Bywords

What happens when members of the middle class meet money? Money as in serious money? We are soon going to find out via a fascinating busin...

What happens when members of the middle class meet money? Money as in serious money? We are soon going to find out via a fascinating business-cum-social phenomenon. First the news. Earlier this fortnight, the business papers were full of a new multimillionaire, Rajesh Jain. He sold his collection of popular internet sites to Satyam Infoway for Rs 499 crore. He worked round the clock and built the business in just a few years. An ex-IITian, Rajesh is only in his early 30s.

Rajesh is only the newest in a string of young men mostly men, alas who have earned unimaginable wealth through software and the Internet. We will hear of hundreds, possibly thousands, like him in the coming years. They are the gold prospectors of the net age.

Most of them are from families like yours and mine. What would you do if you made so much money? The first few crore would satisfy most urges: an obscenely large house with 24-hour security, a fat sum in bonds and fixed deposits, a few cars, trips around the world, firstclockwise, then anticlockwise. And then8230;? What will this tribe of Rajeshs do?I have at least one answer: we will see philanthropy on a scale which will make the old business families look like misers. Here8217;s why.

Business families hoard because they have a strong urge to pass on an even larger empire to the next generation. Most new millionaires don8217;t. Business families are from old industries which change slowly. Pappu can mess up papa8217;s business as much as he likes; some retainer will clean up after him. In software and the Internet, businesses boom and collapse with equal swiftness. By the time Pappu finds his way to the bathroom at corporate headquarters there may be no business left. Besides, unlike traditional businessmen, money is only one of the things that motivates these mavericks.

It is the excitement of creation which is the main driver. Money is a byproduct and worldly recognition of success. If they pray at all, it is probably to both Lakshmi and Saraswati. Some of infotech8217;s best knownnames lead simple lives: they live in relatively modest homes, drive their own cars and, as one especially prominent entrepreneur whose worth is in the region of Rs 1,000 crore admitted, may even clean their own toilets. Some of them have already made small donations to various causes. The amounts involved will swell because the urge to make a meaningful contribution to society especially with as much inequity as ours will assert itself.This is a rash prediction. I hope I am right. Because these infotech entrepreneurs are emerging as role models for enterprising youngsters. And far better role models they are, too, than yesterday8217;s manipulative businessmen. If they donate in large sums, it will also prove that it was the hunt and not so much the money that drove them.

The writer is a net entrepreneur who runs agencyfaqs.com