Asian black-tie ball has to dress down for charity

BILLIONAIRES Lakshmi Mittal and Srichand Hinduja are being asked to wear jeans instead of black tie to a charity ball after the event was scaled down because of the credit crunch.

The Pratham ball, which each year raises millions of pounds for an organisation dedicated to improving literacy in deprived villages in India, is one of the key events on the social calendar for affluent London Asians.

But with banking executives tightening their purse strings, organisers have replaced the annual ball with a £100-a-head "no frills party" complete with finger food, a relaxed dress code - and free beer, courtesy of Cobra chief Karan Bilimoria. Corporate guests have been known to pay up to £20,000 for a table at the gala dinner and last year's ball was attended by the Queen of Bhutan, Ozwald Boateng, Meera Syal, author Gautam Malkani and a host of the country's wealthiest Asian tycoons.

The charity auction, run by Christie's, raised a record £2.5million.

A spokeswoman said: "One of our supporters, an anonymous donor, agreed to underwrite the whole evening otherwise it was not going to happen. It's a difficult time and the banks do not want to be seen to be flash - even if it's for charity."