Revision as of 21:39, 5 June 2018

Technology billionaires

The top 13

Komal Mohan, April 23, 2018: The Times of India

Fortune magazine recently came out with its World’s Greatest Leaders 2018 list and ranked the richest Indian Mukesh Ambani 24th. The magazine in the list mentioned that Ambani has "in less than two years, brought mobile data to the masses - and completely upended the country's telecom market", Ambani is no stranger to be on such lists as even on Forbes World Billionaires list he has always been omnipresent. The Forbes World’s Billionaires list also had 13 other Indian billionaires from the list, who owe (some part of it) their wealth to the technology industry.

Here's over to richest Indian 'tech' billionaires in the country ...

Mukesh Ambani

Net worth - $40.1 billion

Global ranking - 19

Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani is the richest Indian in the Forbes’ 2018 ‘World’s Billionaires’ list. Ambani has topped the list for 11th year in a row. His telecom company Reliance Jio has changed the contours of the Indian telecom segment, triggering a bruising price war.

Azim Premji

Net worth - $18.8 billion

Global ranking - 58

The second Indian on the list is Azim Premji, the founder and chairman of India's third-largest software company Wipro. Premji had to give up his studies at Stanford University to takeover the family's cooking oil business in 1966 after his father's sudden death. He later expanded the company into software business. With an innovation centre in Silicon Valley, Wipro focuses on developing new technologies and collaborating with startups.

Shiv Nadar

Net worth - $14.6 billion

Global ranking - 98

Next on the list is Shiv Nadar, the co-founder of India's fourth-largest information technology company HCL. Nadar is one of India's leading most-prominent philanthropists and has donated $662 million to his Shiv Nadar Foundation.

Sunil Mittal

Net worth - $8.8 billion

Global ranking - 176

Telecom baron Sunil Mittal is the next Indian billionaire on the list. Chairman of one the India's largest telecom company Bharti Airtel, with almost 400 million customers, Mittal also owns Airtel Payments Bank, a joint venture with Kotak Mahindra Bank.

Anil Ambani

Net worth - $2.7 billion

Global ranking - 887

The younger Ambani scion Anil Ambani, has an empire with interests in financial services, media and infrastructure. Anil Ambani recently agreed to sell his debt-laden Reliance Communication's wireless assets to Reliance Jio, owned by his brother Mukesh Ambani, for an estimated $3 billion.

Vinod & Anil Rai Gupta

Net worth - $2.2 billion

Global ranking - 1103

This mother and son duo run one of the India's largest electrical equipment company, Havells India. The company makes everything from electrical and lighting fixtures to fans, refrigerators and washing machines.

NR Narayana Murthy

Net worth - $2.1 billion

Global ranking - 1157

Infosys co-founder NR Narayana Murthy ranks next on the list. Murthy stepped down as chairman of the software giant in the year 2011. He was recently in news after 'bitter spat' with former Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka. The resignation of Sikka led to a management shakeup in the company leading to the return of co-founder Nandan Nilekani as non-executive chairman.

Nandan Nilekani

Net worth - $1.9 billion

Global ranking - 1284

Another Infoscian on the list is Nandan Nilekani. One of the Infosys' co-founders, Nilekani left Infosys in the year 2009. However, he was brought back as non-executive chairman in August 2017 after a boardroom shakeup at the company. He is also credited of being the architect of India's identity card scheme Aadhaar.

Senapathy Gopalakrishnan

Net worth - $1.8 billion

Global ranking - 1339

Next on the list is another co-founder of the IT giant Infosys, Senapathy Kris Gopalakrishnan. Gopalakrishnan retired from the company in the year 2014 and since then has held various positions during his tenure including that of CEO and vice-chairman. Since then, he has invested in almost 63 startups, including 17 companies through his business incubator Axilor Ventures.

Vijay Shekhar Sharma

Net worth - $1.7 billion

Global ranking - 1394

Founder of the digital wallet company Paytm, Vijay Shekhar Sharma owns 16% of Paytm, which according to Forbes is now valued at $9.4 billion. Paytm has been the biggest beneficiary of demonetisation announced by the Union government in November 2016. The company claims to have 250 million registered users and process 7 million transactions daily.

K Dinesh

Net worth - $1.4 billion

Global ranking - 1650

The next on the list too is an Infosys co-founder, K Dinesh. Dinesh stepped down from the company's board in 2011 and has since devoted himself to philanthropy.

Dinesh Nandwana

Net worth - $1.4 billion

Global ranking - 1650

At No. 1650, along with K Dinesh, is Dinesh Nandwana. He is the CEO and managing director of e-governance services company Vakrangee Ltd that has 38,000-plus outlets.

SD Shibulal

Net worth - $1.2 billion

Global ranking - 1867

Last on this list is another Infosys co-founder SD Shibulal who stepped down as the company's CEO in 2014, but still holds a small stake in the company. With his former Infosys colleague Senapathy Gopalakrishnan, Shibulal co-founded business incubator Axilor Ventures.

9 tech leaders who made it big without a college degree

Gadgets Now, June 4, 2018: The Times of India

For most of us, good education is a top-most priority. Having a college degree is almost universally accepted as one of the basic requirements for landing a good job and generally, being successful in life.

But that’s not always the case. Especially in the technology industry, there have been many visionaries who created something new and different that took the world by storm. These people have gone on to earn billions of dollars, and have their names etched forever in modern history.

Here are 9 such leaders of the tech industry, who made it big despite not having a college degree.

Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs dropped out of Reed College in 1972 when he was just 19 years old. He then went on to create innovative products and gadgets like iPhone, iPod and Mac. Among the most-loved tech CEOs of all time, Jobs stepped down from his position due to his illness.

Bill Gates

Co-founder of Microsoft and currently the world’s richest man, Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard University in 1975, when he was 20. Along with Paul Allen, he founded Microsoft – which is the largest software company in the world today, and develops everything from computing devices and gaming consoles to productivity software and operating systems.

Mark Zuckerberg

You probably already know about Zuckerberg dropping out of Harvard to create Facebook, but this list can’t be complete without him. He dropped out of college in his sophomore year at 20 years of age to focus solely on Facebook. Since 2004, he has been the CEO of Facebook, which is the largest social media network in the world today.

Travis Kalanick

Travis Kalanick is the man who has changed the way we book cab rides. The co-founder and CEO of Uber, Kalanick dropped out of UCLA at the age of 21. Although that was in 1998, Uber was founded in 2009. Before that, Kalanick helped Dan Rodrigues set up his company Scour Inc., and later started his own venture Red Swoosh with Michael Todd.

Michael Dell

When it comes to PCs, laptops and servers, Dell is a world-renowned brand. But not everyone knows the name that always comes up. not mention Dell. But not everyone knows the name behind the company - Michael Dell. He dropped out of the University of Texas when he was in his freshman year.

Although Dell majored in Biology, he realized that computers were his true calling. In 1984, Dell Computer Corporation was founded. Michael Dell is also the youngest CEO to make it to the Fortune 500 list.

Larry Ellison

Co-founder of Oracle, Larry Ellison shifted his focus from education to work when he was just 20 years old. He first dropped out of University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign when his adoptive mother passed away. The next semester, Ellison enrolled in the University of Chicago but dropped out of there too. He founded Oracle in 1977.

Jan Koum

Jan Koum is the creator of WhatsApp, which is probably the most popular instant messaging app in the world today. He was a math and computer science major at San Jose State University, before dropping out at the age of 21 to work for Yahoo. He continued his stint with Yahoo for 9 years before founding WhatsApp.

Jack Dorsey

The current CEO and among the founding members of microblogging website Twitter, Jack Dorsey went to Missouri University of Science and Technology. From there, he took a transfer to New York University, eventually dropping out to create Twitter.

Evan Williams

Evan Williams is one of the co-founders of Twitter. Prior to Twitter, he co-founded Odeo, a podcasting company. He continues to be on the board of Twitter, and also creating blogging platform called Medium in 2012.