55 of them are Indians. A billion dollars is Rs. 4,480 crore.
A Baniya is a member of the Vaish caste, originating mainly from Rajasthan and Gujarat .
India's richest man is a Baniya (Lakshmi Mittal, world's sixth richest with $31.1 billion).
India's second richest man is a Baniya (Mukesh Ambani, $27 billion).
India's third richest man is a Khoja (Azim Premji, $16.8 billion).
India's fourth richest men are Baniyas (Shashi and Ravi Ruia, $15.8 billion).
India's fifth richest person is a Baniya (Savitri Jindal, $13.2 billion).
India's sixth richest man is a Baniya (Gautam Adani, $10 billion).
India's seventh richest man is a Baniya (Kumar Mangalam Birla, $9.2 billion).
India's eighth richest man is a Baniya (Anil Ambani, $8.8 billion).
India's ninth richest man is a Baniya (Sunil Mittal, $8.3 billion).
Score: Baniyas 8, Rest of India 2. If we consider the Gujaratis Godrej and Premji (from the Lohana caste) as coming from mercantile communities then actually Rest of India wasn't playing this match so far.
India 's 11th richest man is K.P. Singh of DLF ($7.3 billion). He is the first departure from our trend of mercantile castes. Singh is a peasant, the most populous caste grouping of India, about 50% of our population.
Between 21 and 30, there are five Baniyas. They are Indu Jain of The Times of India ($2.6 billion), Desh Bandhu Gupta of Lupin ($2.1 billion), Sudhirand Samir Mehta of Torrent ($2 billion), Aloke Lohia of Indorama ($2 billion) and Venugopal Dhoot of Videocon ($1.9 billion). Of the non-Baniyas, three are from mercantile communities:
Poonawalla (Parsi), Raheja (Shikarpuri Sindhi) and Thapar (Khatri). Murthy is Brahmin.
Between 31 and 40 are two Baniyas: Rahul Bajaj ($1.6 billion) and Ajay Piramal ($1.4 billion).
Three of the others are from mercantile castes: Chandru Raheja ($1.9 billion), Brijmohan Lall Munjal of Hero Motors ($1.5 billion) and Vikas Oberoi ($1.4 billion).
The last two are K. Anji Reddy ($1.5 billion) (from Andhra's dominant peasant community) and Ajay Kalsi of Indus Gas ($1.7 billion).
Between 41 and 50 are five Baniyas. They are R.P. Goenka ($1.3 billion), Rakesh Jhunjhunwala ($1.2 billion), Brij Bhushan Singhal ($1.2 billion), B.K. Modi ($1.1 billion) and Mumbai builder Mangal Prabhat Lodha ($1.1 billion). Two of the others are from mercantile castes: Parsi Anu Aga of Thermax ($1 billion) and Khatri Harindarpal Banga of Noble ($1 billion). Delhi builder Ramesh Chandra of Unitech ($1 billion) ends our list of Indians with a billion dollars or more. The list has three Parsis, two Muslims and Sikhs in one spot (shared by the Ranbaxy Singhs). Banga is also a Sikh name but Harindarpal is clean-shaven. All of them, except Poonawalla, have inherited their wealth, though in the case of one (Premji), he took a small firm and made it global. There is nobody from the scheduled tribes or castes. India 's large peasant castes have some representation (Singh, Patel, Reddy), but not much. There are 26 Baniyas on our list. Many of them inherited their wealth, but just as many (Mittal, Ruias, Adani, Dhoot among others) are self-made. The list has 16 Rajasthanis, and 13 Gujaratis. Every single Rajasthani is from one caste, Vaish, though they are from two faiths: Hindu and Jain. Only Gujarat is capable of producing billionaires drawn from four different faiths - Hindu, Parsi, Jain and Muslim - and three different castes: Baniya, Khatri and peasant. This is unique in India and there is something about this secular mercantile culture that produces great men across communities. What is it? And to rise, you need quality, not quantity. The heartland of India , where our quantity resides, is missing from this list. Bihar, Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh have little or no representation and this does not surprise us. On the list are 10 South Indians, in proportion to their 20% share of India 's population. The famous five from Infosys are obviously self-made. Of the others, four are first-generation wealthy. This is a good indicator for the future, and it restores some balance in favor of Rest of India.
Two final observations. India 's greatest businessman is not on this list. Why is that?
It is because Ratan Tata owns less than 1% of Tata Sons. He is exceptional in every way. There seems to be genetic specialisation and natural selection due caste system. Immigration over centuries has also thrown in their spanners. Martial races created huge wealth, but squandered it over centuries. Many of their minions squirreled away and even stole to flourish in later generations. Democracy has benefited the traders and businessmen the most,
However mercantile nations like Britain and US combine all characterisitics to rule while martial nations like Japan and Germany have been humbled in recent centuries. A good mix of all characteristics seem to be the way forward.
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