Rs.15.5 Lakhs for a VIP Mobile number

If India's economic liberalization is fruitful or not, here is an interesting story which shall make you believe that post economic liberalization Indians are indeed becoming rich. Take the case of this 26-year-old Amit Malhotra from Ludhiana city in Punjab state of India, son of a city garment manufacturer and property dealer, who spent a whopping Rs 15.50 lakhs (US$ 38,500) for the big-ticket mobile number 9780000000. It was just for a status symbol -- owning a VIP cell phone number like that!!!!

His father, Vijay Malhotra, was quoted as saying that this isn't something new for his son, and that he has always chosen VIP numbers as belongings. Just that this time round, he's blown up a huge amount of money on it...

All said, while a part of India that is seen as rich and fat might pride itself on this kind of obscenely ostentatious spending, what about the phone company -- in this case Hutch -- which actually conducted an auction of the VIP cell phone numbers?

Amit, who had previously applied for such a number; went through a phone auction that lasted from Tuesday morning through Wednesday evening, and haggled alongside 4 other eager customers to eventually seal the big win.

Get Weird India Updates by e-mail