I had never heard of this gentleman until yesterday when I first saw on Bloomberg he had passed away but geez did this man build a hell of a business empire. From buying Tetley, the renowned British tea company and inventor of the tea bag, to buying Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford in 2008 it is safe to say the man was fantastic at business!

However, if you look up his net worth you will see that he is not in the top 100 wealthiest in India and according to Forbes isn't in the top 400! The reason for this is one of those rare cases of someone doing something remarkable. He came from the Tata family and was the adopted grandson of Jamshedji Tata the man who started the whole family fortune. In 1892 Jameshedji began his philanthropic efforts and helped lay the groundwork for philanthropy in India.

His grandson, Ratan Tata, took the family's fortune to the next level as they went global and began to make a ton of money. This then led to the family's philanthropic efforts to benefit immensely from this windfall as well! Unlike so many other major companies the family company, Tata Son's, has a very unique shareholder structure with about 66% of the equity capital held by philanthropic trusts endowed by members of the Tata family.

This is why you won't see him very high on the richest people in India lists as while the companies that Tata Son's holds generate billions of dollars every year the majority of that goes to philanthropy. It is an amazing example of the good that can come from large businesses.