Dhirubhai Ambani (December 28, 1932 – July 6, 2002), one of India’s greatest stalwarts, was born in 1932 in Chorwad, Gujarat, in circumstances that can best be described as modest. His rags-to-rich story was an inspiration for many generations of Indian entrepreneurs. Dhirubhai was an inspiring leader who founded Reliance Industries and made it the success story it is today. Here are the five lesser-known facts about India’s business tycoon Dhirubhai Ambani.
1. Born and brought up in a modest home of a school teacher
Dhirubhai was the second son of a school teacher, born in the village of Chorwad in Gujarat. Due to family circumstances, he had to drop out of school early. To help the family financially, he started earning money by doing odd jobs only after his 10th standard. But that was just the start.
2. Moving to Yemen to work at a petrol station
In 1949, at the age of 17, Dhirubhai went to Aden, Yemen in search of opportunity, and worked as a dispatch clerk for A. Besse & Co. Couple of years later, the company became a distributor for Shell products and Dhirubhai was promoted to manage the company’s oil-filling station at the port of Aden. It was at this point that he dreamed of setting up and owning a refinery, which he later realised with his petrochemicals venture.
3. Came back to India to start Reliance
In 1958, he returned to India to launch his first business venture, a spice trading company named Reliance Commercial Corporation. In 1962, Dhirubhai identified an emerging opportunity in yarn trading and shifted to the new business. Three years later, he changed the name of his company to Reliance Textile Industries Limited. In 1966, he purchased land in Naroda, Gujarat, to set up a textile mill. The Naroda mill was later in 1975, recognised as one of the best composite textile mills in India and certified as ‘excellent even by developed country standards’, by a technical team of the World Bank.
4. Reliance Textiles IPO
In 1977, the company went public. At the time, Indian capital markets were largely limited to a small but influential elite that dabbled in a handful of stocks. The majority of India’s middle class chose to stay away. The Reliance IPO was a success. Dhirubhai managed to convince a large number of middle-class investors to put their money, and faith, in the company.
5. Venturing into the petrochemical business
In 1991, Dhirubhai set up Reliance Hazira, for the manufacture of petrochemicals. At the time, Reliance Hazira represented the single largest investment made by a private sector group in India at a single location.
Meanwhile, Dhirubhai had firmed up plans of setting up a massive grassroots refinery. Conceived as the world’s largest grassroots refinery at the time, Jamnagar, Gujarat had an annual capacity of 27 million tonnes. Midway through construction, a massive cyclone flattened the project site. Reliance commissioned the Jamnagar facility in 1999, ahead of schedule. The refinery was set up at a cost that was significantly lower than the prevailing global benchmark for a project of such magnitude.
By 2007, the combined fortune of the Ambani family was more than $60 billion.
Dhirubhai died on July 6, 2002. Today, Reliance Industries Limited is a Fortune 500 company and one of the largest private sector corporations in India. Dhirubhai was honored with the Padma Vibhushan – India's second highest civilian honor – in 2016, for his ‘exceptional and distinguished’ service to trade and industry.