Carrying Dhirubhai’s Vision Forward: Mukesh Ambani

by Pradeep Thakur

If Dhirubhai Ambani was a larger-than-life patriarch and Anil was the public face of Reliance, Mukesh Ambani was an enigma. Those who knew him well credited him with leading Reliance’s turbo-charged growth over the last two decades. But very little is publicly known of his beliefs, vision and motivation. In this book I am just trying to sketch the highlights of his life, the legacy of Dhirubhai and his business.

You may say Mukesh is the child born with silver spoon, but this is not the true picture. The real picture is interesting to observe. A senior Journalist Anand Giridhardas has courage to compare Mukesh Ambani with

“In the last century, Mohandas K. Gandhi was India?s most famous and powerful private citizen. Today, Mr. Ambani is widely regarded as playing that role, though in a very different way. Like Mr. Gandhi, Mr. Ambani belongs to a merchant caste known as the modh banias, is a vegetarian and a teetotaler and is a revolutionary thinker with bold ideas for what India ought to become. Yet Mr. Gandhi was a scrawny ascetic, a champion of the village, a skeptic of modernity and a man focused on spiritual purity. Mr. Ambani is a fleshy oligarch, a champion of the city, a burier of the past and a man who deftly ? and, some critics say, ruthlessly ? wields financial power. He is the richest person in India, with a fortune estimated in the tens of billions of dollars, and many people here expect that he will be the richest person on earth before long. Although he lacks a politician?s silver tongue ? he can be a nervous public speaker, and his diction can be halting ? he talks more like a father of the nation than a corporate executive. Describing his goals, he says they are for India?s benefit as much as they are for his sprawling company, Reliance Industries.”

I think Mr. Girdhardas is very right with his perspective. Yes, Mukesh Ambani has the capacity to carry Dhirubhai?s legacy. He proved this. Mukesh Ambani, who feuded with his younger brother after their father died six years ago, took control of roughly half of the divided company. Even as he enters new areas, he has maintained his family?s dominance in its petrochemical, oil and gas and textile manufacturing businesses.

K. V. Kamath, the Chairman of ICICI Bank and a longtime financier and friend of the Ambanis says, ?He is motivated by the ability to change the face of the country. That is the biggest kick anybody would get today ? that they could touch the lives of a large number of these billion people and make things better for them.?

Remember the India?s decades-long experiment with rigid state control over the economy. Ambanis grew up as lotuses from the filth. It makes them tough, it makes them suspicious, it makes them vindictive at times, and it makes them come out in a hurry. They always see life as, ?Oh God, better not miss an opportunity?.

…And Mukesh Ambani surprised everyone to be the owner of World?s First Billion Dollar Home ?Antilla?. Reported price tagged at $ 2 Billion, Antilla (named after the mythical island), , like its name, it houses stuff that surrounds myth! The only remotely comparable high-rise property currently on the market is the 70 million dollar triplex penthouse at the Pierre Hotel in New York, designed to resemble a French chateau, and climbing 525 feet in the air.

Antilla is being built on the Altamount Road, one of the most exclusive streets of Mumbai. For generations, Altamount was a favored address for India?s Anglicized elite, a group British imperialists groomed in their own image. To a 19th-century British official, Thomas Babington Macaulay, they were ?interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern; a class of persons, Indian in blood and color, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals and in intellect.?

As time went on, the elites were steeped in British culture. They dismissed those who spoke Indian languages at home.

Mukesh was born in 1957 and the year after Dhirubhai, opened Reliance?s doors in 1958. In 2004, two years after Dhirubhai died, his sons began battling each other for control of Reliance. Their mother, Kokilaben, also a major shareholder, ended the squabble in 2005 by giving Anil control of Reliance?s newer service businesses like telecommunications, electric power and banking. Mukesh got the portfolio of industrial businesses. Each half now operates independently.

Ticking off one Indian problem at a time, Mukesh Ambani has proposed for each a Reliance solution. While India was once largely self-sufficient in oil and gas, a swelling middle class is burning ever more energy, forcing India to become an energy importer and straining the country?s development. So he is building a world-class oil refining and petrochemical complex in Jamnagar, in the western state of Gujarat. The $6 billion facility can already process 660,000 barrels a day, and it has helped India to become self-sufficient in producing fin...

216 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

A seasoned journalist, Pradeep Thakur, has rich and varied experience of working with prominent media groups like Delhi Press, Amar Ujala and Dainik Jagran. He is widely traveled and has in depth experience of covering wide range of subjects. His more than two decade long association with the print media culminated in his becoming the Editorial Head of Dainik Jagran, Ludhiana Unit, Punjab. Now whole-time writing and publishing keeps him meaningfully engaged.

Latest works:

Dr. Vijay Mallya's Kingfisher: The King of Good Times and Latest Turbulence

MADONNA: Unstoppable! (Revised & Enlarged Edition)

“TIGER” IS BACK! The Great Struggle of Tiger Woods (Revised & Enlarged Edition)

Vikram & the Vampire (Improvised Edition)

ABHIJNANSAKUNTALAM (The Recognition of Sakuntala) Improvised Edition

KAMASUTRA (Improvised Edition)

His other published works:

1. Tata Nano: The Peoples Car;
2. Carrying Dhirubhai’s Vision Forward: Mukesh Ambani;
3. The Shining Star of America &The World: Barack Obama;
4. The King of Steel: Lakshmi N. Mittal;
5. Madonna: The World’s Most Powerful Musician;
6. Angelina Jolie: The World’s Most Powerfull Celebrity? ;
7. Tiger Woods: Glory to Disgrace to Glory!;
8. Indian Music Masters of Our Times-I;
9. Indian American-I ;
10. TENNIS: All Time Career Money Leaders;
11. GOLF: Career Money Leaders;
12. The Most Important People of the 20th Century (Part-I): Leaders & Revolutionaries;
13. The Most Important People of the 20th Century (Part-II): Artists & Entertainers;
14. The Most Important People of the 20th Century (Part-III): Builders & Titans;
15. Britney Spears Is Coming-back!
16. ANNA HAZARE: The 'Gandhi' of 21st Century
17. ANNA HAZARE: The Face Of India's Fight Against Corruption

Reviews

[Oxwk To · Rating 5 out of 5]

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