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Dhirubhai Ambani

Dhirubhai Ambani, the creator of India's largest private sector enterprise, was born as Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani on 28 December 1932 in a village in Gujarat named Chorwad in a Modh family. His father Hirachand Ambani was a school teacher. He started his entrepreneurship journey right from his childhood. He used to sell "Bhajias" to pilgrims pursuing to Mt. Girnar over the weekends.

At the age of 16, after completing his matriculation, he went to Aden, Yemen. He worked as a clerk in an oil company there and also as a gas station attendant. He collected a sum of Rs. 15,000 and returned back to India in 1958 in order to set up a textile trading company of his own. With the assistance of his two sons, Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani, he build the largest private sector company of India from the scratch. His company Reliance India Limited diversified into numerous core specializations including logistics, capital markets, infrastructure services, textiles, retail, power, energy, information technology, and telecommunications.

The Journey of This Entrepreneur

He started his journey with a partner Champaklal Damani who was his second cousin. They started Majin Corporation together, worked for a couple of years but then the partnership broke off due to mismatch of thoughts and business development ideas. As his first solo business venture, he opened his first textile mill in Naroda in Ahmednagar with the brand name Vimal. He also founded Reliance Industries in 1966. Ambani was known for taking risks, building inventories, anticipating price rises and making profits.

He marketed his product Vimal extensively and made it a household name in the interiors of India. A visit was made by the world bank in 1975 to the manufacturing unit of Reliance Textiles and they appreciated the unit for its level of excellence. In 1980, Reliance Industries crossed the mark of 1 million.

Ambani began to diversify his business in some other business segments like plastics, petrochemicals, chemicals and power etc. Although he was criticised for bending the rules of the government to suit his requisites and thus practising unethical business policies, but his business acumen were always praised.

He introduced certain innovative instruments like convertible debentures which made the company hastily became the stock market favourite in the 1980s. 1992 marked another winning moment for the company. Reliance became the first ever company of India to raise money in the global capital markets.

Emergence as Indian Equity Market Leader

He is greatly accredited for shaping the equity culture of India by attracting numerous retail investors in a market that was till then dominated only by financial institutions. By revolutionizing the capital markets of the country, he generated immense wealth for the investors that showed trust in his business.
His continuous efforts helped in creating an equity cult in the Indian capital market. He was named as the Indian Entrepreneur of the 20th century by FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry).

Visit the Land of Dhirubhai Ambani

Dhirubbhai Ambani is being loved and respected by many Indians. Several of them aspire to follow a path led by this great entrepreneur. If you are also among the ones who have been motivated by Dhirubhai or want to explore more about this market leader, you can visit Chorwad, Gujarat, which is the birth place of Ambani. Chorwad is 40 km from Somnath on the way to Porbandar.

In this village,his memorial has been elegantly designed to showcase the success of founder of Reliance Group and Entrepreneurship icon of India. The memorial has a museum in it which displays the works and life of Dhirubhai Ambani. This memorial has been set up with the purpose of encouraging the young aspirants who want to pursue and achieve their dreams.

The memorial also has a wide range of merchandise souvenir products like caps, shoulder bags, t-shirts, pens, key chain etc.

Death and Legacy

Dhirubhai Ambani passed away on June 24, 2002. He is survived by Kokilaben Ambani, his wife, two sons and two daughters, namely Anil Ambani, Mukesh Ambani, Deepti Salgaonkar and Nina Kothari respectively.

Dhirubhai Ambani initiated a saga following which numerous entrepreneurs have rose and received global recognition while marking the name of India on the global market.

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