The Reliance Industry led by Dhirubhai H Ambani is in the limelight of not only being India's biggest industry but also a force to reckon with in the sub-continent. In the past few weeks alone, Reliance has been the 'cover story' in many prestigious media including "The Business Week".

Dhirubhai Ambani, a native of Gujarat and son of a school teacher opened a modest textile mill in Gujarat in 1966. In less than 40 years, he made Reliance into India's biggest industrial empire overtaking Tata and Birla.

This year Reliance posted a total revenue of Rs. 60,177 crores ($ 12.9 billion). Compared to this, Tatas did around Rs. 42,000 crores while the A.V. Birla Group did Rs. 28,000 crores. The net profit of Reliance was Rs. 4,222.64 crores, which is more than the combined profits of Rs. 4,100 crores of Tata & Birla for the last fiscal year.

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The turning point for the Ambanis was in October 1977when they issued 2.8 million shares of Reliance Textiles (Brand names - Vimal, Harmony...) to raise $ 1.8 million - and that was the largest public issue in India at that time!

One of their "secrets to success" was to make sure that all the investors were well rewarded. In the last 5 years alone, the investors have earned returns of over 27%. He believes that if he makes the shareholders happy they will continue to give him more money.

Another secret formula of the Ambanis is to cultivate the License Issuing politicians and bureaucrats in New Delhi. In fact he even hired influential bureaucrats after their retirement so that he knows which string to pull and for what. Ambani also contributed generously for political campaigns. Reliance is not only the favourite for the Indian but also for overseas investors.

Ambani's are known for their professional financial management and during the construction of their $3.4 billion refinery in Gujarat; Reliance's debt at any point in time never crossed 3.5 times its cash flow.

Dhirubhai Ambani has two sons - Mukesh (a Stanford university graduate) and his younger brother Anil (a flamboyant Wharton Business School prodigy). The two brothers along with their father form a formidable force in today's business scenario in India. All three of them operate from their office at Nariman Point in Mumbai.

Even though Reliance started in textiles, it diversified into polyester & plastics. In 1993 the group used its clout to convince the Indian government to help them put up 'state of the art petroleum refinery' at Jamnagar, Gujarat which can help India reduce its refining bill. Today Reliance petroleum refinery at Gujarat can process half a million barrels of crude oil per day which is a quarter of India's domestic requirement.

Reliance's current focus is on the telecom industry. They are spending a whopping $5 billion to build 60,000 km of fiber optic backbone, criss-crossing 115 cities in India. Many feel that Reliance is investing too much of money on these fancy infrastructures when the country is not ready for it. But Anil Ambani says, 'we want to be "carriers-carrier" for broadband and Internet data.' They are also looking at utilizing this fibre optic infrastructure to dominate and monopolize the Indian telecommunication market. In fact, last January, the Ambanis tried their best to make the government change the telecom policy to suit their interest. If they would have succeeded, Reliance could have undercut its rival mobile operators price substantially.

Unlike Koreans or Japanese, Reliance has never pursued global strategy and its main market as of now is India.

Reliance Industries Ltd - www.ril.com