Warren Buffett to arrive in Bangalore today

Bangalore, Mar 22: The world's third richest man, Warren Buffett is arriving in Bangalore today on a purely official visit beside mobilizing funds for his philanthropic activities. He will be accompanied by officials from Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett's investment company and Eitan Wertheimer, chairman of the Board of the Israeli company Iscar.

The primary aim of his visit will be to visit TaeguTec India, a wholly owned subsidiary of Iscar. Berkshire had earlier acquired 80% of Iscar's shares from Wertheimer's family for $4 billion in 2006; the Wertheimers retained 20% of the shares with Eitan Wertheimer being retained as chairman.

Iscar is in the business of producing innovative cutting tools for metalworking, and TaeguTec India supports this work.

His itinerary will include a media interaction at The Taj West End hotel with sources also revealing that he might visit a slum on the way. On Wednesday, he will visit the TaeguTec facility located in Bommasandra industrial area, Bangalore. L Krishnan, MD of TaeguTec India downplayed the momentous occasion and said, “It's going to be a normal working day at Taegutec. He (Buffett) is going to walk through the plant and interact with employees."

Later in the afternoon on Wednesday, a lunch and panel discussion is scheduled to be held at the Leela Palace hotel along with close to 100 industry bigwigs that will include Infosys CEO Kris Gopalakrishnan beside Buffett and Wertheimer. Dinner on the same day will comprise of TaeguTec's vendors and business associates. He will leave Bangalore on the same day.

Thursday and Friday will see him rubbing shoulders with politicos that will see him meeting the Prime Minister and other top indistrialists. Also in the agenda will be to seek support for his charity endeavour 'Giving Pledge' that will see billionaires commit half of their wealth to noble causes in society. Buffett has often been referred to as the 'Oracle of Omaha' when he pledged 99 per cent of his wealth in Berkshire Hathaway to philanthropy.

He will arrive at the Bangalore International airport today at 2:30pm.

OneIndia News