The-Polyester-Prince

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Suresh Kothary, the Du Pont agent in Bombay, was in close contact with Dhirubhai over this period. ‘He used to tell me what was going to happen, and it always did,’ Kothary said. ‘I asked him once: “How do you know, are you an astrologer?’ He laughed and said: “Yes.” With inflation raging as a result of two years of drought, Indira surged back to power. The first big party staged to welcome her back in government was hosted by Congress MPs from Guiarat, and paid for by Dhirubhai, at the Ashoka Hotel in New Delhi. Political observers took note that Indira spent over two hours sitting on the dais receiving well wishers with Dhirubhai at her side. Kothary remembers that several times during his turbulent climb to prosperity and influence, Dhirubhai would remark: ‘everything that I have done has been kept in the ground, and a first-class fountain has been built over it. Nobody will ever know what I have done.’
GURU OF THE EQUITY CULT Indira Gandhi’s return to power opened a golden period for Dhirubhai Ambani. In 1979, his company barely made it to the list of India’s 50 biggest companies, measured by annual sales, profits or assets. By 1984, Reliance was in the largest five. Dhirubhai himself had become one of the most talked and written about persons in India, gaining a personal following more like that of a sports or entertainment star than a businessman. It was also the period when Dhirubhai made the most rapid part of his transition, in the bitter words of a senior non-Congress politician in 1996, ‘..from supplicant-the most abject kind of supplicant-to influencer and then to controller of Indian politics’. Although it was not immediately obvious, Indira’s three years in political exile had reinforced a change in her thinking about state intervention in the economy. In large part due to the influence of her son Sanjay, who was to die in 1980 when the light aircraft he was piloting crashed during some acrobatics over New Delhi, she was less trustful of bureaucratic direction, and more inclined to give the private sector its head. Indian business leaders were also calling for a drastic relaxation of the licence controls on capacity expansion and diversification vested in the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission. One was the head of the extensive Tata group, J. R. D. Tata, who along with others in the 1940s had willingly laid their heads on the block of state planning. By 1981, Tata was calling on New Delhi to unfetter the big business houses. The intellectual tide had turned in favour of economic liberalisation, though it would not be until a decade later that anything more than tentative policy change was attempted. In Indira’s case, the disillusionment on the economic side was matched by a deeper cynicism in politics. Her second spell as prime minister was marked by callous manipulations such as the sponsorship of Sikh extremists in the Punjab, and by unapologetic extraction of political funds from businessmen expecting clearances from New Delhi. Dhirubhai’s cultivation of Indira and other Congress figures during the Janata period certainly paid off. In October 1980, Reliance received one of three licenses given by the government for manufacture of polyester filament yarn, with the location stipulated as the ‘backward’ area of Patalganga in the hills of Maharashtra inland from Bombay. In a field of 43 contestants for the licences, Reliance beat many larger and longerestablished business houses including Birla. Its licensed capacity of 10 000 tonnes a year was by far the largest (Orkay Silk Mills and J K Synthetics were each cleared for 6000 tonnes a year), and at the time close to India’s entire existing polyester fibre output. Together with the Du Pont representative Suresh Kothary, Dhirubhai and his eldest son Mukesh had already been to the headquarters of Du Pont at Wilmington, Delaware, and persuaded the American chemicals giant to sell its technology, including a polymerisation process not previously transferred outside the United States. The deal arranged through a New York-based firm called Chemtex Inc saw Reliance make a US$26.7 million order for its first PFY plant. Making polyester is a highly complicated chemical process, involving the reaction of one petrochemical
Page 2 and 3: Acknowledgements Introduction: an i
Page 4 and 5: exchange controls? Which foreign co
Page 6 and 7: Dhirubhai Ambani had made it throug
Page 8 and 9: company shares out and make you col
Page 10 and 11: and injunction against publication
Page 12 and 13: and tigers. Massive double doors, t
Page 14 and 15: eligious school known as Shaivism (
Page 16 and 17: Jayan Shah remembers Dhirubhai, who
Page 18 and 19: his advice to ‘Keep out under all
Page 20 and 21: LESSONS FROM THE SOUK Early in the
Page 22 and 23: Disembarking tourists, brought asho
Page 24 and 25: gambles against rises and falls in
Page 26 and 27: CATCHING LIVE SERPENTS At the end o
Page 28 and 29: Viscosa via a long resident Italian
Page 30 and 31: great caution, leading to constant
Page 32 and 33: knew nothing about them, but was se
Page 34 and 35: interest in various ways, Dhirubhai
Page 36 and 37: The Pai’s prided themselves on be
Page 38 and 39: Pakistan in 1965, India’s externa
Page 40 and 41: Minister Pai overruled objections f
Page 44 and 45: intermediate either purified tereph
Page 46 and 47: In October 1977, Reliance had gone
Page 48 and 49: slow-down in trading and sometimes
Page 50 and 51: Along with the clearances for his c
Page 52 and 53: iodegradable detergents) and high-d
Page 54 and 55: Bar [at the Taj Mahal Hotel], have
Page 56 and 57: nephew, Rasikbhai Meswani, who knew
Page 58 and 59: auction, the highest prices being f
Page 60 and 61: the news magazines that were the li
Page 62 and 63: for two years and then as a railway
Page 64 and 65: The Great Polyester War On 23 Novem
Page 66 and 67: advice. Among them were tycoons man
Page 68 and 69: licence for the DMT plant-two and a
Page 70 and 71: that was eventually to bring down t
Page 72 and 73: Authorities told Reliance that the
Page 74 and 75: confiscated, and pay an additional
Page 76 and 77: THE PAPER TIGER It was at this stag
Page 78 and 79: ‘So now we are friends?’, he as
Page 80 and 81: entrepreneur struggling against a b
Page 82 and 83: nonconvertible debenture issues tha
Page 84 and 85: ends.’ It began with the Rs 843 m
Page 86 and 87: The New York investors, Praful and
Page 88 and 89: UNDER SIEGE So far, it had been jus
Page 90 and 91: Reliance group of companies to the
Page 92 and 93:
In its original yarn operation set
Page 94 and 95:
system. It comes from a dynamic per
Page 96 and 97:
depreciation, investment allowances
Page 98 and 99:
SLEUTHS To see Bhure Lal on his eve
Page 100 and 101:
event, Rajiv did not attend the mee
Page 102 and 103:
Bhure Lal had found most of the peo
Page 104 and 105:
issue to market. Income tax authori
Page 106 and 107:
The Express also pointed to some no
Page 108 and 109:
the Ambani magic. Huge amounts had
Page 110 and 111:
The Times of India’s editor, Giri
Page 112 and 113:
office has never been revealed. Bot
Page 114 and 115:
Brought to New Delhi, Gurumurthy wa
Page 116 and 117:
emembered that he had invested heav
Page 118 and 119:
CBI on evidence that was presented
Page 120 and 121:
V P Singh declared the report ‘is
Page 122 and 123:
The Finance Ministry also gave prom
Page 124 and 125:
not appear to have yet obtained the
Page 126 and 127:
Until then, oil refining had been r
Page 128 and 129:
producing unit which used naphtha a
Page 130 and 131:
MURDER MEDLEY Since March 1987, the
Page 132 and 133:
Figures such as the actor Sayeed Ja
Page 134 and 135:
along with ammunition. Babaria also
Page 136 and 137:
The bench of three judges decided o
Page 138 and 139:
executives had spread the idea that
Page 140 and 141:
A POLITICAL DELUGE In the second qu
Page 142 and 143:
assessed as owing Rs 312.8 million
Page 144 and 145:
To help win support for reforms fro
Page 146 and 147:
Although it was obliged to report m
Page 148 and 149:
debenture issues because it saw a w
Page 150 and 151:
UNDER THE REFORMS After the shock o
Page 152 and 153:
Mukesh had resigned as executive di
Page 154 and 155:
up, pointing to India’s large mid
Page 156 and 157:
illion. Reliance shares had risen h
Page 158 and 159:
the refinery’s cost of Rs 51.42 b
Page 160 and 161:
No one was arguing with the logic o
Page 162 and 163:
well as being a talented engineer a
Page 164 and 165:
epeated claim that, whatever else h
Page 166 and 167:
degree a bare pass from a low-statu
Page 168 and 169:
pointed out that there were still g
Page 170 and 171:
On 30 October, a letter arrived fro
Page 172 and 173:
The switched shares had now been re
Page 174 and 175:
The tax officers persevered, and fo
Page 176 and 177:
petroleum minister at the time the
Page 178 and 179:
PANDAVA OR KAURAVA Reliance emerged
Page 180 and 181:
took on a self-pitying ‘Why is ev
Page 182:
erupting polyester industry battle
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The-Polyester-Prince

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