 by his grandfather who founded India’s first privately-owned medical school in Manipal in Karnataka.
Manipal Group currently has six universities and 16 hospitals.
The six universities have campuses which are spread out with two based in India and one each in Malaysia, Antigua, Dubai and Nepal.
Pai’s six universities have a combined 100,000 students.
Dr. Pai also has interests in stem cell research and student hostels for the students of his colleges.
He is looking to expand the business into health insurance by acquiring a stake in US-based Cigna.
Sameer Gehlaut – Age: 44
Net Worth – £3 billion (Rs. 2.7 Kharab)
Sameer Gehlaut is a giant in the housing finance industry as a result of his company Indiabulls where is the chairman and founder.
They are the second largest mortgage lender in India, only behind HDFC.
Gehlaut began his entrepreneurial venture when he studied engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi.
He founded the online brokerage company in 1999 with two friends from university.
With the early investments of steel baron Lakshmi Mittal and hedge fund Farallon Capital, Gehlaut’s company found early success.
He took the company public in 2004 and transitioned into real estate where he is planning to build a luxury hotel in London.
His venture into real estate will only propel Sameer further in terms of his influence.
Shamsheer Vayalil – Age: 41
Net Worth – £1.1 billion (Rs. 1 Kharab)
Shamsheer Vayalil is an Indian doctor who founded VPS Healthcare, a network of hospitals, clinics and pharmacies in 2007.
His wealthy father-in-law backed the company during its early stages.
He began his career as a radiologist in Abu Dhabi, where he worked for a year.
Vayalil then started to provide medical aid through his first hospital which soon expanded into healthcare-related businesses in the Middle East and Indian Subcontinent.
VPS Healthcare focuses on healthcare delivery, pharmaceutical and health support across countries such as the UAE, Oman and India.
Currently, Vayalil’s company manages 22 fully operational hospitals as well as clinics and medical centres.
The company also owns the Rockland Hospital chain in Delhi as well as the Lakeshore Hospital in Kochi.
Vijay Shekhar Sharma – Age: 40
Net Worth – £1.3 billion (Rs. 1.2 Kharab)
India’s youngest billionaire Vijay Shekhar Sharma founded e-commerce business Paytm in 2011 which proved to be a success.
After India’s demonetisation, Paytm became the most widely accepted wallet payment channel at retail outlets.
People are using it regularly on a daily basis.
Paytm has approximately 250 million registered users with 7 million transactions happening every day.
Sharma’s company has a licence for a payments bank as part of a larger plan to develop the e-commerce business as a separate entity.
His parent company One97 Communications focuses on providing mobile content such as news, which was founded in 2001.
Recently Sharma became business partners with American billionaire Warren Buffett.
Buffett’s conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway acquired a stake in One97 Communications.
The fast-rising success of Paytm catapulted Sharma to becoming India’s youngest billionaire.
These entrepreneurs have come from different backgrounds and different fields of study to create some of the most influential companies in the world.
They have helped people with their needs by making their company accessible to everyone.
Despite all the success that the companies have already got, the seven businessmen are still young in their respective industries.
This gives them the opportunity to make their companies even more successful in the many years to come.
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