Zero to Billion: Anyone Can, 49 Indian Self-made Billionaires: India at the Crossroad

by Paul Chan

This is my 6th eBook on country study of self-made billionaire. I am most humbled by the importance of India. Unlike Hong Kong or Israel, which are tiny, India is huge. With 18% of humanity and its long history of leading the world in thinking and innovation, it is only a matter of time before this great nation of India would once again reclaim its rightful place in the wealth of nations.
Like everyone of the research on the other ebooks, when I lay out the huge quantity of data in front of me, I could hardly believe the data. My first shock was the inequality. India is the first country where the majority of billionaires are inheritance billionaires (64 out of 113 or 57%). Where does the inequality come from? My second shock is how unbalanced the 2 sector stands out clearly (1) healthcare and (2) software. Together healthcare and software accounts for 42% of all Indian self-made billionaire. My third shock was how weak the finance sector only 3 of the 49 made or 6%.
I adopt the 6-W who are the 49 Indian self-made billionaire? What is their level of education? What sector are they in? How did they make their fortunes? What is their average age, their average net worth? Here I decide to respect the reader’s intelligence so this eBook is structured to be 90% factual and 10% analysis. So, please feel free to disagree with my conclusion. Making a huge fortune is complex and often counter-intuitive. For a country as huge and complex as India, it is even more difficult to generalize.
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India is at a crossroad because the last 2 booms are coming to an end. The first boom is the Software Service sector, long dominated by the Big Three (Wipro, HCL and Infosys) , all founded or began in the 1970s and 1980s. The second boom is the richest of the Gulf States, where many Indian expatriates made huge fortunes in construction, retail and hospitals. Like any other countries, the next generation of Indian entrepreneurs will lead India into new areas.
Finally, this eBook is dedicated to future generation of Indian entrepreneurs. I hope they will unleash their energy and leadership so there will be more self-made billionaires in India in the coming decades. This century will be all about brain power, and India has plenty. Also, having a big and young population is a big plus too. India could even be the future of the world

120 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 29, 2016

About the author

Paul Chan is an artist who lives in New York. A survey entitled Selected Works was mounted by Schaulager in Basel, Switzerland (April 11-October 19, 2014). His work has been exhibited widely in many international shows including: Documenta 13, Kassel, 2012; Before The Law, Ludwig Museum, Cologne, 2011-12; Making Worlds, 53rd Venice Biennale, Venice, 2009; Medium Religion, ZKM, Karlsruhe, 2008; Traces du sacrê, Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2008; 16th Biennale of Sydney, Sydney, 2008; 10th International Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul, 2007; and the Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of Art, New York, 2006. Solo exhibitions include: My Laws are My Whores, The Renaissance Society and the University of Chicago, Chicago, 2009; Paul Chan: Three Easy Pieces, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University, Cambridge, 2008; Paul Chan: The 7 Lights, Serpentine Gallery, London and New Museum, New 2007–2008; Paul Chan, Para/Site art space, Hong Kong, 2006.

In 2002, Chan was a part of Voices in the Wilderness, an American aid group that broke U.S. sanctions and federal law by working in Baghdad before the U.S. invasion and occupation. In 2004 he garnered police attention for The People’s Guide to the Republican National Convention, a free map distributed throughout New York to help protesters to get in or out of the way of the RNC. In 2007, Chan collaborated with the Classical Theatre of Harlem and Creative Time to produce a site-specific outdoor presentation of Samuel Beckett’s play Waiting for Godot in New Orleans. Chan’s essays and interviews have appeared in Artforum, Frieze, Flash Art, October, Tate etc, Parkett, Texte Zur Kunst, Bomb, and other magazines and journals. Chan founded Badlands Unlimited in 2010.