Biography of Dhirubhai Ambani
Born: December 28, 1932
Died: July 6, 2002
Achievements
- Dhirubhai Ambani built India's largest private sector company.
- He created an equity cult in the Indian capital market.
- Reliance is the first Indian company to feature in the Forbes 500 list.
Dhirubhai Ambani was the most enterprising Indian entrepreneur. His life journey is reminiscent of a 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, in 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. Assisted by his two sons, Mukesh and Anil, Dhirubhai Ambani built India's largest private sector company, Reliance India Limited, from scratch. Over time, his business diversified into a core specialization 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 revolutionized 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 the 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 the "greatest creator of wealth in the century."
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