MA Yusufali named most influential Indian in the GCC

[ejazr]

MA Yusufali named most influential Indian in the GCC | TwoCircles.net

Kozhikode: MA Yussufali, Managing Director of the Emke Group, has been named the most influential Indian in the GCC by the 'Arabian Business'. Businessmen in UAE dominate the list of 100 most influential Indians in the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council).

"This year's list proves beyond any doubt the huge contribution Indians have made to the development of the Gulf in the past few years", said Edward Attwood, deputy editor of the 'Arabian Business', according to reports. "What is fascinating about the list is that many of those close to the top of it came to the region several years ago without any real income. Through sheer hard work, they have built empires worth billions of dollars."

Several Malayalis have secured place in the list of the 'Arabian Business' – P Muhammedali of the Galfar Group (fifth), PNC Menon – Shobha Developers (ninth), Faizal Kottikollon – KEF Holdings (24th), Santhosh Joseph – Dubai Pearl I (26th), Surya Subrahmanian – Emirates NBD (29th), Dr Azad Mooppan – DM Healthcare Group (44th), CK Menon – Behzad Group (46th), Suresh Kumar – Emirates NBD Capital (53rd), Korathe Muhammed – KM Trading Group (57th), MM Ramachandran – Atlas Jewellery (67th), Thumbay Moideen – Thumbay Group and Ajman Hospital (78th), Ravi Pillai – Nassar Al Hajiri Corporation (85th), Joy Alukkas – Joy Alukkas Group (86th) and Madhav Kurup – Hellmann Worldwide Logistics (89) have been named in the list.

Mr Yusuffali's Emke Group owns the Lulu chain of hypermarkets headquartered in Abu Dhabi. It has offices in 29 countries; employs around 27,000 people (including 22,000 Indians) and has an annual turnover of $3.75 bn. He had earlier topped the list of 10 most influential foreigners prepared by the Wallstreet Journal. He has been honoured by several awards, including the prestigious Padma Shri in 2008 and the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award in 2005. He was also elected by the business community in Abu Dhabi as the member of the Director Board of the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industries in 2005, in the first ever election held to the body. He was re-elected to the post in 2009. He was highly appreciated for his role as mediator in the Smart City venture in Kochi, which is a dream project of Kerala. Yusuffali is involved in many social, charitable and humanitarian activities both in India as well as in Gulf countries.

 

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Power to the people: Indian influence in the GCC - Politics & Economics - ArabianBusiness.com

If there was any doubt as to the importance of the Indian business contribution to life in the UAE, one figure will immediately dispel it. Last year, bilateral trade between the two countries topped $43bn. And by no means was it all one way, with UAE exports to the Asian economic powerhouse making up just under $20bn. That amounts to the entire nominal GDP of Tunisia last year, if you want to put that number into perspective.

Due to the long historical ties between the two countries, trade between India and the UAE is by far the largest in the Gulf. Saudi Arabia, which is looking to increase those ties substantially, saw around $7bn worth of exports and imports last year, with the other GCC countries following on behind.

No wonder that so many non-resident Indians (NRI) have decided to call the Gulf their home. According to the latest figures sent to Arabian Business by the Indian consulate general in Dubai, the Indian population in the UAE now stands at 1.7 million. Again, to put that figure into perspective, the UAE Statistics Bureau said last year that the population of the country in total was just 8.26 million, which means that Indians represent around 21 percent of residents. They outnumber local nationals by not far off two to one, and make up almost a quarter of all expats living in the UAE.

But the UAE doesn't even have the largest Indian population in the Gulf — that honour goes to Saudi Arabia, which has 1.79 million resident Indians, making up just under seven percent of the population there.

This week, Arabian Business is publishing its annual list of the most powerful Indians in the Gulf. Our first list, last year, garnered an enormous amount of attention, and I have no doubt that the phones will be ringing off the hook again when our latest list is released. But whether you disagree with the placings, or whether you think that we've missed out on someone vital, we hope the main point is absolutely clear; that Indian businessmen and women have been absolutely vital to the development of the Gulf as we know it.

Take Maghanmal Pancholia, for example. The Arabian Trading Agency chairman has now lived in Dubai for more than six decades; he moved here aged seventeen, at a time when there was no running water, no roads, and the main form of transportation was a donkey. Pancholia's decision to buy a generator and supply electricity to the markets around Dubai Creek made him the first man to bring power to the emirate.

But, like so many other names on our list, Pancholia didn't just let the cash roll in and rest on his laurels. He laid the foundations for Dubai's first Indian High School, which today has more than 9,000 pupils enrolled there.

Time and again, we hear of Indian expats giving back to the communities that have supported them. There's Krishnamurthy Kumar, who set up the Indian Community Welfare Committee to support Indians in local difficulties, and just last week, Siddharth Balachandran donated $136,000 to the same charity.

While we have made every effort to ensure that the names on the list are the right ones, we can't claim to be infallible. Please get in touch to let us know your thoughts; the more names we can collect, the better next year's list will be.

 

[KS]

I always thought a Mallu would be the most influential Indian in GCC

 

[ejazr]

^^^ Yes who else , Mallus makeup 4 of the top 10 most influential Indians in GCC. And most of them are UAE based. What is interesting is all of these people are self-made and started out with no major financial backing and worked their way to the top. Some very inspiring success stories out there.

Gulf powerful Indians list has 4 Malayalis in top 10

Four Malayalee businessmen are among the first ten in the 100 most powerful Indians in the Gulf — a region to where people from Kerala have flocked in large numbers for half a century now.

EMKE Group founder Yussuffali MA has topped the list of the GCC's 100 most powerful Indians, published on Sunday by Arabian Business, the Middle East's best-selling weekly business magazine.

GEMS Group chairman Sunny Varkey secured the third spot, while Gulfar vice-chairman P Mohamed Ali occupied the fifth spot. PNC Menon, chairman of Shobha Developers, is in the 9th position. EMKE group, which owns the Lulu chain of hypermarkets, is headquartered in Abu Dhabi and has offices in 29 countries. It employs around 27,000 people — including 22,000 Indians, a major chunk of who are from Kerala. It has an annual turnover of $3.75bn.

Occupying slot number 2 is another retail giant, Landmark boss Micky Jagtiani. GEMS's Varkey is the brain behind one of the world's largest school operators.

The highest-ranked banker was Standard Chartered CEO V Shankar. He took the fourth place. Shankar is one of two bankers to secure spots in the top 10, with Doha Bank CEO R Seetharaman rounding up the rankings.

The list is dominated by businessmen based in the Arab emirates. That is hardly surprising, given that India-UAE bilateral trade topped $43bn last year. A report from Doha Bank last week noted that the total trade between the six Gulf countries and India stood at $80bn in the first nine months of this year alone.

Edward Attwood, deputy editor of 2001-launched Arabian Business, said this year's list proved the volume of contribution Indians have made to the development of the Gulf in the past few years. "What is fascinating about the list," he noted, "is that many of those close to the top of it came to the region several years ago — without any real income. Through sheer hard work, they have built empires worth billions of dollars."