He has stepped into the politically-sensitive SEZ sector as well, and is in the process of setting up two mega industrial townships - one near Mumbai, another one in Haryana. He has also forayed into the organised retail sector, yet to be fully opened up by Indian government for foreign direct investment (FDI), and is feverishly on an expansion mode. After taking up the mandate to run RIL, founded by his late father DhirubhaiAmbani, his fortunes have swelled. Oil-refining subsidiary Reliance Petroleum, in which Chevron has a five per cent stake, went public, and was listed in May 2006. Reliance Fresh, a chain of food stores, is today one of the fastest growing retail chains. His other mega plans include a $10 billion investment in SEZs. The man who tops the chart of Indian billionaires says India no longer raises the image of an old, sleeping elephant. The country of one billion has moved from zero to $20 billion in software exports, employing over one million people in just a decade. “These people have changed the brand of India, consumption pattern and gave us the confidence that we can do everything,” says Ambani. “If we can do it in information technology, we can do it in agriculture, as well.” Hence, the giant oil refiner stepped into the agriculture and retail sectors. According to him, organised retail would throw up millions of new jobs. “It is the most employment-intensive industry in the world. India needs these jobs,” adds Mukesh Ambani. Organised retail can absorb people in large numbers. According to him, Reliance has estimated about 1.5 million jobs could be created in this sector over the next three years. In the process, the cost to consumers will be reduced by 20 per cent and the efficiency of farmers will increase thrice over, he adds. His dream evolves around a whole new consumption boom that is likely to be kicked off in rural India. According to Ambani, India produces over 150 million tonnes of fresh produce daily and the country can double it fairly quickly over a few crop cycles, if these can be moved “quickly and efficiently” through the system. The food market could be much bigger than the software services market. “The money goes straight into the hands of millions of farmers,” he says, adding that this would lead to more jobs and houses, among others, leading to a consumption boom. After suffering an initial set-back in the hypersensitive SEZ sector, Ambani has got government clearances to go ahead with them.

He is rolling out a petrochemical SEZ in Jamnagar as well.But why SEZs? Ambani comes up with a quick reply: “India needs to create as many jobs as possible in manufacturing and services. The jobs created by the government, and selfemployment in manufacturing sectors are not adequate. It is large companies that create employment.” He aims to create integrated infrastructure - with an airport, seaport, transportation, power and housing, among others. Apart from the SEZ projects, RIL is developing an office complex, a convention centre and a hotel at Mumbai’s Bandra-Kurla Complex. RIL is also part of a consortium bidding for the Sewri-Nhava Sheva Sea Link in Mumbai. Over the next few years, Reliance is slated to undergo a dramatic change in focus. If its core competence under Dhirubhai Ambani was about building giant projects, it is now passionately entering the services sector, under the leadership of Mukesh Ambani, who joined Reliance in 1981 after graduating in chemical engineering from Bombay University and obtaining a Masters degree in business management from Stanford University. HIS SKILLS were first put to test when he initiated Reliance’s backward integration foray from textiles into polyester fibre and further into petrochemicals. He was responsible for setting up over 50 manufacturing facilities, which took Reliance’s cumulative capacity from one million to nine million tonnes. Mukesh, along with younger brother Anil, has led Reliance from being a ‘controversial’ company to a conglomerate with interests spanning petroleum, petrochemicals, textiles and now, retail and SEZs. Reliance’s core competence is management, in particular its ability to complete giant infrastructure projects ahead of schedule and at significantly lower capital costs than its competitors. Reliance is today ranked among the top 10 producers globally in all its product lines. The rapid construction of the Jamnagar refinery and the Reliance Infocomm project firmly established his reputation as a wizard in implementing huge and complex projects. The retail rollout is on the same gargantuan scale as other initiatives in RIL history. Mammoth projects are seldom devoid of complexities. T h e y invariably face implementation risks. But Ambani has managed to get on with his projects without much delay. RIL is now looking to build the biggest greenfield fertiliser capacity in the country. The company has submitted a proposal to the fertiliser ministry for setting up a manufacturing plant of global scale - up to 4 million tonnes. It has proposed to use some of the Krishna- Godavari gas as feedstock bought at market prices. India had made moves to set up fertiliser capacities in gas-producing countries like Oman to take advantage of fuel availability there. Now, with abundant gas reserves in India’s Krishna-Godavari basin on the east coast, RIL would have an edge over others with large reserves at its disposal. RIL is also beefing up its own electricity generation capacity by almost 10,000 MWto reduce input costs. That is Ambani’s contribution for India’s bright future - in terms of scale of economies and costcomp e t i - tiveness.