This week in Flashback, a throwback interview with Anil Ambani, who is being seen as a comeback man of 2025. This feature from 2004 was done before the national elections & precedes the split in the Reliance Empire & the parting of ways of the Ambani brothers.
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Questions asked in this interview
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3:44But does the Ambani vision also include playing a more active role in public life? Maybe even joining politics?
There's a lot of buzz around defense, Reliance Infrastructure. Reliance. So this may well be a comeback year for Anil Ambani. We really wish him all the best in this endeavor.
Throwback conversation: Indian elections. Remember those elections in which UPA registered a shock victory? So do watch this interview and let us know.
Hello and welcome to this special edition of Asia Today. I am Sanjep Shast in Bombay. As part of our coverage of the Indian elections, we begin a new series today on the modern Indian mogul or the new Maharaja. People who may not be in the government but have a great deal of power and influence. Today we look at Anil Ambani, one of the richest and most powerful men in the country. A youth icon who believes that his business can only become globally competitive if India becomes a force on the world stage.
India works despite its politicians. But for most that means toiling in a hopeless existence. Jagir Singh is a mason who earns less than $2 a day. Hardly enough to feed his family of six. But a proposed power plant across the road has given hope to thousands like him. He told me how the upcoming project could result in permanent jobs for thousands of people, changing their lives forever.
India's new champion of the poor arrived from the heavens. But he's no Mother Teresa. He's a businessman. It's Anil Ambani who is setting up a $2 billion power plant here. For the poor, it means jobs. Something the fawning politicians always promised but failed to deliver. They now expect his investments to translate into votes for them.
From the heat and dust of rural India to the luxury of a private jet. Rich in modern India means rich. This man is worth billions. But his dream is no longer confined to just multiplying money. He wants to be a real global player. Only possible if he takes India with him.
Because you are no longer chasing profits or assets or sales. I think it's the sense of purpose, the sense of achievement. The creation of world-class businesses is what is the real quest. I think that I'm pretty much focused in on the convergence of everybody towards the ultimate goal. And the ultimate goal for India as a country is to emerge as an economic superpower, which is its rightful place.
Like in the global arena and the global political theater, it is always the best person for the best job. So I don't think that you need to look at the DNA of an industrialist saying, you know, he's going to do building industry for the next 100 years, or you know, a politician is just going to do that. I think that there is going to be cross-fertilization of ideas, and there is convergence of economics and politics. Undoubtedly.
In India's largest city and financial capital, Bombay, nearly half the population lives in shanty towns. People in the city are voting today in an election where 'India Shining' or the newfound prosperity of the country's middle classes has become the central theme. But what about the poor? Can India really shine without them?
I don't think that India is going to transform overnight. We've always made steady progress, and what we've been seeing recently is somewhat of an acceleration of that steady process. Undoubtedly, the wide disparities between states in India, between different stratas of people, are always a matter of concern. But there is this growing divide worldwide. So it's not an Indian phenomenon. Maybe with our levels of poverty and such a vast population as well as a vast country, they are more visible in that sense. Also, I think being a democratic voice, more things are audible to people, and in some countries things may not really be audible. So I think it's a combination of all that. And India shining, India prospering, India blooming are all adjectives to basically reflect that India is moving ahead. The future of India is very, very bright, and over a period of time, a wider section of the population in India will enjoy the fruits and benefits of what is happening currently. It cannot ever be isolated to 50 million or 20 million people. There is absolutely no way that India as a country can progress in that fashion.
The foundation of the Ambani empire was laid by his father, Dhirubhai Ambani, who started his career as a petrol pump attendant. The Reliance Group flourished in the 1970s and 80s when Indian industry largely depended on state patronage. But the nearly 20 billion conglomerate really moved into the big league in the last decade and a half. The same period that the Indian economy opened up to the rest of the world. Educated in American business schools, the Ambani brothers, Mukesh and Anil, now think global. The Ambanis were accused of building their empire by staying close to political power. Now India's leaders come to them.
8 more exchanges in this transcript
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Ambani, A. (2025, June 21). Anil Dhirubhai Ambani: The Comeback Man [Interview transcript]. Sanjeev Srivastava. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/765551/
