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The billionaires of Rajasthan

The desert breeding ground of India’s billionaires

Richard Orange

Wednesday, 5th September 2007

‘This is backwoods, really backwoods,’ says Aditya, as the rackety, jam-packed bus pulls into Rajgarh, a small town in the north-west of Rajasthan, India’s desert state.

Aditya is the only person on the bus who speaks any English, and the goggle-eyed stares and toothless grins of many of his fellow passengers bear him out. They are clearly wondering what on earth a foreigner is doing in their out-of-the-way part of India and it’s only when I mention the name of Lakshmi Mittal that it clicks. Surrounded by sand dunes, without adequate water for drinking let alone for agriculture, Rajgarh is far from prosperous. But it is here that Lakshmi Mittal, whose $32 billion fortune makes him the fifth richest man in the world, was born in 1950 and spent the first nine years of his life.

Last January, I’m told, he came back. One of the jostling villagers pulls a handful of laminated newspaper cuttings from his pocket and shows me the man they call ‘Steel King’ in procession through the town on the back of a pick-up, surrounded by cheering crowds, brandishing an outstretched arm in triumphant greeting.

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