Mukesh Ambani – Asia’s Richest Man
Mukesh Ambani is Asia’s richest man and the fifth richest man in the world, worth $74.6 billion. The 66-year-old born on 19 April 1957 is an Indian billionaire business magnate, and the chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries Ltd.
His father, Dhirubhai Ambani started Reliance Industries as their family business after they moved back to India from Yemen where Mukesh was born. In 1981, when he was only 24 years old, his father asked him to withdraw from Stanford University where he was enrolled for his MBA to help run the business.
Dhirubhai Ambani founded Reliance in 1973 as a trading house, then gradually turned it into a vertically integrated operation, first by manufacturing the fibres, then producing the chemical precursors they needed, then refining the oil used to make those. By the time Mukesh Ambani joined the company, it was the dominant, and in some cases exclusive, domestic manufacturer of a range of key petrochemicals in India.
Mukesh Ambani became the chairman of Reliance Industries in 2002 after his father, Dhirubhai died. His mother, Kokilaben split the company in June 2005 after years of rivalry with his younger brother, Anil, who was his vice-chairman. Mukesh was left with the profitable but slow-growing refinery and petrochemicals businesses. He, however, went into direct competition with his brother in the telecommunication space when he saw an opportunity in 2010.
By 2016, Reliance had unveiled Jio, a mobile operator that promised much cheaper rates than competitors. “Mobile internet will be the single most defining technology of this century for human development,” Mukesh said in an interview while he was promoting the launch of the company.
As of today, Reliance is engaged in energy, petrochemicals, textiles, natural resources, retail, and telecommunications. It has thrived under the excellent leadership of Mukesh Ambani and is one of the most profitable companies in India. It is the largest publicly traded company in India by market capitalization and the largest company in India as measured by revenue. It is ranked 106th on the Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s biggest corporations as of 2019.
When the coronavirus pandemic hit the world earlier this year, Reliance Industries’ net profit slid by more than 37% to 65 billion rupees ($850 million). And Mukesh Ambani stopped receiving his $2 million salary in a bid to keep things balanced until its businesses were fully back to their earnings potential. “He is forgoing his salary until the company and all its businesses are fully back to their earnings potential,” the company said in a statement.
In addition to temporarily withholding his salary, the businessman through his foundation, Reliance Foundation, set up a 100-bed centre at Seven Hills Hospital, Mumbai for patients who test positive. The company shared a statement about the hospital saying, ‘This first-of-its-kind-in-India centre is fully funded by Reliance Foundation and includes a negative pressure room that helps in preventing cross-contamination and helps control infection. All beds are equipped with the required infrastructure, bio-medical equipment such as ventilators, pacemakers, dialysis machines and patient monitoring devices’.
In April, Reliance Foundation also announced that it would be donating 500 Crores ($66.7 million) to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s coronavirus emergency fund. They also Launched the World’s Largest Meal Service Initiative for Marginalized Families in India through Mission Anna Seva. The foundation released a statement saying ‘We will provide over 3 crores (30,000,000) meals to marginalised communities and frontline workers across the nation’.
The company’s biotechnology company, Reliance Life Science also created its testing kit that was only available to staff of Reliance Industries and their family members as of May 2020. The company has begun plans to roll out the tests to the community despite currently doing over 2,000 tests every day.
Writer: Mofijesusewa Samuel
Designer: Kume Akpubi
