Stereotypes dominate India’s rich list

If you generally believe Gujaratis are good at creating wealth, South Indians excel at numbers and North Indians are risk takers — you are not wrong. While these are stereotypes born out of living in a multi-cultural society like India, there is data to support these beliefs. Half of the top ten Indian billionaires figuring in the list of Bloomberg Billionaires are Gujaratis.




One in three CFOs of the Nifty companies is a South Indian. The founders of most of the leading e- commerce start-ups in India (Flipkart, Myntra, Snapdeal, Zomato, Goibibo and Ola Cabs) hail from North India. While this data does not reveal any special talents to be specific to only certain kinds of castes, it shows how certain ethnic groups dominate certain activities in Indian business.

“Historically, the communities that have been involved in a profession have had the traditional advantage of knowing the integrity and nuance of that trade,” says professor Avathhi Ramaiah of centre for study of social exclusion and inclusive policies at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences.



Below this broad layer of ethnic classification, sociologists reveal that there exist undertones of casteism. According to Ramaiah, the traditional belief that those above the caste ladder are intelligent has been a longcherished one. In such a scenario, the arithmetic of 80-90% people at the higher levels in business are still Brahmins or belong to a similar higher caste cannot be ruled out. Of late a few Dalits have also made it big in business, but they still are few in number.