Shri Dhirubhai Ambani Was an Exceptional Human Being and Outstanding Leader

8/6/2019 Shri Dhirubhai Ambani Was an Exceptional Human Being and Outstanding Leader

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shri Dhirubhai Ambani was an exceptional human being and outstanding leader.A Man far ahead of histimes,he epitomised dauntless entrepreneurial spirit.He dared to dream on unimaginable scale in Indianindustry.His life and achievements prove that backed by confidence,courage and conviction,man canachieve the impossible.

The Story of Dhirubhai Ambani

The Story of Dhirubhai Ambani

Perceptions and Proportions

Perceiving the market opportunities with a sense of proportion and embarking into appropriatediversification plans go a long way in the growth of a business enterprise. The case study of Reliance Enterprise is presented here. The students of Management Schools may like to drawlessons and find it to be a source of inspiration for the niche strategies adopted by the businesstycoon Dhirubhai Ambani from rags to riches.

From rags to riches:

Dhirubhai Ambani was born on 28 Dec. 1932 as the third son to a school teacher in Gujarat withmoderate means. Ambani moved to Aden, Yemen when he was 16 for a livelihood. He startedhis career as a dispatch clerk before becoming the distributor for Shell Products. He was later promoted as a manager in an oil filling station at the port of Aden.

The Yemeni Rial Coin had high content of pure silver in those days. Young Dhirubhai perceivedhigh demand for µrial¶ in London Stock Exchange and purchased them in bulk and melted thecoins in silver and sold it to bullion traders in London. Though it was stopped in 3 months, D.A.made a few lakhs of Rupees in this transaction.

D.A. returned to India after 10 years and found Reliance Commercial Company with a capital of Rs.15000/= in Masjid Bunder in Mumbai in a 350 Sq.ft. space with one telephone, one table,three chairs and with a business mission of importing polyester yarn and exporting spices.. Hewent on to establish Reliance Textiles in 1964 under the brand name ³Vimal´ and the WorldBank applauded the brand as the best Polyester Cloth. Perceiving success, Dhirubhai establishedReliance IndustriesLtd in 1970s..

Dhirubhai Ambani is credited with starting the equity cult in India. More than 58,000 investorsfrom various parts of India subscribed to Reliance's IPO in 1977. Dhirubhai was able to convince people of rural Gujarat that being shareholders of his company will only bring returns to their investment.

RIL holds the distinction that it is the only Public Limited Company whose several AnnualGeneral Meetings were held in stadiums.In 1986, The Annual General Meeting of Reliance



Industries was held in Cross Maidan, Mumbai, was attended by more than 30,000 shareholders.

Dhirubhai Ambani's takes control of the Mumbai Stock exchange : In 1982, RIL was coming outwith a rights issue of partly convertible debenture and it was rumored that the objective was notto get the then existing stock price to slide by an inch. A group of stock brokers in Calcutta

joined together as a Bear Cartel. Taking this as an opportunity they started to short sell RILscrips. Friends of RIL counteracted this move and the Bulls started buying the scrips on BombayStock Exchange.The bulls kept on buying and a price of Rs. 152 per share was maintained till theday of settlement. The Bear Cartel believed that the Bulls would accept settlement under the then prevalent " Badla " system. On the day of settlement the Bear Cartel was taken a back when theBulls demanded physical delivery of shares.To complete the transaction the much needed cashwas provided to the stock brokers who had brought shares of Reliance by none other thanDhirubhai Ambani. In case of non-settlement the Bulls demanded an 'Unbadala' (penalty sum) of Rs.35 per share. With this the demand increased and the shares of Reliance shot above 180rupees in minutes. The settlement caused enormous uproar in the market and Dhirubhai Ambaniwas the unquestioned king of the stock markets.

The situation was completely out of control. Authorities of Bombay Stock exchange intervenedin the matter and brought down the "Unbadla" rate to Rs. 2 with a stipulation that the Bear Cartelhas to give the delivery of shares within few days. The Bear Cartel brought shares of Reliancefrom the market at higher price levels and it was also realized that Dhirubhai Ambani himself supplied those shares to the Bear Cartel and earned a healthy profit out of The Bear Cartel'sadventure .

After this incident many questions were raised by his detractors and the press. Not many peoplewere able to understand as to how a yarn trader till a few years ago was able to get in so much of cash flow during the crisis. RBI was called upon to investigate into the matter . It was clarified

by RBI that the money flow into RIL was due to Rs.220 million investment made by NRIs thru'various Companies like ' crocodile's etc., and that there was nothing unethical nor illegal in thewhole matter.

A film inspired by the life of Dhirubhai is set to release in January 2007. The Hindi Film Guru,directed by ManiRathnam and music by Rahman will show the struggle of a man who strives tomake his mark in life. The movie stars Abhishek Bachan and AishwaryaRai in leading roles.

Highlights of Dhirubhai's venture :-

* What the Corporate Houses of Tatas, Birlas and Dalmiahs achieved and dominated over a

period of a century, Dhirubhai Ambani could achieve within a short period with a razor likesharpness and business acumen.

* Dhirubhai Ambani proved to be a king in his diversification plans into Petro Chemicals,Energy, Power, Information Technology, Telecommunications, Capital Markets, Retails and soon.

* RIL is now India's largest Private Sector with turnover over US$19.976 billion backed by a



profit over US$2.03 billion.

* 25% of share holders in India own a RIL Scrip.

* Fortune Global 500 featured RIL in 342nd rank in 2006. Forbes Global featured RIL at 295

spot in 2000.

*Chemtech and Chemical Engg.World gave the" Man of the Century " award in Nov 2000 toDhirubhai Ambani.

* Dhirubhai won the " Dean's Medal " of Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania in June1998 for " Outstanding Leadership "

* FICCI conferred the title " Man of 20th century " on D.A.in 2000.

* Times Of India in 2000 voted Dhirubhai Ambani as the greatest creator of wealth in the

country.

The man from rags to riches, Dhirubhai Ambani breathed his last on July 6, 2002 but his glowwould continue to inspire the whole generations of nations.

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Re: The Story of Dhirubhai AmbaniTis such a motivating story.The subcontinent seems to be having such...read Infosysis the other day.Please share more...plus the TATA'S.

ONE WAY OF assessing the extraordinary achievements of Dhirubhai Ambani is to make aninventory of the facts. He founded India's first Fortune Global 500 company. He was thevisionary behind the industrial group which accounts for more than 3 per cent of India's GDP,about 5 per cent of the country's total exports and 30 per cent of the profits made by privatesector companies. The integrated Jamnagar refinery complex in Gujarat is said to be the world'slargest greenfield project of its kind. About 35 lakh people have a direct interest in RelianceIndustries which, post-merger, will have more shareholders than any other company in the world.The facts, as it were, speak for themselves. They tell a story of a truly global giant, of an Indian private sector industrial house which climbed swiftly to the peak leaving behind most others tolabour in the foothills.

In a way though what the facts do not reveal are even more extraordinary. For behind thecreation of this story of dizzy corporate growth is also the story of a man, the son of a schoolteacher in rural Gujarat, who failed to pass his school exams in the first attempt and earned hisfirst money as a child selling snacks to pilgrims over weekends. His early years were relativelyunremarkable. A job with an Indian trading company took him to Aden and he moved on fromthere to work for Shell, as a petrol pump attendant. When he returned to India in 1957, polyester had just been invented and Ambani ² with a vision which would remain until the very end ²



believed it represented the future of Indian textile business. He guessed correctly. His investmentof Rs. 15,000 to set up a trading house paid off quickly and by the mid-1960s, he was the largest polyester trader in the country.

The Reliance success story is spun around polyester but the diversifications have come thick and

fast ² plastics, refineries, oil, gas and telecommunications. To finance some of these operations,Ambani transformed the way big business operated by raising money from the market, a strategywhich was directly responsible for promoting the equity cult in India. However, a life in businesswas also a life in controversy. By the 1980s, the so-called Polyester Pasha was embroiled in aspat with one of Mumbai's better known industrialists, was the subject of a scalding newspaper campaign, was regarded as being responsible for the ruin of a rival polyester company and wassaddled with an unfavourable reputation as a man who adopted questionable measures toinfluence Government policy or, as it was called euphemistically in those days, to manage theenvironment.

The controversy over the methods employed by Reliance will never go away. Those who regard

Ambani kindly will continue to claim that in managing the environment, he did what all other industrialists did in the days of the licence-permit-quota raj, but only better. And Ambani's criticswill always claim that he went much too far while working the system. However, there is nodoubt about one thing. The scorching growth of the Reliance group has only increased after thelicence raj was dismantled, its turnover having grown some 20-fold in the 1990s, the decade of liberalisation. Recent diversification has taken Reliance into new and seemingly unrelated areas.Massive investments in telecommunications have been made with the stated objective of becoming the world's first fully integrated telecommunications company. A relatively modestforay into the biotechnology sector has already resulted in its stem cell cultures being chosen asone of the few suitable for research purposes. As a first generation entrepreneur, Ambani createdIndia's largest business empire. The challenge before the Reliance group is to consolidate on this

exceptional accomplishment.

Dhirubhai Ambani's story has been told and retold many times in books, newspapers and films.

Yet the life of the late Dhirubhai Ambani [ Images ] has now been narrated by the person whoknew him the best: his wife, Kokilaben.

Kokilaben, 75, the Ambani family matriarch, launched her memoirs paying tribute to her legendary husband on Tuesday at a ceremony that saw her two sons, Anil and Mukesh, share adais after a very long time. The memoirs have been published in English and Gujarati. TheEnglish version is titled Dhirubhai Ambani: The Man I Knew, and the Gujarati edition is named Dhirubhai Ambani: Maara Jeevan Sathi.

Having lived and learned with Dhirubhai for close to half a century, Kokilaben is uniquely placed to tell the story of his life and his meteoric rise in business as well as personal life. Here,in her own words, Kokilaben describes her life with Dhirubhai and her belief in a man who was born to be a legend in his own lifetime.



Kokilaben writes: "During all those years, I had never seen him in a miserable or a desperatestate of mind. That does not mean he never faced difficulties. But when engulfed by difficulty,he used to resolve it with courage and imagination."

Dhirubhai began his journey in extremely trying circumstances to blossom into one of the

greatest success stories in the annals of Indian industry, and all this while Kokilaben was thefount of his inspiration and support.

The memoirs depict the life of Dhirubhai Ambani, beginning with his childhood in the village of Chorwad to his early youth in the 1950s as a migrant worker in Aden, then a British Colony, tohis later years as one of India's [ Images ] great industrial visionaries.

Kokilaben had long wanted to compile a book on Dhirubhai. She was assisted by daughter Dipti(Ambani) Salgaocar, who worked with her mother in conceptualising and putting the 300-pagetome together. It comprises rare pictures of places and people associated with Dhirubhai as wellas intimate personal anecdotes of his life and work.

Kokilaben's insights into their life together draw upon reminiscences, and information about their early years and through it one man's determination, resolve and struggle to reach the very pinnacle of success. In his private life too, Dhirubhai fulfilled every role and responsibility withaplomb. He was a caring husband, a loving father, an indulgent grandfather and a loyal friend.He devoted a great deal of time and energy to his children's learning and to the development of their personalities.

"Everyday, over dinner, he would take time out to update himself on what his children weredoing (and learning) and to encourage them to further expand their horizons. He took the word'impossible' out of his grandchildren's vocabulary and inspired them to see the world as a place

of exciting and limitless opportunity -- "a place where you could make things happen not because you were wealthy but because you were had the courage, boldness and initiative," writesKokilaben.

And why did she write the book?

Talking of the reasons behind her decision to write on Dhirubhai, Kokilaben said in a mediarelease: "I felt all these facts from his life should be recorded for posterity. The world has seenhim as a successful industrialist; but I have seen him in the role of an excellent man. I wanted todraw his personality as a humane individual, and that's how I was inspired to write this book."

The book comes years after Hamish McDonald essayed The Polyester Prince: The official biography of Dhirubhai. Last month, Hindi film Guru, supposedly inspired by Dhirubhai's life,hit theatres but the filmmaker Mani Ratnam declined to acknowledge that his creation is culled

fr om the f acts o f the business icon's li f e.

Dhirubhai Ambani's story has been told and retold many times in books, newspapers and films.

Yet the life of the late Dhirubhai Ambani [ Images ] has now been narrated by the person whoknew him the best: his wife, Kokilaben.



Kokilaben, 75, the Ambani family matriarch, launched her memoirs paying tribute to her legendary husband on Tuesday at a ceremony that saw her two sons, Anil and Mukesh, share adais after a very long time. The memoirs have been published in English and Gujarati. TheEnglish version is titled Dhirubhai Ambani: The Man I Knew, and the Gujarati edition is named Dhirubhai Ambani: Maara Jeevan Sathi.

Having lived and learned with Dhirubhai for close to half a century, Kokilaben is uniquely placed to tell the story of his life and his meteoric rise in business as well as personal life. Here,in her own words, Kokilaben describes her life with Dhirubhai and her belief in a man who was born to be a legend in his own lifetime.

Kokilaben writes: "During all those years, I had never seen him in a miserable or a desperatestate of mind. That does not mean he never faced difficulties. But when engulfed by difficulty,he used to resolve it with courage and imagination."

Dhirubhai began his journey in extremely trying circumstances to blossom into one of the

greatest success stories in the annals of Indian industry, and all this while Kokilaben was thefount of his inspiration and support.

The memoirs depict the life of Dhirubhai Ambani, beginning with his childhood in the village of Chorwad to his early youth in the 1950s as a migrant worker in Aden, then a British Colony, tohis later years as one of India's [ Images ] great industrial visionaries.

Kokilaben had long wanted to compile a book on Dhirubhai. She was assisted by daughter Dipti(Ambani) Salgaocar, who worked with her mother in conceptualising and putting the 300-pagetome together. It comprises rare pictures of places and people associated with Dhirubhai as wellas intimate personal anecdotes of his life and work.

Kokilaben's insights into their life together draw upon reminiscences, and information about their early years and through it one man's determination, resolve and struggle to reach the very pinnacle of success. In his private life too, Dhirubhai fulfilled every role and responsibility withaplomb. He was a caring husband, a loving father, an indulgent grandfather and a loyal friend.He devoted a great deal of time and energy to his children's learning and to the development of their personalities.

"Everyday, over dinner, he would take time out to update himself on what his children weredoing (and learning) and to encourage them to further expand their horizons. He took the word'impossible' out of his grandchildren's vocabulary and inspired them to see the world as a placeof exciting and limitless opportunity -- "a place where you could make things happen not because you were wealthy but because you were had the courage, boldness and initiative," writesKokilaben.

And why did she write the book?

Talking of the reasons behind her decision to write on Dhirubhai, Kokilaben said in a mediarelease: "I felt all these facts from his life should be recorded for posterity. The world has seen



him as a successful industrialist; but I have seen him in the role of an excellent man. I wanted todraw his personality as a humane individual, and that's how I was inspired to write this book."

The book comes years after Hamish McDonald essayed The Polyester Prince: The official

biography of Dhirubhai. Last month, Hindi film Guru, supposedly inspired by Dhirubhai's life,

hit theatres but the filmmaker Mani Ratnam declined to acknowledge that his creation is culled fr om the f acts o f the business icon's li f e.

"I am not a loser," said Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani, the man behind the success of the Reliancegroup.Ambani, who founded the petrochemicals giant Reliance group, was born in 1932 in Chorwadvillage in Gujarat. He started out as a labourer, graduated to becoming a spice trader, and then setup his first cloth mill in Ahmedabad; finally building one of India's largest companies. The storyof the small-time trader who within just four decades created a globocorp is part of Indian marketfolklore.Dhirubhai has many firsts to his credit - from building the Rs 90 billion Hazira project to the

GDR by an Indian company reporting a whopping net profit of Rs 10 billion. But one of hisgreatest achievements lies in catalysing shareholders' spirit in India through bonuses anddividends.Reliance Industries, which went public in 1977 with one of the largest public offerings of itstime, has the largest number of shareholders at over 3.5 million. Ambani is credited with shapingIndia's equity culture, attracting retail investors in a market dominated by state-run financialinstitutions.And today, Dhirubhai is easily the most popular businessman in India. The group, which beganlife as a tiny trading outfit in the narrow by-lanes of Mumbai's textile market, is now India'ssecond-largest company, with sales of Rs 58,000 crore and annual net profit of Rs 4,110 crore.Reliance is only the second Indian entry in the Fortune 500 list; at number 425, it is ahead of

giants such as Marks & Spencer, Christian Dior and Northwest Airlines.Reliance Industries is now spread across the textile value-chain - from petrochemicals to fabrics.Its massive economies of scale make it the biggest player of its kind by both Indian and globalstandards. The essence of Reliance's strategy: presence across the value chain to offset anydownturn in individual businesses.Interestingly, Ambani's success has dwarfed the controversies that surround him, notably his spatwith Bombay Dyeing's Nusli Wadia.Ambani lives in Mumbai with his wife, two sons - Mukesh and Anil - and their wives. He does

not believe in r eti r ement and continues to cr eate r ipples in the cor por ate wor ld.

Read more: Dhirubhai Ambani: A brief profile - The Times of India

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Dhirubhai-Ambani-A-brief- profile/articleshow/14044666.cms#ixzz100ZhiKPX MUMBAI: "For those who dare to dream, there is a whole world to win." This simple philosophy fashioned the destiny of Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani, who passed away in BreachCandy Hospital on July 6 at 11.50 pm.The son of a Gujarati village school-teacher who went on to become the founder-patriarch of theRs 55,000-crore Reliance Industries, Ambani had been on life support since June 24 after suffering a cerebral stroke.



The 'darshan and homage' ceremony took place at the Ambani residence at Sea Wind, CuffeParade, on July 7 and was cremated at Chandanwadi Crematorium at Marine Lines at 4.30 pmthe same day.The legend of Dhirubhai Ambani dates back to 1958 when he gave up his clerical job in Adenand moved back to Mumbai with a few thousand rupees in his pocket and a dream to start his

own oil company. In the next 40 years, he created a world-scale petrochemical and energycompany, trail-blazed for a whole generation of entrepreneurs and created an equity cult of smallinvestors who had never heard of Dalal Street before.Dhirubhai's genius lay in spotting business opportunities and then striking quickly. Oldcolleagues say that he exhorted them to "think big, think fast and think ahead".For a man who packed more into a lifetime than most business empires do in centuries, Ambanistill felt he had more to achieve. One dream that he didn't see realised was taking Wall Street bystorm as he had done with Dalal Street back in the seventies.The other unfinished dream that he spoke of when he received the ET Lifetime AchievementAward last year was of an India where villages had assured water supply and were connected tothe rest of the world through science and technology.

Dhirubhai Ambani, messiah of the small investor, was 69 years old and died with his boots on.The Journey

1932: Dhirubhai (Dhirajlal) Hirachand Ambani born in Chorwad in Gujarat.

1949: At 17, goes to Aden (now part of Yemen) and works for A Besse & Co, the soledistributor of Shell.

1958: Returns to Mumbai and starts Reliance Commercial Corporation, a commodity trading andexport house.

1966: Starts textile mill in Naroda, Ahmedabad, the first step of a backward-integration strategy.

1977: Reliance goes public. From 58,000 investors, Reliance today has four million equityholders.

1982: Integrates backward to manufacture PFY.

1986: Diversifies into chemicals. Suffers a stroke; sons Mukesh and Anil are entrusted withgreater responsibility.

1991: The Rs 9000-crore Hazira gas cracker plant is commissioned. Diversifies into

infrastructure sector.1992: Reliance becomes the first Indian company to raise money in global markets with a GDR issue.

1993: Reliance expands into plastics and PVC

1994: Announces major expansion for Hazira.



1995: Becomes the first Indian firm with net profits of Rs 1000 crore.

1996: Diversifies into power and telecom services.

1997: World's largest multi-feed cracker commissioned in Hazira; Becomes first Asian firm to

raise 100-year debt. Begins cellular services.

1999: Commissions world's largest grassroot refinery at Jamnagar.

2001: Gets the ET award for corporate excellence for lifetime achievement

2002: RPL merged with RIL. Reliance buys IPCL when it is privatised.

Read more: Dhirubhai Ambani passes away - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Dhirubhai-Ambani-passes-

away/articleshow/15204217.cms#ixzz100a4KTaE

Story of Dhirubhai Ambani

Dhiru Bhai Ambani built India's largest private sector company and created an equity cult in theIndian capital market. Reliance is the first Indian company to feature in the Forbes 500 listDhirubhai Ambani was one of the most enterprising Indian entrepreneur. His life's story is a realrags to riches story. He is widely remembered as the one who rewrote Indian corporate historyand built a truly global corporate

Dhirubhai Ambani (Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani) was born on 28 December 1932, at Chorwad,Junagadh in Gujarat, India to Hirachand Gordhanbhai Ambani and Jamnaben in a family of verymoderate means. He was the second son and his father was a school teacher. Dhirubhai Ambanistarted his entrepreneurial career by selling "pakora" to pilgrims in Mount Girnar over theweekends. By the age of 16 years, he moved to Aden,Yemen and worked as a dispatch clerk withA. Besse & Co. Two years later A. Besse & Co. became the distributors for Shell products andDhirubhai was promoted to manage the company¶s oil-filling station at the port of Aden.He was



married to Kokilaben and had two sons, Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani and two daughters, Nina Kothari and Deepti Salgaocar.

Reliance Commercial Corporation

In 1958, Dhirubhai returned to India and started the Reliance Commercial Corporation with acapital of Rs.15 thousand only. The primary business of Reliance Commercial Corporation wasto import polyester yarn and export spices.The business was setup in partnership withChampaklal Damani, his second cousin, who used to be with him in Aden, Yemen. The firstoffice of the Reliance Commercial Corporation was set up at the Narsinathan Street in MasjidBunder. It was a 350 Sq. Ft. room with a telephone, one table and three chairs.Initially,Dhirubhai Ambani had just two assistants to help him. In 1965, Champaklal Damani andDhirubhai Ambani ended their partnership and Dhirubhai started on his own. Interestingly, Mr.Damani was a cautious trader and did not believe in building yarn inventories whereas Dhirubhaiwas a known risk taker and believed that building inventories, anticipating a price rise, and

making profits through that was good for growth.This seems to be the reason for thier partingways. During this period, Dhirubhai and his family stayed in a one bedroom apartment at theJaihind Estate in Bhuleshwar, Mumbai.In 1968,Dhirubhai moved to an upmarket apartment atAltamount Road in South Mumbai.

Dhirubhai started his first textile mill at Naroda, in Ahmedabad in the year 1966. Textiles weremanufactured using polyester fibre yarn.Dhirubhai started the brand "Vimal", which was namedafter his elder brother Ramaniklal Ambani's son, Vimal Ambani. Extensive marketing of the brand "Vimal" in the interiors of India made it a household name. Franchise retail outlets werestarted and they used to sell "only Vimal" brand of textiles. In the year 1975, a Technical team

from the World Bank visited the Reliance Textiles' Manufacturing unit. This unit has the raredistinction of being certified as "excellent" even by developed country standards" during that period.

Initial public offering

Dhirubhai Ambani is credited with starting the equity cult in India. More than 58,000 investorsfrom various parts of India subscribed to Reliance's IPO in 1977. Dhirubhai was able to convince people of rural Gujarat that being shareholders of his company will only bring returns to their

investment.Reliance Industries holds the distinction that it is the only PrivateLimited Companywhose several Annual General Meetings were held in stadiums. In 1986, The Annual GeneralMeeting of Reliance Industries was held in Cross Maidan, Mumbai and was attended by morethan 35,000 shareholders and the Reliance family.Dhirubhai managed to convince a largenumber of first-time retail investors to participate in the unfolding Reliance story and put their hard-earned money in the Reliance Textile IPO, promising them, in exchange for their trust,substantial returns on their investments.



Over time, Dhirubhai diversified his business with the core specialisation being in petrochemicals and additional interests in telecommunications, information technology, energy, power, retail, textiles, infrastructure services, capital markets, and logistics. The company as awhole was described by the BBC as "a business empire with an estimated annual turnover of $12bn, and an 85,000-strong workforce".

Criticism

Paperback Cover page of The Polyester Prince. The rise of Dhirubhai Ambani. Author: HamishMcDonald, Publisher: Allen & Unwin Pty., Limited (Australia), ISBN 1-86448-468-3Despite hisalmost Midas Touch, Ambani has been known to have flexible values and an unethical streak running through him. His biographer himself has cited some instances of his unethical behavior when he was just an ordinary employee at a petrol pump in Dubai. He has been accused of

having manipulated government policies to suit his own needs, and has been known to be a king-maker in government elections . Although most media sources tend to speak out about business- politics nexus, the Ambani house has always enjoyed more protection and shelter from the mediastorms that sweep across the country.

Tussle with Nusli Wadia

Nusli Wadia of Bombay Dyeing was, at one point in time, the biggest competitor of Dhirubhaiand Reliance Industries. Both Nusli Wadia and Dhirubhai were known for their influence in the political circles and their ability to get the most difficult licenses approved during the times of pre-liberalized economy.

During the Janata Party rule between 1977 - 1979, Nusli Wadia obtained the permission to builda 60,000 tonnes per annum Di-methyl terephthalate (DMT) plant. Before the letter of intent wasconverted into a licence, many hurdles came in the way.

Finally, in 1981, Nusli Wadia was granted the license for the plant. This incident acted as acatalyst between the two parties and the competition took an ugly turn.

The Indian Express Articles



At one point in time, Ramnath Goenka was a friend of Dhirubhai Ambani. Ramnath Goenka wasalso considered to be close to Nusli Wadia. On many occasions, Ramnath Goenka tried tointervene between the two warring factions and bring an end to the enmity. Goenka and Ambani became rivals mainly because Ambani's corrupt business practices and his illegal actions thatlead to Goenka not getting a fair share in the company. Later on, Ramnath Goenka chose to

support Nusli Wadia. At one point of time, Ramnath Goenka is believed to have said "Nusli is anEnglishman. He cannot handle Ambani. I am a bania. I know how to inish him"....

Ramnath Goenka, the patriarch of The Indian Express Group. As days passed by, The IndianExpress, a broadsheet daily published by him, carried a series of articles against RelianceIndustries and Dhirubhai in which they claimed that Dhirubhai was using unfair trade practicesto maximise the profits. Ramnath Goenka did not use his staff at the Indian Express toinvestigate the case but assigned his close confidante, advisor and chartered accountant S.Gurumurthy for this task. Apart from S. Gurumurthy, another journalist Maneck Davar who was

not on the rolls of Indian Express started contributing stories. Jamnadas Moorjani, a businessmanopposed to the Ambanis was also a part of this campaign.

Both Ambani and Goenka were equally criticized and admired by sections of the society. Peoplecriticized Goenka that he was using a national newspaper for the cause of a personal enmity.Critics believed that there were many other businessman in the country who were using moreunfair and unethical practices but Goenka chose to target only Ambani and not the others. Criticsalso admired Goenka for his ability to run these articles without any help from his regular staff.Dhirubhai Ambani was also getting more recognition and admiration, in the meantime. A sectionof the public started to appreciate Dhirubhai's business sense and his ability to tame the system

according to his wishes.

The end to this tussle came only after Dhirubhai Ambani suffered a stroke. While DhirubhaiAmbani was recovering in San Diego, his sons Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani managed theaffairs. The Indian Express had turned the guns against Reliance and was directly blaming thegovernment for not doing enough to penalize Reliance Industries. The battle between Wadia -Goenka and the Ambanis took a new direction and became a national crisis. Gurumurthy and



another journalist, Mulgaokar consorted with President Giani Zail Singh and ghost-wrote ahostile letter to the Prime Minister on his behalf. The Indian Express published a draft of thePresident¶s letter as a scoop, not realizing that Zail Singh had made changes to the letter beforesending it to Rajiv Gandhi. Ambani had won the battle at this point. Now, while the tussle wasdirectly between the

Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Ramnath Goenka, Ambani made a quiet exit. The governmentthen raided the Express guest house in Delhi¶s Sunder Nagar and found the original draft withcorrections in Mulgaokar¶s handwriting. By 1988-89, Rajiv¶s government retaliated with a seriesof prosecutions against the Indian Express. Even then, Goenka retained his iconic stature because, to many people, he seemed to be replaying his heroic defiance during the Emergencyregime.

Dhirubhai and V.P.Singh

It was widely known that Dhirubhai didn't enjoy a cordial relation with Vishwanath PratapSingh, who succeeded Rajiv Gandhi as the Prime Minister of India. In May 1985, he suddenlyremoved the import of Purified Terephthalic Acid from the Open General License category. As araw material this was very important to manufacture polyester filament yarn. This made it verydifficult for Reliance to carry on operations. Reliance was able to secure, from various financialinstitutions, letters of credit that would allow it to import almost one full year¶s requirement of PTA on the eve of the issuance of the government notification, changing the category under which PTA could be imported. In 1990, the government-owned financial institutions like the

Life Insurance Corporation of India and the General Insurance Corporation stonewalled attempts by the Reliance group to acquire managerial control over Larsen & Toubro. Sensing defeat, theAmbanis resigned from the board of the company.Dhirubhai, who had become L&T's chairman in April 1989, had to quit his post to make way for D. N. Ghosh, former chairman of the State Bank of India.

Death

Dhirubhai Ambani's funeral saw thousands of people attending. Mukesh Ambani and AnilAmbani can be seen carrying their father's body as per Hindu traditionsDhirubhai Ambani wasadmitted to the Breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai on June 24, 2002 after he suffered a major "brain stroke". This was his second stroke, the first one had occurred in February 1986 and hadkept his right hand paralyzed. He was in a state of coma for more than a week. A battery of doctors were unable to save his life. He breathed his last on July 6, 2002, at around 11:50 P.M.(Indian Standard Time).His funeral procession was not only attended by business people,



politicians and celebrities but also by thousands of ordinary people. His elder son, MukeshAmbani, performed the last rites as per Hindu traditions. He was cremated at the ChandanwadiCrematorium in Mumbai at around 4:30 PM (Indian Standard Time) on July 7, 2002.

He is survived by Kokilaben Ambani, his wife, two sons, Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani, andtwo daughters, Nina Kothari and Deepti Salgaonkar.

Dhirubhai Ambani started his long journey in Bombay from the Mulji-Jetha Textile Market,where he started as a small-trader.

As a mark of respect to this great businessman, The Mumbai Textile Merchants' decided to keepthe market closed on July 8, 2002. At the time of Dhirubhai's death, Reliance Group had a grossturnover of Rs. 75,000 Crore or USD $ 15 Billion. In 1976-77, the Reliance group had an annualturnover of Rs 70 crore and Dhirubhai had started the business with Rs.15,000(US$350)

Shri Dhirubhai Ambani Was an Exceptional Human Being and Outstanding Leader

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