The 53-year-old Omaha businessman, founder of 300-million dollar Infousa Inc, said he would have loved a quiet new year eve "but this is definitely worth it". "I have been blessed with a lot of good fortune," Gupta told The Washington Post.

He said that in September, he had called on first lady Hillary Clinton's chief fund raiser, Terry Mcauliffe, to ask how he could assist in celebrations and was told that money would be nice. Gupta, a noted philanthropist in Nebraska, had left his village, Rampur Manhyaran, about 175 kms north of Delhi, in 1967 with $ 58 in his pocket to attend graduate school at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln after receiving an undergraduate engineering degree from the Indian Institute of Technology.According to his biography, the paper noted, his parents still livein his village.

Gupta has made many philanthropic contributions. His village will soon have a technical trade school for women for which he has gifted one million dollars, the Post said. Besides, the Post noted, the Omaha businessman had given much and often to Democratic candidates and causes including President Bill Clinton, Vice President Albert Gore and the Democratic National Committee, during the last eight years.