Smiti Ruia, daughter of Essar group chairman Ravi Ruia, too studied in the US, obtaining a bachelor’s degree in finance and marketing from a New York university. She worked as an analyst at Lehman Brothers and later did her post-graduation in publishing at the London College of Printing.
Infosys Technologies’ chief mentor and chairman N R Narayana Murthy’s two children, Akshata and Arjun, are currently studying in the US. Ranbaxy Laboratories president Malvinder Mohan Singh, who is tipped to become CEO in a few years, has an MBA from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.
Aditya Shriram, son of DCM Shriram Consolidated chairman and managing director Ajay Shriram, obtained a masters degree in engineering at Cornell University in the US and is now working at a Dutch finance company in Amsterdam.
His father says that he wanted him to gain a few years of experience of working in a multinational company before he returns to India and joins the most profitable part of the erstwhile DCM empire.
Like many children of India’s billionaires, Smiti Ruia, daughter of Essar group chairman Ravi Ruia, too studied in the US
To be sure, not all children of billionaires are directly in the family business. Azim Premji’s second son, Tariq Premji, is currently working at the Azim Premji Foundation that’s spearheaded by his mother, who is the director. The foundation, which is run on Premji’s personal funding, is trying to improve education at state-funded schools. Tariq had, however, earlier worked at a business process outsourcing company.
Ambika Hinduja, daughter of Ashok Hinduja, the youngest of the four Hinduja brothers, has opted for film making. Says she: “I was always more of a creative person. Besides, I didn’t want to get into something that I didn’t understand very well,” she explains.
Many of today's IT entrepreneurs at least seem bent on ensuring that their children make it to the top only on merit
An alumnus of the London International Film School, Ambika Hinduja started by assisting in the Subhash Ghai-banner production “Yaadein,” and worked on Farhan Akhtar’s recent war film “Lakshya.” In 2003, she launched her own production house Serendipity Films, and is set to release her first film “Being Cyrus” early next year.
Ruia, 25, though, is currently publisher of lifestyle magazine “Time Out,” in India through Paprika Media, part of the Essar group. A few of the entrepreneurs in the making started, like Sidhartha Mallya will, at the bottom. During school vacations, Malvinder Mohan Singh was sent by his late father Parvinder Singh on daily rounds with Ranbaxy medical representatives on their scooters so that he would understand the basics of the medicine business.
Once he graduated, Parvinder Singh gave his son Rs 100,000 to build a portfolio of stocks so that he would get an idea of the stock markets. Many of today’s IT entrepreneurs at least also seem bent on ensuring that their children make it to the top only on merit. Premji has often hinted that anyone who reaches the top at Wipro will do so purely on merit and not through filial connections – a novel and welcome change.
