Dhirubhai H. Ambani

December 28, 2002

A commemorative postage stamp on the 70^th Birth Anniversary of Dhirubhai Ambani, founder of the Reliance Industries in Bombay :

Issued by India

Issued on Dec 28, 2002

Issued for : The Department of Posts is happy to issue a commemorative postage stamp on Dhirubhai Ambani: the man and his vision.

Design : The First Day Cover illustrates some of the major milestones in Dhirubhai H. Ambani‘s journey to realise his dreams.

Credits :
Stamps & FDC : Sankha Samanta (Photograph: Harsh Man Rai)
Cancellation : Alka Sharma

Type : Stamp, Postal Used

Colour : Multi Colour

Denomination : 500 Paise

Overall size : 2.90 x 3.90 cms.

Printing Size : 2.90 x 3.90 cms.

Perforation : 13 x 13

Paper : Imported un w/m Adhesive Gravure Coated Stamp Paper in Sheets 50.8 x 53.5 cms.

Print Quantity : 3.8 Millions

Number of Stamps per sheet : 16

Printing Process : Photogravure

Printer : India Security Press, Nashik

Name : Dhirajlal Hirachand “Dhirubhai” Ambani

Born on Dec 28, 1932 at Chorvad, Junagadh district, Gujarat, India

Died on Jul 6, 2002 at Mumbai, India

About :

Dhirubhai H. Ambani (1932-2002), industrialist and corporate icon, played an important role in the country’s quest for economic growth and regeneration. Rising from humble beginnings he went on to build India’s largest business conglomerate through the brilliance of his entrepreneurial genius and sheer hard work.
Born in Chorwad village in interior Gujarat as the son of a school teacher, Ambani’s early life was full of struggles. He left studies after completing matriculation and joined his brother in Yemen at the age of 17, in search of opportunities. Starting as a petrol station attendant in Aden, he rose through hard work and settled down to a happy life with a comfortable job in one of the affiliate companies of the multinational, Burmah Shell. The eight years he lived and worked in Aden was a formative period for Ambani. He keenly observed the working of Burmah Shell, his fertile mind soaking up their ethos, efficiency and scale of operations. His entrepreneurial dreams began to take shape, and finally he put foundations under his dreams when he decided to start a business of his own in India.
Returning to India, he invested his courage, convictions and the savings of a few thousand rupees to start a business of exporting spices and nuts in 1958. Ambani was constantly scanning the markets with his questing intellect to gauge the emerging trends. In the sixties he entered the textile business. Buying plants and equipping them with the latest spinning and weaving machines, he soon established his company, Reliance Industries, as a force to reckon with in the textile industry.
One among the greatest contributions of Ambani was the way he generated an equity cult in India. Starting with the initial public offering of Reliance Industries in 1977, he attracted a large number of retail investors to the stock market with issue after issue. The trust that he earned from millions of shareholders, employees and customers was crucial to the phenomenal growth of Reliance Industries from a small time business firm in 1977 to one of the world leaders within two decades. Analysts have often marvelled at four exceptional qualities of Dhirubhai Ambani which made his incredible success possible: the spirit of self-reliance, speed, size and scale of operations and ability sell products by leading the market. In business, he adopted a strategy that could never fail – that of producing goods of high quality and selling them at the cheapest possible price.
With interests in oil and gas exploration and production, oil refining, petrochemicals and power, and with upcoming investments in emerging sectors like telecom, the Reliance group is today on the threshold of fulfilling the vision of its founder, of being a globally competitive manufacturer-exporter that the country could take pride in.
Text : Based on material furnished by the sponsors.