[lbo-talk] India 8th in billionaire club

[KJ]

Isn't the comparison of interest between India and China -- which 
perhaps makes the reference to global capitalist economy a bit murky. 
By FDI, exports, etc., China is more closely integrated into the 
global economy, but hardly figures in the list. As also Taiwan and S. 
Korea with their histories of tightly controlled state 
developmentalist regimes, in the front line of the Cold War in E 
Asia, with tightly limited gaps between top and bottom, as also Japan.

OTOH, quite a few of the Indian billionaires are old money and 
inherited wealth -- Mittal, Ambani, Birla, Godrej, Mistry, Agarwal -- 
and the others are largely in "technology" (incl pharma?) sector.

So, part of it is India's own history as a capitalist economy and its 
own massive class divisions -- whacked in China by the revolution -- 
and part of it is the "reforms" -- privatisation helping push up the 
fortunes of the old rich and, yes, global capitalist economy -- 
outsourcing, M&A's, JV's, reverse FDI's, etc.

Don't know what the gap was like, say, 20 years ago between, say, the 
Mittal's and the Indian labouring classes, but couldn't have been 
small. It has probably grown much wider, as the top layers now join 
the world capitalist class, while the bottom remain within the Indian 
working class. Segmented markets are great for the rich.

But even for the old rich -- seems like a disproportionate number are 
Mumbai-based: part of the old global economy?

kj khoo