Inspiring stories which made it to the list for the first time
34. Ravi Pillai
$1.7 billion
Source: Construction
Age: 60. Married, 2 children
Residence: Bahrain
A farmer’s son, Ravi Pillai migrated to Saudi Arabia after his small construction business in his native Kerala went bust due to a workers’ strike. With help from a well-connected local partner who put
in capital, he started over and eventually built RP Group of Companies, a construction heavyweight that specialises in building refineries. The richest newcomer to India’s Top 100, he claims to be among the biggest employers of Indians in the Middle East: 80 percent of his staff of 70,000 is Indian. He has used his Gulf riches to invest back home, picking up stakes in banks, hotels and real estate. Pillai says his real home is the sky because “I’m always travelling”.
40. MA Yusuff Ali
$1.6 billion
Source: Retail
Age: 57. Married, 3 children
Residence: Abu Dhabi
Born in a small Kerala village, MA Yusuff Ali immigrated to Abu Dhabi in the 1970s to join his family’s trading business. His first LuLu store opened at the peak of the Gulf War as a purveyor of value-for-money goods. Nowadays his flagship $5 billion (revenues) LuLu Group International has 106 retail outlets in the Middle East, Africa and India. It opened its first mall in Kochi, where he also has a stake in its airport, two Marriott hotels and a Grand Hyatt hotel. He lobbied the Abu Dhabi government for a crematorium for Hindus and now heads a committee that runs it.
43. Vijay Chauhan
$1.5 billion
Source: Biscuits and confectionery
Residence: Mumbai
Along with younger sibling Raj and cousin Sharad, he controls the family’s cookies and confectionery giant Parle Products, whose Parle-G glucose biscuit is the world’s biggest brand by volume. Its other popular brands are Monaco, KrackJack, Hide & Seek, Mango Bite and Poppins. The $1.3 billion (estimated revenues) company was co-founded by his late father Kantilal Chauhan as a confectionery maker in 1929 in Mumbai. Today, son Ajay and nephews Arup and Samar run operations at the privately held firm, which has 10 factories, 100 contract manufacturers and sells in 40 countries.
48. Samprada Singh
80. Ramesh Juneja
(This story appears in the 28 November, 2013 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)