Indian origin woman among Next Gen billionaires
By Arun Kumar, Washington, August 21, 2008 (IANS)

Nishita Shah, 28, an Indian origin businesswoman from Thailand, golfer Tiger Woods and Elon Musk, co-founder of online payment processor PayPal figure on Forbes' list of next-generation billionaires. Besides Shah, managing director of Thailand's diversified GP Group, on the list are Hollywood actor Tyler Perry, Kenji Kasahara, creator of Japan's leading portal Mixi, and Michael and Xochi Birch, who started Bebo, a social networking site.

"The world's current crop of billionaires has plenty of money but not much youth," the US business magazine said, noting the average age of the 1,125 people on Forbes' list of the world's wealthiest is 61. "The diversity of this group shows you can't predict what industry the next billionaire will come from, but these people also have something in common," Forbes said. "Even though they've accumulated more than enough money to retire in luxury, they aren't packing up for the Hamptons."

Glamorous Nishita Shah is one of the richest people in Thailand because of her stake in her family's sprawling business empire with an estimated net worth at $375 million. When the stunning heiress is not pouring over financial reports or gracing the pages of Thai magazines, she's planning her upcoming fashion line, Forbes said. "My dad said I could study anything I wanted as long as it was business," Shah who holds a business degree from Boston University was quoted as saying.

Shah is largest individual shareholder and director of Precious Shipping, Thailand's biggest dry-bulk shipper boasting a fleet of 44 ships. Her father Kirit founded the group in 1989 and took it public 1993. The 140-year-old family business is booming. Profits more than doubled in past three years. The licensed pilot and youngest member on Forbes' Thailand list also has a clothing company called Burn Baby making "luxury active wear" for "modern urbanite women."

Nishita Shah is launching her own fashion label - Nsha - on three continents at the end of this year. The director in over 40 group companies bets her heart on her own luxury fashion label Nsha launched in selected boutiques across the world.

After the tsunami of 2004 she helped the fishing village Baan Talay Nok "promising to help it recover and to cover the educational costs through university for children who lost one or both parents, roughly 20 in all", according to Forbes.

With her mother Anju Shah, she's a patron and fundraiser for the Queen Sirikit Centre for Breast Cancer. she donated the center $160,000 for education, research and construction costs, says Forbes. Inspired by even richer likes such as Warren Buffet and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation? "I hope to be able to leave a considerable portion of my wealth to the GP Foundation," she once said.