Wtg Worswick, little did I suspect that you would about these sub groups, Boras, Ismailis.. .
India is so vast, that even Indians cannot plumb its depths, which is why I have trouble pretending to be a representative Indian. While we are on the middle east, WSJ some time back had an article on gold, which asian country imports how much, They had not mentioned India anywhere. But as Mohan pointed out India's gold hoard earlier (8% of all gold mined), Much of the middle east gold flows into India.
Would be curious to know who these Middle east bankers are. I have heard of Lebanese bankers, Do they belong to a specific community, Are they from UAE?
I have always felt that the middle eastern countries had squandered probably the greatest transfer of wealth, All that Oil money, and they still do not seem to have direct involvement in the world of finance ( If you exclude the dude who has huge slabs of CCI ,AAPL, The Kuwait Investment org, etc.).
Commenting on these informal networks like Hundi, In western India there is also a courier service called angadia or something, way before DHL and Fedex, way discrete, used by the diamond trade and others in Western India. Of course National Geographic did an article long ago on the Lunch Box delivery system in Bombay, probably because it looked much better in pictures.
And another thing, a Bora buddy of mine in the US bought a fairly pricey house, no mortgage, that informal network kicked in, I do not exactly how it works. Other Asian groups have these informal banking networks too, pretty amazing, What is the advantage in the US, of foregoing Uncle Sam's tax break,how do they enforce collection,Some guy named Kotkin had done a book on these kinds of 'cultural differences'.
Regards Ramesh. |
