IN A country full of both ambition and frustration, Reliance Industries is a “role model for all Indians who dare to dream,” says its boss, Mukesh Ambani. The company certainly has much to boast of. It is hugely profitable, earning more than any other private Indian firm. It is brave, going where others fear to tread, constructing refineries, drilling for oil and gas, building supermarkets and broadband networks. It invests more in India and pays more corporation tax there than any other firm. Without Reliance, which generates 15% of the country’s exports, the balance of payments would be a wreck.Yet in other ways, Reliance is a rotten role model for corporate India. When it comes to governance this secretive and politically powerful private empire is not a national champion but an embarrassment.The father of Indian capitalismReliance’s culture reflects its roots. In the days before India liberalised its economy in 1991, the firm’s founder, Dhirubhai Ambani, fought his way up from a menial job in Yemen through Mumbai’s heaving tenements to the top of Indian business. Socialist dogma and meddling officials were his foes, charm and cunning his tools. He managed to...
from The Economist: Leaders http://ift.tt/1m1kgtI
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