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Dhiru Bhai Ambani built India's largest private sector company.
Created an equity cult in the Indian capital market. Reliance
is the first Indian company to feature in Forbes 500 list
Dhirubhai Ambani was the most enterprising Indian entrepreneur.
His life journey is reminiscent of the rags to riches story.
He is remembered as the one who rewrote Indian corporate
history and built a truly global corporate group.
Dhirubhai Ambani alias Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani was born
on December 28, 1932, at Chorwad, Gujarat, into a Modh family.
His father was a school teacher. Dhirubhai Ambani started
his entrepreneurial career by selling "bhajias" to pilgrims
in Mount Girnar over the weekends.
After doing his matriculation at the age of 16, Dhirubhai
moved to Aden, Yemen. He worked there as a gas-station attendant,
and as a clerk in an oil company. He returned to India in
1958 with Rs 50,000 and set up a textile trading company.
Assisted by his two sons, Mukesh and Anil, Dhiru Bhai Ambani
built India's largest private sector company, Reliance India
Limited, from a scratch. Over time his business has diversified
into a core specialisation in petrochemicals with additional
interests in telecommunications, information technology,
energy, power, retail, textiles, infrastructure services,
capital markets, and logistics.
Dhirubhai Ambani is credited with shaping India's equity
culture, attracting millions of retail investors in a market
till then dominated by financial institutions. Dhirubhai
revolutionised capital markets. From nothing, he generated
billions of rupees in wealth for those who put their trust
in his companies. His efforts helped create an 'equity cult'
in the Indian capital market. With innovative instruments
like the convertible debenture, Reliance quickly became
a favorite of the stock market in the 1980s.
In 1992, Reliance became the first Indian company to raise
money in global markets, its high credit-taking in international
markets limited only by India's sovereign rating. Reliance
also became the first Indian company to feature in Forbes
500 list.
Dhirubhai Ambani was named the Indian Entrepreneur of the
20th Century by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce
and Industry (FICCI). A poll conducted by The Times of India
in 2000 voted him "greatest creator of wealth in the century".
Dhirubhai Ambani died on July 6, 2002, at Mumbai.
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