Forbes magazine has named five Indians as outsourcing billionaires.
In a list of 1,125 billionaires, Indians stand high, with Wipro chairman Azim Premji ranked 60th in the list. Infosys made a big mark, with three of its leaders - N R Narayana Murthy, Nandan Nilekani and Senapathy Gopalakrishnan - listed among the outsourcing billionaires. HCL Technologies’ Shiv Nadar is also included.
Outsourcing is proving lucrative in Taiwan too, with Terry Gou - the chairman of the world's largest contract manufacturer, Hon Hai - and Barry Lam of Quanta Computer also listed.
Premji‘s wealth, estimated at $12.7 billion, represented the majority of the total wealth of the five Indian outsourcing billionaires, estimated at $20.7 billion.
Robert Kennedy, of the University of Michigan Business School, has suggested three factors why companies around the world have chosen to outsource to these Indian and Taiwanese companies. They are cost cutting, specialised firms and a huge pool of talent possessing specialised skills.
 Azim Premji
Forbes Billionaire Rank: 60th of 1,125
Net Worth: $12.7 billion
Country: India
Premji is chairman of the software services outsourcing company, Wipro, which acquired a business process outsourcing arm in 2002.
Terry Gou
Forbes Billionaire Rank: 57th of 1,125
Net Worth: $6.1 billion
Country: Taiwan
Gou is chairman of Hon Hai, the world's largest contract manufacturer of iPods, cellphones, game systems and other devices.
Shiv Nadar
Forbes Billionaire Rank: 277th of 1,125
Net Worth: $3.9 billion
Country: India
The co-founder of HCL Technologies, Nadar has pioneered in the outsourcing of electronics, computing and IT software.
NR Narayana Murthy
Forbes Billionaire Rank: 843rd of 1,125
Net Worth: $1.4 billion
Country: India
Murthy is the highest-ranking of the three Infosys Technologies founders on Forbes' billionaires list. Murthy presently holds the title of chief mentor and non-executive chairman, ran Infosys for 21 years and was succeeded by another billionaire, Nandan Nilekani.
Barry Lam
Forbes Billionaire Rank: 897th of 1,125
Net Worth: $1.3 billion
Country: Taiwan
Lam set up Quanta, an original design manufacturer of notebook computer and boasts clients like Apple, Hewlett-Packard and Dell.
Nandan Nilekani
Forbes Billionaire Rank: 1,014th of 1,125
Net Worth: $1.1 billion
Country: India
The co-founder of Infosys, Nilekani ran the company as chief executive and managing director until June 2007, when he became co-chairman.
Senapathy Gopalakrishnan
Forbes Billionaire Rank: 1,062nd of 1,125
Net Worth: $1.0 billion
Country: India
Another Infosys founder-turned-billionaire, Gopalakrishnan was president and chief operating officer until last June, when he succeeded Nilekani as chief executive and managing director. X
Check Out
Forbes |