Ambani & Sons

Hamish Mcdonald

Description

Ambani & Sons is the riveting story of one of the wealthiest families in the world. Dhirubhai Ambani was a rags-to-riches tycoon whose company, Reliance, is now one of India's major corporations. His sons, Anil and Mukesh, took over after his death in 2002 and their respective arms of the company are bigger than the parent ever was. However, a family feud of colossal proportions, that has had political reverberations, ensued.
The Ambani tale contains a bigger story about modern India, not only as an economic powerhouse, but about the complicated links between government and big business.

Sujets

• Business History
• Corporate History
• Joint Intelligence Organisation
• Dhirubhai Ambani
• Far Eastern Economic Review
• Feud
• Liberalization
• Businessperson
• Privatization
• Politics
• Non-fiction
• Economics
• Capitalism
• Reliance
• Anil Ambani
• Business
• Mukesh Ambani
• Family
• Hamish Macdonald
• The Sydney Morning Herald
• Tycoon
• Libéralisation économique
• Industrie
• Privatisation

Informations

• Publié par: Roli Books
• Date de parution: 02 novembre 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9788174369437
• Langue: English

Extrait

AMBANI SONS
H AMISH M C D ONALD is Asia-Pacific Editor of the Sydney Morning Herald . He has been a foreign correspondent in Jakarta, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Beijing and New Delhi, where he was bureau chief of the Far Eastern Economic Review . He has twice won Walkley awards, and has had a report on Burma read into the record of the US Congress. He is the author of books on Indonesia and India, and was made an inaugural Fellow of the Australian Institute of International Affairs in 2008.
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AMBANI SONS
The making of the world s richest brothers and their feud
HAMISH McDONALD
Lotus Collection
Hamish McDonald, 2010 First published in Australia by UNSW Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without prior permission of the publisher.
First published in India in 2010 Second impression 2010 The Lotus Collection An imprint of Roli Books Pvt Ltd M-75, Greater Kailash II Market New Delhi 110 048 Phone: ++91-11-4068 2000 Fax: ++91-11-2921 7185 E-mail: [e-mail] Website: www.rolibooks.com
Also at Bangalore, Chennai, Jaipur, Kolkata, Mumbai Varanasi
Cover design: Divya Saxena Production: Shaji Sahadevan Layout: Naresh L Mondal
ISBN: 978-81-7436-814-0
Typeset in Electra LH by Roli Books Pvt Ltd and printed at Raj Kamal Electric Press, Haryana.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Glossary
1 Protean capitalist
2 A persuasive young bania
3 Lessons from the souk
4 Catching live serpents
5 A first-class fountain
6 Guru of the equity cult
7 Friends in the right places
8 The great polyester war
9 The paper tiger
10 Sleuths
11 Letting loose a scorpion
12 Business as usual
13 Murder medley
14 A political deluge
15 Under the reforms
16 Housekeeping secrets
17 Dhirubhai s dream
18 The polyester princes
19 Corporate Kurukshetra
20 Mother India
21 The Ambanis apart
22 Goodbye, Gandhi
23 Epilogue
Notes
Index
Acknowledgments
T he Ambani story grabbed me as soon as I landed in India in December 1990 for what turned out to be an enthralling six years, and it still has me in its grip, long after my assignment in New Delhi ended. Dhirubhai Ambani embodied all of the revolutionary capitalism that sympathetic and impatient analysts within the prevailing Western paradigm believed was lurking inside the Indian economy, pressing to be released from bureaucracy. The turbulent election of 1991 resulted in a government that set about unleashing this spirit across the economy. To me, this was the crucial narrative of modern India, behind the more immediate news-making events like caste conflict, Hindu nationalism, Islamist movements, and insurgencies in Kashmir, Punjab and the North-east. Ambani had already pushed out of the subservient position reserved for business, to the point where he had a well-earned reputation as a maker and breaker of governments, and of political and bureaucratic careers. With the economic reforms giving greater access to domestic and global sources of finance, his Reliance group redoubled its rapid growth towards Ambani s target of becoming a petroleum giant. My position reporting for a leading business magazine gave me a ringside seat and, initially at least, personal acquaintance with Ambani and his two sons. Inevitably, the glowing picture of an entrepreneurial hero, so beloved of business magazines, took on more light and shade with detailed study of the Ambani and Reliance story. Still, the relationship of government and big business emerged increasingly as the missing element of popular and academic writing about contemporary India. This book is the result.
It started with a push from Robin Jeffrey, then of La Trobe University, Melbourne, aided by Marika Vicziany of the National Centre for South Asian Studies, Jenny McGregor of Melbourne University s AsiaLink, and the late Ken McPherson of Curtin University s Indian Ocean Centre, for putting together an ad hoc fellowship to let me start work. Later, Rodney Tiffin and Jim Masselos of the University of Sydney helped with working space and advice. Navnit Dholakia gave me vital introductions to the Gujarati immigrant communities in London and Leicester. D.B. Patel, of Leicester s Shree Sanatan Mandir, took time out to guide me. Himatbhai Jagani, secretary of Shree Aden Depala in London, welcomed me to this association of former Indian residents of Aden. Other help came from K.D. Patel, C.B. Patel of the Gujarat Samachar , and Ramniklal Solanki of the Garavi Gujarat . In Ahmedabad, Susheel Kothari, formerly of Besse Co. in Aden, then Reliance, was both hospitable and informative.
In Mumbai, there are many to thank: Manish Mankad, librarian of BusinessIndia , S.J. Vasani of Vyapar, Kirtikant K. Kapadia and Kishanbhai Kapadia, of the Swastik Textile Agency, who gave me tea when I walked in off the street and told me about the Pydhonie textile market; Sucheta Dalal and Debashis Basu, now running MoneyLife ; Pradip Shah; Kanti Bhatt and Sheela Bhatt. In Manipal, Ramdas M. Pai of Manipal Academy of Higher Education. In New Delhi, my thanks to S.R. Mohnot. In Chennai, L. Seshan of the Indian Express helped with records of the Gurumurthy investigations. Many other businessmen, members of parliament, lawyers, stockbrokers, merchant bankers, government officials and journalists gave freely of their knowledge about the Ambani story, but would not want to be identified. However, Jamnadas Moorjani, who died in December 2002, can now be mentioned as a wonderful source of information and fair opinion.
Although neither the Ambani family nor Reliance cooperated in this project, the Reliance spokesmen who were my points of contact in earlier times - Yogesh Desai, Tony Jesudasan, Jacob John and Deepak Neogi - were always accessible and courteous. When letters from law firms in both Mumbai and Sydney, and court injunctions in India, made it clear that Reliance was opposed to my earlier book The Polyester Prince appearing at all, Patrick Gallagher of Allen Unwin courageously stuck to his publishing plans.
This was not the closing of the book, however, just of a chapter. Dhirubhai Ambani went on to achieve his vision of opening one of the world s biggest oil refineries. Every recovery from previous controversies and scandals had been followed by predictions that his company would become a more normal and predictable corporation taking fewer risks. Yet it became clear that pushing the limits was normal for him. Dhirubhai s sons inherited control of Reliance - and his modus operandi - on his death in 2002, but two years later started the bitter feud that divided India s biggest business house. My holidays in India soon turned into research trips for this new book, which has been encouraged by numerous Indians, from India itself and from the diaspora in America, Europe, Asia and Australia, who have contacted me.
Engagement with India is not something that can be turned off by absence. With me, in this lifelong entrancement, has been my wife Penny and our children Alex and Laura, who were born in New Delhi as the first book took shape and for whom India is mother nation. I can only give thanks that they rejoice in India too.
Glossary BCCI Bank of Credit and Commerce International BR banker s receipt BSES Bombay and Suburban Electric Supply Company CDMA code-division multiple access crore 10 million DGTD Directorate-General of Technical Development DMT dimethyl terephthalate GDR Global Depository Receipt GSM global system for mobile communications ICICI Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India IMF International Monetary Fund IOC Indian Oil Corporation IPCL Indian Petrochemicals Ltd LAB linear alkyline benzene lakh a hundred thousand lathi wooden stave, used by police LIC Life Insurance Corporation MEG monoethylene glycol NRI non-resident Indian NTPC National Thermal Power Corporation ONGC Oil and Natural Gas Corporation PFY polyester filament yarn POY partially oriented yarn PSE public-sector enterprise PSF polyester staple fibre PTA purified terephthalic acid PTI Press Trust of India RBI Reserve Bank of India RCS Reliance Consultancy Services REP Replenishment licence (abbrev.) RSS Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (National Volunteers Order) SEBI Securities and Exchange Board of Ind