On his 23rd death anniversary, let’s explore how Dhirubhai Ambani transformed Reliance into one of India's most powerful business legacies.
Reliance Industries Limited, the conglomerate headquartered in Mumbai, is the largest public company in India, and has businesses across energy, retail, entertainment, telecommunications, mass media, and textiles. While its chairman is Mukesh Ambani, Reliance Industries was set up in 1958 by his father, Dhirubhai Ambani, who passed away on July 6, 2002 at the age of 69.
Now as the nation marks his death anniversary, it cannot be forgotten that Dhirubhai Ambani, during his entire life, remained a usiness magnate whose extraordinary vision. He was the force behind transforming India's industrial and economic landscape, and his legacy continues through the ever-expanding Reliance empire he founded. His life story is not just about wealth, but about the ambition to excel in a changing India.
Dhirubhai Hirachand Ambani was born on December 28, 1932, in the village of Chorwad in Gujarat. Despite being the son of a schoolteacher, he took up a job in Yemen as a young man, working for a trading firm. However, his desire for entrepreneurship brought him back to India. In 1958, he finally founded Reliance Commercial Corporation, which was a small yarn trading business operating out of a one-room office in Mumbai. And who would know that it would eventually become Reliance Industries, one of India’s most powerful conglomerates.
Dhirubhai changed his fate with his vision of democratizing wealth creation, and in 1977, Reliance Industries became one of the first Indian companies to go public. Those thousands of small investors are now lifelong shareholders and beneficiaries of Reliance.
The company’s textile brand, Vimal, brand became a household name in the '70s and '80s, and remained the face of India’s textile industry. But it was his move into petrochemicals and later oil refining that amped up the stakes for Reliance. Post textiles and petrochemicals, Reliance Industries has ventured into telecommunications, energy, and retail as well. By the late '90s, Dhirubhai had redefined what it meant to be an industrialist in India, and from family-run enterprises, there was a move towards shareholder-driven corporations.
Dhirubhai Ambani breathed his last on July 6, 2002, at the age of 69, after suffering a major stroke. Now under the leadership of his sons, Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani, his legacy continues. In fact, via Mukesh’s stewardship of Reliance Jio, the conglomerate has altered revolutionized India’s digital ecosystem forever.
More than just his financial success, Dhirubhai’s contribution to India remains his mindset of building scale world-class enterprises, thereby inspiring a generation of entrepreneurs to dream bigger. Even today, Reliance Industries, which spans energy, digital services, e-commerce, and green technology, is a testament of his fearless spirit.
Dhirubhai Ambani's life is one of the most inspiring rags-to-riches stories, and in 2016, he was posthumously awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India’s second-highest civilian honor.
On Dhirubhai Ambani’s 23rd death anniversary, let’s recall his words, "Think big, think fast, think ahead. Ideas are no one’s monopoly."
