I am personally a big believer that technology is the biggest driver of human development, and if you can use technology to benefit people, then that's the best business you can have.
You have to manage money. Particularly with market economies. You may have a great product, but if your bottom line goes bust, then that's it.
China and India will, separately and together, unleash an explosion of demand.
Mobile internet will be the single-most defining technology of this century for human development.
I think that our fundamental belief is that for us growth is a way of life and we have to grow at all times.
I wanted to pursue chemical engineering because I thought it was the future.
All of us, in a sense, struggle continuously all the time, because we never get what we want. The important thing which I've really learned is how do you not give up, because you never succeed in the first attempt.
In the journey of an entrepreneur, the most important thing is self-belief and the ability to convert that belief into reality.
Everybody has equal opportunity, and I think that is true for everything.
Essentially, whoever is successful, whoever is going to do things that make a difference, is going to be talked about.
As long as you've got your courage of conviction, it works for you. I think that the same applies, too, even where you don't, because in today's world, financial resources are the least important. World has moved to the power of ideas.
Reliance has built a refinery-led energy business and a materials business. In the energy business, we give 2% of the world's petrol, diesel, and aviation fuel.
For my father, life was uni-dimensional. Reliance was his life. Yet, some of my most vivid memories are about spending time with him. However busy he may have been, whatever the pressure, Sunday was for his wife and kids. I try to do the same with my family.
I generally think that I should only speak by action and not by words.
I believe, 50 years from now, when you write history, one technology that would have changed human civilization is going to be the mobile Internet.
Digital life and digital services are a multi-wave business.
My big advantage was to have my father accept me as first-generation.
I am a big believer that whatever has gone lies in the past. You should only learn from it, and you should only look at the present and the future. That's been my father's philosophy and mine as well.
I don't think that ambition should not be in the dictionary of entrepreneurs. But our ambition should be realistic. You have to realise that you can't do everything.
The organizational architecture is really that a centipede walks on hundred legs and one or two don't count. So if I lose one or two legs, the process will go on, the organization will go on, the growth will go on.
At Reliance, we have always believed in investing in the businesses of the future and in investing in talent.
Our established businesses of hydrocarbons, energy, and petrochemicals pretty much run on their own, with their own proven leaders. This has helped me focus almost exclusively on two things: Firstly, new businesses. And secondly, institutionalising what I call the Reliance Management System.
I personally think that money can do very little. And this has been my experience all across.
If there are some losses that you take, then we're all big boys - we shouldn't be crying.
All of us know that the energy from the sun can now be harnessed, and we need to convert it sensibly to use it.
Nobody had anticipated that chemicals was the direction in which Reliance was headed. I did chemical engineering because it was supposed to be the future.
Why will I not give free service to my customers to get them used to mobile Internet, and to get every small town and village to use it? Everybody does promotions. In the internet world, free is normal.
My obsession is with technology and how it can improve human life. In my view, what we have seen in the last 300 years is only a trailer.
By that time - the early '70s - Vimal was a fairly successful textile brand. So everybody expected me to do textile engineering. I shocked them by saying that I would go to IIT.
I have always believed that technology drives human civilization's endeavor and progress.
Until my father brought me into Reliance, I was pretty sure that I wanted to study in a U.S. university: hopefully, a little bit of time, either work at the World Bank or teach as a professor.
The regulator's job is not to guarantee us a profit, however much we cry. The regulator's job is to first make sure that the country goes forward and then make sure that the consumer goes forward.
Profit or loss is not guaranteed. That depends on the consumer and depends on the product. That's a risk that business people take.
I guess when you are left on your own, you find your true potential. I remember my father never came to our school even once.
We all get into business, and we take a risk in terms of putting capital.
