- Pacific
It seems that India has caught the fancy of American trillionaire David Rockefeller. We have learnt that the 96-year-old, head of one of the biggest American business dynasties, is currently in the country with his family and is travelling all over North India.
We hear that the honcho landed in Delhi with more than two dozen relatives, including his children and grandchildren. The clan is learnt to be keen on visiting famous Indian monuments and places like the Taj Mahal, Rajasthan and Delhi. Rockefeller is believed to have landed in Delhi and chartered three planes to tour the country. (2.27.2011) http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-02-27/people/28637732_1_david-rockefeller-commercial-buildings-rockefeller-centre
Warren Buffett said on Saturday he plans to visit India next March
(2011), and would not rule out the country for possible future investments.Speaking at Berkshire's annual meeting in response to a shareholder question, Buffett said he had decided only on Friday to make the trip, saying the company's Iscar Metalworking Cos unit "is doing very well there."
Buffett said "we do not rule out India" as a possible locale for future Berkshire investments, whether in companies or marketable securities, though bureaucratic obstacles could complicate any plans to invest, including limitations on foreign ownership.
He added that "we've looked a lot at being in the insurance business in India." Insurance and reinsurance are Berkshire's main business lines.
Demographers expect India to overtake China as the world's most populous country within the next two decades, and Buffett predicted that "people in India will be living a lot better 20 years from now."
Buffett does not disclose where he plans to make future investments, but occasionally travels outside the United States to seek opportunities or check on Berkshire investments.
Among Berkshire's investments in Asia are the Korean steelmaker Posco and the Chinese car and battery maker BYD Co.
Both have been profitable, giving Berkshire respective paper profits of $1.32 billion and $1.75 billion as of year end, according to Berkshire's annual report. (5.02.2010, Svea Herbst-Bayliss and Jonathan Stempel) http://in.reuters.com/article/2010/05/02/idINIndia-48155420100502
NEW DELHI: Two of the world's richest people, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and legendary investor Warren Buffett, arrived in the Indian capital Thursday to a packed schedule that mainly concentrates on their philanthropic efforts.
While Gates, along with his wife Melinda arrived here from Bihar, where they reviewed the progress of their non-profit foundation's health initiatives, their mentor Buffett, on his maiden visit to India, landed from Bangalore after a series of meetings.
Their visits, though, have one common thread: Getting India's rich to pledge a decent portion of their wealth toward philanthropy on the lines of what they have themselves done. Last year, they had undertaken a visit to China with the same objective.
"We are not here to pressure anybody. Everybody has his or her own understanding of philanthropy," Buffett had said in Bangalore Wednesday. "We will be talking to Indian billionaires about our philanthropic activities and find out what they are doing."
The two billionaires also have coined a phrase for this initiative -- Giving Pledge -- and hope to get a keen ear from not just the 50 Indians figuring in the latest world's rich list of Forbes magazine but other wealthy people as well.
The Forbes list has placed Gates, 55, the second on its list with a net worth of $56 billion, while Buffett, 80, was ranked next with $50 billion.
In the capital, Buffett is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and some of his cabinet colleagues later Thursday, apart from addressing policy holders of insurance schemes launched by the $60-billion financial services firm Berkshire Hathway.
Among their engagements, the Gates are scheduled to share their thoughts on creating the right ecosystem to address public health concerns at an event to be attended by Science and Technology Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal and Communications Minister Kapil Sibal.
The Gates and Buffett also also scheduled to host an exclusive buffet dinner Thursday to woo people towards philanthropy. (IANS, 3.24.2011) http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-03-24/news/29181475_1_legendary-investor-warren-buffett-richest-people
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Two of the world's richest men, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, will meet the cream of India's rich on Thursday to tap the wealth of a new generation of billionaires for charity in the rapidly developing Asian giant after a similar visit to China.
The visit of two of the world's most generous philanthropists has sparked a renewed debate about the willingness of India's rich to part with their money to support the nation's hundreds of millions below the poverty line.
Gates, the founder of Microsoft and the world's second richest man, has set up a $37 billion foundation focused on health in developing countries, usually targeting common diseases with high mortality rates, such as malaria, polio and AIDS.
The 80-year-old Buffett, dubbed the "Oracle of Omaha" for his formidable investment decisions that have built up a $200 billion empire with Berkshire Hathaway Inc, has pledged to give 99 percent of his wealth to charitable causes.
Much of that money will go to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Two decades of economic boom have propelled India's industrialists and software moguls to the top table of the world's rich, with two in the top 10 of the Forbes list of the richest people this year.
Gates, arriving in the Indian capital after a visit to the poor northern state of Bihar, said while he had no "measurable outcome" in mind from the meeting, he hoped it would encourage India's richest to emulate other philanthropists.
"It's fair experience that as you get people together to talk about philanthropy, they will hear why other people have committed and agreed to what they're doing. It'll encourage them to do more," Gates told a news conference ahead of his meeting with the Indian billionaires.
The Indian billionaires include software czar Azim Premji, who in 2010 donated $2 billion for education and social projects, and G.M. Rao, the chairman of the GMR group who last week pledged $340 million in charity.
Separately, Buffett will also call on Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday.
In a country where more than 450 million people live in poverty, around 50 billionaires account for 20 percent of India's GDP. In 2010, there were six Indian industrialists on Forbes.com's list of the world's top 50 billionaires. With that have come some fantastic displays of wealth, including a $1 billion, 27-storey private home built by Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries in the country's financial capital Mumbai. Bentleys now mix with bullock carts and rickshaws on the streets of Indian cities.
But India's billionaires have not been as willing to loosen their purse strings as their American counterparts, according to a study by the consultancy Bain & Co said in 2010. Charitable giving in India probably totaled about $7.5 billion in 2009, according to the study by Bain & Co, equivalent to about 0.6 percent of the country's GDP. That percentage is higher than Brazil's 0.3 percent and rival China's 0.1 percent, but it falls way short of the 2.2 percent in the United States, and 1.3 percent in Britain, the report said. "Our crorepatis (billionaires) have a poor record of giving," India's NDTV said on its website. "They say they will turn up at the event to hear the wit and wisdom of the Oracle of Omaha -- but may send him back with empty pockets." http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/24/us-india-gates-idUSTRE72N2LG20110324
India's rich must do more for the poor, but why go gaga about it?
No one grudges Warren Buffet and Bill Gates their desire to donate part of their considerable wealth to good causes in India. If their visits encourage more of our indigenous tycoons to emulate them, so much the better. The question that arises is whether their visits warranted the level of saturation coverage that the media, both electronic and print, has accorded them. The issue is not just magnitude but also tenor. Over the past three days, the media has breathlessly reported their every word and action — whether it is Mr Buffet’s observations on Indian hospitality, the Indian market, India’s potential, his Indian colleague, his thoughts on capitalism, free trade, death, succession... or the Gates’ Bihar visits and their views on TB, measles, polio, women’s health and other social issues of the day.
Indeed, if the cloying coverage has revealed anything, it is the lack of balance that the Indian polity displays towards all things American. To put it bluntly, we either lick them or kick them. The shrill political reaction to the Wikileaks cables highlighted the latter predilection, and the Gates/Buffet coverage falls in the first category. Despite the giant type-size and the foreign journalists imported to interview them, Mr Gates’ and Mr Buffet’s statements are not particularly remarkable. They represent the platitudes that every foreigner repeats when they come to India and face the obvious question from the press. Does India, now one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, really need such endorsement from the West?
There is no denying that as, respectively, the world’s second and third richest people, Mr Gates’ and Mr Buffet’s visits are media events that would interest readers and viewers — especially Mr Buffet, the famously austere tycoon, who is on his maiden visit here. But the difference between reportage and public relations is a fine one and in this instance, it is difficult to distinguish the two. A dispassionate observer — and there are any number on the Web — is likely to wonder whether their mission of encouraging India Inc to “open their wallets,” as one website described it, merits such flattering coverage. To start with, it is difficult to escape the notion that Mr Gates and Mr Buffet are being a little presumptuous. As in the US, philanthropy, whether corporate or individual, has never been in short supply in India. It’s the belated western concepts of Corporate Social Responsibility or CSR and the Triple Bottom Line that have brought these notions into the global spotlight as measurable attributes. In the rigidly politically correct intellectual climate of the day, these are increasingly becoming the yardsticks by which companies are judged. This is not a bad thing. But there are any number of rich and even reasonably wealthy Indians who are no less philanthropically inclined than Mr Gates and Mr Buffet (if not as famous), who do or have done sterling work outside the spotlight. Their missions are no less meaningful than or impactful as those of the two US billionaires. So they are just as likely to take umbrage at the Giving Pledge campaign as, say, our known corporate philanthropists like the Tatas, Birlas or Bajajs and so on. That is why it is possible to suspect the turnout at this very public advocacy as little more than a networking opportunity. It is also unclear why American businessmen, no matter how successful, should preach to Indian industrialists on how they should spend their philanthropic rupees. In India, there is no shortage of social causes that need investments. As with business opportunities, India’s industrialists have been skilful at spotting them.Business Standard / New Delhi March 27, 2011) http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/philanthropy-mongering-as-pr/429892
Bill Gates is now travelling in India (at present in Uttar Pradesh). If you interested in seeing or talk to him then read this post. I’m going to give some tip on how to find “where is Bill Gates now in India”.
I love people those you get success with there hard and smart work. I think you all know about Bill Gates if not refer here. In his official blog he announced that I’m on Tour but I don’t know he is visiting to India also.
When I visit his official blog I’m welcomed with this message
Since leaving my fulltime job at Microsoft to dedicate more time to our foundation, a lot of people have asked me what I’m working on. It often feels like I’m back in school, as I spend a lot of my time learning about issues I’m passionate about.
I’m fortunate because the people I’m working with and learning from are true experts in their fields. I take a lot of notes, and often share them and my own thoughts on the subject with others through email, so I can learn from them and expand the conversation.
I thought it would be interesting to share these conversations more widely with a website, in the hope of getting more people thinking and learning about the issues I think are interesting and important. So, welcome to the Gates Notes.
Sarah Palin heads to India?
We may never know who Lou Sarah was or why she only had twelve friends. All trace of this rogue pro-Palin Facebook page has vanished, in spite of all the blissful hours Lou Sarah spent poking me and suggesting I rewatch Sarah Palin's Alaska "for the subtleties."
But now the real Sarah is going to India. She'll feel at home - "India is just Indiana with less sodium," she'll quip, or maybe not.
But what is she doing there?
Well, she's giving a dinner keynote address, or whatever the Sarah Palin approximation of a keynote address is.
She's listed as one of many "incredible speakers" and follows in the footsteps of James Cameron. This makes sense; both are creators of fantasy worlds where heavily armed Real Americans sort of try to show the blue-state tree-huggers who's really boss, and neither has much gift for dialogue.
Still, I'm excited. Given that her primary foreign policy credential before this was that Tina Fey said she could see Russia from her house, it's great that she's adding another notch to the ol' passport belt. Before, she'd only been to Ireland, Kuwait, and Canada; now, she's slowly trekking across the globe, with plans to visit Stately English Statesperson Margaret Thatcher, who counts for eight countries, in the coming year.
Her speech is called "My Vision of America."
If this were a dream someone was telling you, you would be annoyed at how convoluted it was. "Sarah Palin is going to India to deliver a speech to Indian political leaders about her Vision of America?" you would ask. "What? Why?" She is the only American political figure attending, which to some people indicates that there are no American political figures attending.
Still, she's like plutonium - not something I want to let out of the country and release near Pakistan. Especially not at anything identified as a Conclave.
I still fail to understand what she's doing there. The other speakers at this event? India's Prime Minister and Nobel Prize-winner Mohammed ElBaradei. One of these things is not quite like the others. It's not that I'm one of those people who would gladly pay $100,000 for Sarah Palin not to address me. But I don't know who thought she was a logical pick. Although now that Lou Sarah is off Facebook, maybe it's the only way to connect. (2.24.2011, Alexandra Petri) http://voices.washingtonpost.com/compost/2011/02/sarah_palin_heads_to_india.html
Michelle wants to visit India again, says Obama
WASHINGTON: American First Lady Michelle Obama wants to
visit India again, this time with her daughters Malia and Sasha, President Obama told
India's national security advisor Shivshankar Menon when he dropped in on Menon's meeting
with his US counterpart Tom Donilon at the White House last week. There was more to the
remark than politeness.
As if to emphasize he was not saying it for form's sake, Obama reportedly added that the
First Lady is a "very determined" woman and she usually has her way. The Obama
children did not make it to India during their parents' visit last November because the
Obamas did not want them to miss school during a four-country trip starting in India that
would have kept them away for two weeks.
Obama stopped by at the Menon-Donilon meeting to convey his thanks to Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh through Menon for the India visit he had in November, besides spending some
time reviewing US-India ties.
The gesture, which came on a day when Egypt was aflame, and at a time when Washington's
Af-Pak strategy and its ties with a host of key countries are shaky, pointed to the fact
that the Obama administration, like its predecessor Bush White House, has set a lot in
store for US-India ties.
It is one of more stable and promising relationships in the current American diplomatic
catalog that is starting to look messy and complicated.
Following the meeting, the White House issued a statement saying Menon and Donilon
"discussed ways to advance our bilateral agenda over the coming year...as well as
building new platforms for collaboration that fulfill the promise of our global strategic
partnership." President Obama, it said, joined the meeting and "reaffirmed his
commitment to building a true global, strategic partnership with India, including
advancing our bilateral economic relationship and making progress on nuclear security
efforts."
The statements may sound anodyne, but there is plenty of action on the cards on the
bilateral front in the coming weeks even though the weather is right now brutal in the US,
and summer is months away.
Undeterred by Menon's weather-wrecked visit, when a snowstorm caused him to miss a dinner
Hillary Clinton hosted for him (and which she graciously turned into lunch the next day),
external affairs minister SM Krishna may be coming to New York next week to participate in
sittings of the United Nations Security Council, where India now has a term seat. The US
has indicated clearly that its support for India for a permanent seat is contingent on how
well New Delhi works with it on common objectives.
Although Washington is not on Krishna's schedule, foreign secretary Nirupama Rao will
visit here on February 13-15 to follow up Menon's visit and also for preparations for the
US-India strategic dialogue in April.
Hillary Clinton will visit India in April for the second round of the dialogue that kicked
off in Washington last year. She'll be preceded by Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, who will
be in India next week, and secretary of homeland security Janet Napolitano, sometime
later.
Somewhere in this flurry of exchanges, the US Air Chief will also visit India next week,
mainly for the Aero India show in Bangalore, and the Indian Army chief VK Singh will visit
US from March 7-13. There's also a Defense Policy Groups meeting scheduled for March.
So while many of the American spheres of influence are going through a winter of
discontent, there appears to be a spring in US-India ties. (2.02.2011,
Chidanand Rajghatta) http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-02-02/india/28378876_1_india-visit-bilateral-economic-relationship-progress-on-nuclear-security
Oprah Winfrey to visit Rajpipla
VADODARA: The little known town of Rajpipla - a weekend getaway and a location for Gujarati and Bhojpuri films - could soon find itself on international tourism map, all thanks to Oprah Winfrey. The celebrated host of the Oprah Winfrey Show made a commitment in this regard to Rajpipla's gay prince Manvendra Singh Gohil during the recording for the farewell season of the show.
Manvendra had invited Oprah to visit Rajpipla during his first interview with her in October 2007. Then too she had agreed to visit Rajpipla and even inquired how to reach there. But during the course of the recording for the second interview with Gohil on Thursday, Oprah told him that a visit to Rajpipla was on cards. (1.25.2011, Sachin Sharma)
US business tycoon Donald Trump to visit Mumbai, announce real estate project
US business tycoon Donald Trump will be in Mumbai early next year to announce the details of the Trump Towers, a proposed multi-storey residential building on Hughes Road. At 65 storeys, it will be amongst the tallest buildings in Mumbai and each duplex and triplex is expected to cost upwards of Rs40 crore.
It was DNA that first broke the story of Trump planning a project in the city on October 21.
“I think India has amazing long-term potential. The country is going to be one of the greatest places in the world to buy real estate,” says the real estate magnate in an exclusive interview in GQ India’s forthcoming issue.
In an email to DNA, Trump confirmed that his company had tied up with real estate developers who are providing technical know-how and capital to build in Mumbai. “We are at the forefront of international luxury and are focusing on adding value to the design, marketing and sales process,” he added.
He feels that Hughes Road is one of the best locations in the city and is hopeful that Trump Towers would be a great example of super-luxurious apartment blocks. “It will be something special and something that India is going to be really proud of,” he claimed.
Trump has recently built Trump World Tower which is a 92-storey building in New York. “People love our buildings, because they know they’re going to be in the best location and have the best units and windows and fixtures and all of the things that add up to luxury,” he said. (12.29.2010, Shabana Ansari) http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_us-business-tycoon-donald-trump-to-visit-mumbai-announce-real-estate-project_1487433
MUMBAI, India (2009) — India’s booming economy has turned some business executives into rock stars. So it was perhaps not surprising that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton — a celebrity in her own right — would stop first in India’s commercial capital for a power breakfast with bankers and billionaires.
Mrs. Clinton was to go to New Delhi on Sunday for meetings and ceremonies the next day with government leaders. But she began her visit to India, the first by a top official from the Obama administration, by discussing climate change, education and health care with private-sector potentates.
Flanked by Mukesh Ambani (estimated net worth: $19.5 billion) and Ratan Tata (estimated net worth: $1 billion), Mrs. Clinton heard ideas from seven other guests about how Indian companies could provide health care, education and banking services to India’s desperately poor.
“You’re so right, Ratan,” Mrs. Clinton said to Mr. Tata when he explained how his Tata Group was delivering nutrients to children and young mothers through daily staples like milk. “If we could get the nutritional status of children to improve, it would solve so many problems.”
The purpose of her visit, Mrs. Clinton said at a news conference on Saturday, was to “broaden and deepen” dialogue between the United States and India. Given the potential for friction in the issues that face the two countries — climate change, trade and the insurgency in Pakistan — Mrs. Clinton’s visit with business leaders was more than a sidelight.
The United States is clearly hoping that Indian business will help bridge potential gaps between the two countries.
Mr. Ambani, for example, proposed that Indians and Americans work together to develop “clean technologies” that would reduce carbon emissions. The Indian government is resisting the Obama administration’s push for a global treaty that would mandate cuts in carbon emissions, arguing that developing economies deserve to grow without compulsory constraints.
“Rather than argue about who has a right to pollute,” Mr. Ambani said, “we will move forward to create institutions.”
As the richest man in India, Mr. Ambani is influential. But he may soon face his own problems with the United States. His conglomerate, Reliance Industries, operates refineries that sell fuel to Iran. That could make him vulnerable to sanctions against Iran being proposed in Congress.
The choice of Mumbai as Mrs. Clinton’s first port of call was steeped in symbolism for another reason: It offered her a platform to speak out against the coordinated terrorist attacks here last November that killed 173 people and wounded more than 300.
Mrs. Clinton told an Indian broadcaster, Times Now, that she stayed at the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower, one of two hotels that had been attacked, partly as a “rebuke” of the terrorists.
Last week, she encouraged India to support Pakistan’s effort to stem a radical insurgency in Pakistan, a request that may unsettle some Indians. India and the United States blamed a Pakistan-based militant group for the Mumbai attacks, and India has long complained that Pakistan is not serious enough in cracking down on militants.
Mrs. Clinton met with the hotel’s general manager, who lost his wife and child in the attack, as well as other employees, before signing a condolence book.
“Just as India supported America on 9/11, these events are seared in our memory,” she said at the news conference, adding that terrorism is “global, it is ruthless, it is nihilistic, and it must be stopped.”
Mrs. Clinton delivered her message on an outdoor terrace at the hotel that had been littered with bloodied bodies during the siege. Just before the news conference, the Indian police urged her not to speak there for security reasons, but she resisted.
The rest of her day was devoted to two longtime interests: women’s issues and education.
She visited a shop run by the Self Employed Women’s Association, a cooperative of 1 million women who make and sell embroidery and other products using microfinance methods. In 1995, Mrs. Clinton visited the group as the first lady; she has stayed in touch since then.
Inevitably, some of these encounters are more successful than others. In the category of less successful was a panel discussion on education at a Jesuit college, at which Mrs. Clinton appeared with Aamir Khan, a prominent Indian film star who campaigns for better teaching.
While Mrs. Clinton offered an earnest discussion of teaching standards in Arkansas, Mr. Khan appeared to condone dropping out of school to pursue entertainment careers.
Mrs. Clinton appeared unfazed, closing with a quote from the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr., who, she noted, “of course learned so much from Gandhi.” (7.18.2009, Mark Landler & 7.19.2009, A12 print edition)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/world/asia/19clinton.html?_r=1
India building nuclear-proof bunkers for top leaders
NEW DELHI: The Indian government has begun building several
hi-tech bunkers to enable its top leadership, including Prime Minister Atal Bihari
Vajpayee, to survive a possible nuclear attack, official sources said.
The move to build the bunkers, including one near the South Block, an imposing red
sandstone building that houses the prime minister's office and the defence and external
affairs ministries, was reportedly cleared at the first meeting of the Nuclear Command
Authority on September 1.
That meeting had taken several decisions that would
"consolidate India's nuclear deterrence", a government spokesman had then said
without giving details.
Official sources said the bunker near the South Block would protect all those who had the
authority to order and execute an Indian second strike in the event of a nuclear attack.
India has committed itself to a policy of "no first use" for its nuclear arsenal
and its top leadership would have to survive a possible nuclear strike to order
retaliation, the sources noted.
Under New Delhi's nuclear doctrine, the civilian political leadership headed by the prime
minister has the final say in authorising the use of nuclear weapons.
A second bunker for protecting the cabinet will be built within a 400 km radius from New
Delhi, and the government is scouting sites in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh
where the cabinet can be flown easily from the capital, the sources said.
Work on a third bunker within the prime minister's official residence at 7, Race Course
Road here is also believed to be under way.
Besides Vajpayee, the bunker near South Block is meant to protect key members of his
cabinet, including Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani, External Affairs Minister Yashwant
Sinha, Finance Minister Jaswant Singh and Defence Minister George Fernandes, all of whom
have offices in the South Block or the nearby North Block.
It will also protect key members of the Executive Council of the Nuclear Command
Authority, including National Security Advisor Brajesh Mishra.
This council provides inputs for decision-making by the National Command Authority and
execute directives given to it by the Political Council, which is headed by the prime
minister. (9.23.2003, Ians) http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/India_building_nuclearproof_bunkers_for_top_leaders___-nid-20887.html
"To Achieve World
Government it is necessary to remove from the minds of men their individualism,
their loyalty to family traditions and national identification" Brock Chisholm - Director of the World Health Organization
"A society whose citizens refuse to see and investigate the facts, who refuse to
believe that their government and their media will routinely lie to them and fabricate a
reality contrary to verifiable facts, is a society that chooses and deserves the Police
State Dictatorship it's going to
get." Ian Williams Goddard
The fact is that "political correctness" is all about creating uniformity. Individualism is one of the biggest obstacles in the way of the New World Order. They want a public that is predictable and conditioned to do as it's told without asking questions.
"The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first." Thomas Jefferson