Rs 14 lakh for lunch with Jhunjhunwala

“I have been supporting many charities in the past and this one is for a friend who runs the Bangalore-based charity for civil rights awareness among children,” Jhunjhunwala said in a phone interview before the auction closed. “I will spend quality time with the winner who bids generously and provide insightful investment guidance.”

Buffett,the world’s third-richest person,promised to give 99% of his fortune to charity and teamed up with Microsoft Corp co-founder Bill Gates to persuade billionaires to give at least half their wealth to philanthropy. In his 11th annual charity-lunch auction on eBay in June,Buffett raised a record $2.63 million for San Francisco-based Glide Foundation,a favourite charity of his first wife,Susan,who died in 2004.

Jhunjhunwala predicted stocks would drop two months before the Bombay Stock Exchange’s benchmark Sensex peaked in January 2008. The index has more than doubled since he told investors in December the same year that India would see “the mother of all bull runs in the next four or five years.” The Sensex climbed to the highest level in more than 30 months on October 14 while the rupee has jumped 4.8% this year as overseas investors bought stocks worth a record Rs 1.14 lakh crore. Jhunjhunwala developed a childhood fascination for stocks by watching his father,a retired tax commissioner,juggle market investments,he said in an interview with Bloomberg News in 2005. After graduating with honours from Sydenham College of Commerce and Economics in Mumbai,he borrowed Rs 4,400 from a brother-in-law in 1985 and began buying shares at age 25.

“It’s a fantastic opportunity,” Thomas,senior manager of corporate communications and pop culture for eBay’s India,Philippines and Malaysia units,said before the auction closed. “I think he is inspired by Warren Buffett.” Jhunjhunwala has said his strategy of picking stocks early in a growth cycle is inspired by US billionaire George Soros and Hong Kong investor Marc Faber. Berkshire Hathaway’s Buffett is his other role model. Forbes ranked Jhunjhunwala as 937 in its list of global billionaires this year with an estimated fortune of $1 billion (Rs 4,437 crore). Buffett was at number 3 with $47 billion (Rs 2.08 lakh crore). Jhunjhunwala’s meal could cost as much as Rs 7,000 per person at a venue like the Taj Mahal Palace hotel’s Zodiac Grill on Mumbai’s waterfront,a favourite meeting place of the city’s business and entertainment elite,where a seven-course dinner includes dishes such as vodka-scented tuna and foie gras pate stuffed with chicken.

The billionaire joins Bollywood film star Amitabh Bachchan and Mukesh Ambani,Asia’s richest man,in raising money for philanthropy in the world’s second-most populated nation. Indians spent about $7.5 billion on charity in 2009,according to a March report by Boston-based business consulting firm Bain & Co.