Hinduja brothers:
Biography
Four Hinduja brothers - NRI Srichand and Gopichand
are now UK citizens, NRI Prakash in Geneva is a Swiss
national and Ashok in Bombay is an Indian citizen.
The Hinduja brothers control an business empire
founded by their Indian father who left the province
of Sind for Iran 80 years ago. They are intensely
secretive about the size of their wealth but one some
newspaper estimated it to be in the region of $8bn.
They are involve in global finance, telecommunications,
film and oil businesses. Srichand and Gopichand
are now estimated by the British press to be the 13th
most wealthy people in Britain.
NRI Srichand and Gopichand moved to London in 1979
and developed their father's import and export business.The
notoriously private Hinduja brothers manage the London-based
Hinduja Group, a company founded by their father 86
years ago.
Parmanand Deepchand Hinduja started out as a moneylender
before expanding the business to include imports of
dried fruit, jute, textiles and tea. The business
grew steadily under the late shah of Iran and continued
to flourish even after he was overthrown. It is now
a multibillion-dollar energy, transport, media and
agriculture conglomerate. The company had been in
a bidding war to acquire the Express Newspapers group,
and is one of several bidders for Go, British Airways'
low-cost airline.
Political ties
The family is more open about its political ties
and has had close relationships with a host of world
leaders, ranging from the late shah of Iran, to George
Bush Sr and Tony Blair. The Hinduja brothers boast
a network of rich and influential friends that includes
senior British politicians former US President Bill
Clinton and Queen Elizabeth the Second.
These two brothers are well known not just for their
support over the years to the Conservative and Labour
parties, but also because of large charitable donations
made through their Hinduja Foundation.
They have given money for the construction and decoration
of at least two Hindu temples in the south-east of
England.
More controversially they contributed £1m ($1.5m)
to the construction of the ill-fated Millennium Dome
on the River Thames, an issue that resulted in the
resignation of UK minister Peter Mandelson.
Mr Mandelson, who was in charge of the Dome project,
was accused of pulling strings to help Srichand Hinduja
secure UK citizenship.
Mr Mandelson stepped down after admitting making
misleading statements about Mr Hinduja's passport
application. Subsequent inquiries cleared Mr Mandelson
of any wrongdoing
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