By Dr Farrukh Saleem

12/9/2007

Here’s what is happening in India:

The two Ambani brothers can buy 100 percent of every company listed

on

the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) and would still be left with $30

billion to spare. The four richest Indians can buy up all goods and

services produced over a year by 169 million Pakistanis and still be

left with $60 billion to spare. The four richest Indians are now

richer than the forty richest Chinese.

In November, Bombay Stock Exchange’s benchmark Sensex flirted with

20,000 points. As a consequence, Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries

became a $100 billion company (the entire KSE is capitalized at $65

billion). Mukesh owns 48 percent of Reliance.

In November, comes Neeta’s birthday. Neeta turned f orty-four three

weeks ago. Look what she got from her husband as her birthday

present:

A sixty-million dollar jet with a custom fitted master bedroom,

bathroom with mood lighting, a sky bar, entertainment cabins,

satellite television, wireless communication and a separate cabin

with

game consoles. Neeta is Mukesh Ambani’s wife, and Mukesh is not

India’s richest but t he second richest.

Mukesh is now building his new home, Residence Antillia (after a

mythical, phantom island somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean). At a cost

of $1 billion this would be the most expensive home on the face of

the

planet. At 173 meters tall Mukesh’s new family residence, for a

family

of six, will be the equivalent of a 60-storeyed building. The first

six floors are reserved for parking. The seventh floor is for car

servicing and maintenance. The eighth floor houses a mini-theatre.

Then there’s a health club, a gym and a swimming pool. Two floors

are

reserved for Ambani family’s guests. Four flo ors above the guest

floors are family floors all with a superb view of the Arabian Sea.

On

top of everything are three helipads. A staff of 600 is expected to

care for the family and their family home.

In 2004, India became the 3rd most attractive foreign direct

investment destination. Pakistan wasn’t even in the top 25

countries.

In 2004, the United Nations, the representative body of 192

sovereign

member states, had requested the Electio n Commission of India to

assist the UN in the holding elections in Al Jumhuriyah al Iraqiyah

and Dowlat-e Eslami-ye Afghanestan. Why the Election Commission of

India and not the Election Commission of Pakistan? After all,

Islamabad is closer to Kabul than is Delhi.

Imagine, 12 percent of all American scientists are of Indian origin;

38 percent of doctors in America are Indian; 36 percent of NASA

scientists are Indians; 34 percent of Microsoft employees are

Indians;

and 28 percent of IBM employees are Indians.

For the record: Sabeer Bhatia created and founded Hotmail. Sun

Microsystems was founded by Vinod Khosla. The Intel Pentium

processor,

that runs 90 percent of all computers, was fathered by Vinod Dham.

Rajiv Gupta co-invented Hewlett Packard’s E-speak project. Four out

of

ten Silicon Valley start-ups are run by Indians. Bolly wood produces

800 movies per year and s ix Indian ladies have won Miss

Universe/Miss

World titles over the past 10 years.

For the record: Azim Premji, the richest Muslim entrepreneur on the

face of the planet, was born in Bombay and now lives in

Bangalore.India now has more than three dozen billionaires; Pakistan

has none (not a single dollar billionaire).

The other amazing aspect is the rapid pace at which India is

creating

wealth. In 2002, Dhirubhai Ambani, Mukesh and Anil Ambani’s father,

left his two sons a fortune worth $2.8 billion. In 2007, their

combined wealth stood at $94 billion. On 29 October 2007, as a

result

of the stock market rally and the appreciation of the Indian rupee,

Mukesh became the richest person in the world, with net worth

climbing

to US$63.2 billion (Bill Gates, the richest American, stands at

around

$56 billion).

Indians and Pakistanis have the same Y-chromosome haplogroup. We

have

the same genetic sequence and the same genetic marker (namely:

M124).

We have the sam e DNA molecule, the same DNA sequence. Our culture,

our traditions and our cuisine are all the same. We watch the same

movies and sing the same songs. What is it that Indians have and we

don’t?

INDIANS ELECT THEIR LEADERS