Mahabharata in Polyester

by McDonald, Hamish

  21 THE AMBANIS APART

  1 Krishna Gopalan, ‘End game’, Business Today, 17 July 2005; Ron Moreau and Sudip Mazumdar, ‘Bigger, faster, better’, Newsweek, 17 July 2006.

  2 Kamdar, Planet India, p. 226; Moreau and Mazumdar, ‘Bigger, faster, better’.

  3 Sucheta Dalal and Debashis Basu, February 2007 interview, rediff.com.

  4 Ibid.

  5 Kamdar, Planet India; Moreau and Mazumdar, ‘Bigger, faster, better’.

  6 ‘Amar Singh’s telephone conversations recorded’, 1 January 2006.

  7 Hindustan Times, 24 May 2007.

  8 Anjuli Bhargava, ‘This airport is the cynosure of India Inc.’, Business Standard, 31 August 2007.

  9 Reuter News Service, 8 July 2007; Joe Leahy, ‘Sarin lashes India’s “vested interests”‘, Financial Times, 10 July 2007.

  10 Ibid.

  11 Ravinder Singh, Urgent e-petition to President, 14 June 2006.

  12 Mukesh Bhardwaj, ‘Land grab charge puts spotlight on Reliance’s mega SEZ in Haryana’, Indian Express, 13 June 2006; Sreelatha Menon, ‘Reliance’s CSR initiative in SEZ battles cynics’, Business Standard, 3 August 2007.

  13 ‘RIL deals directly with farmers for SEZ land in state’, Economic Times, 15 January 2007; Renni Abraham, ‘With foes like these, who needs friends?’, DNA, 18 August 2007.

  14 ‘Breather for SEZs with 5000-ha cap’, Business Standard, 9 August 2007; Times of India, 4 December 2007.

  15 ‘Petro adulteration scam: it can’t be this crude’, Outlook India, 11 April 2005.

  16 John Elliott, ‘Reliance hits gasoline and worsening retail road blocks’, http://ridingtheelephant.blogs.fortune.cnn.com, 24 September 2007.

  17 V.K. Shashikumar, ‘Wetland to wasteland’, Tehelka, 1 January 2005.

  18 T.N. Ninan, ‘Discom fever’, Business Standard, 27 August 2005.

  19 ‘PM sets up EGoM on Reliance gas price’, Hindustan Times, 6 August 2007.

  20 ‘CPM opposes gas price policy, RIL warns of two-year delay’, Economic Times, 5 September 2007.

  21 Manash Goswami and Dinakar Sethuraman, ‘India caps natural gas price, may scare new explorers’, Bloomberg news service, 13 September 2007.

  22 Andrew Buncombe, ‘Ambani overtakes Gates to become world’s richest man’, Independent (London), 30 October 2007.

  23 Eric Bellman, ‘In India, stock surge lifts Ambanis’ riches to unfathomable high’, Wall Street Journal, 24 November 2007.

  24 Charles Ayres, ‘Power shift in Hollywood as Steven Spielberg exits’, Times (London), 6 October 2008; ‘Reliance ADAG scripts Hollywood foray’, Business Standard, 4 October 2008.

  25 Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, press release 79/2009, 23 December 2009, at www.trai.gov.in.

  26 Dean Nelson, ‘India’s $85bn Ambani brothers battle on’, Sunday Times (London), 28 June 2008; Veeshal Bakshi, ‘The Emperor strikes back’, Tehelka, 26 July 2008.

  27 ‘Sale of K-G basin gas: Govt to approach HC’, Business Standard, 25 September 2008.

  28 Anand Giridharadas, ‘Indian to the core, and an oligarch’, New York Times, 15 June 2008.

  29 Supreme Court of India, Judgement on Civil Appeal No. 4273 of 2010 (accessible on www.supremecourtofindia.nic.in)

  30 Cuckoo Paul, ‘Court verdict disappoints supporters of free gas pricing’, Forbes India, 7 May 2010, on www.moneycontrol.com/news/business.

  22 GOODBYE, GANDHI

  1 Foreword by Mukesh Ambani, in A.G. Krishnamurthy, Dhirubhaism: The Remarkable Work Philosophy of Dhirubhai Ambani, Tata McGraw-Hill, New Delhi, 2007.

  2 ‘Wharton School names auditorium after Dhirubhai Ambani’, India Abroad News Service, 16 May 2007.

  3 Philip Bowring, Book review: The Polyester Prince, International Herald Tribune, 16 January 1999.

  4 ‘Reliance on the wrong strategy’, Economist, 25 July 1998.

  5 ‘In invisible ink: missed scoop: the Ambanis can manage the media. On anything, anytime’, Outlook, 30 November 1998.

  6 Leela Gandhi, ‘The mocking style of a capitalist folk-hero’, Age (Melbourne), 13 February 1999.

  7 Amartya Sen, The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian Culture, History and Identity, Allen Lane, London, 2005.

  8 Shantanu Guha Ray, ‘The press code: managing the media is another special Ambani trait’, Tehelka, 29 December 2007.

  9 Press Trust of India report in The Hindu, 5 May 2008.

  10 ‘Delhi Confidential’, Indian Express, 20 August 2007; George Fernandes, letter to Indian Express, 21 August 2007; Virendra Kapoor, ‘Gloating over someone’s troubles’, Cybernoon, 27 August 2007.

  11 Gurcharan Das, ‘The India model’, Foreign Affairs, July–August 2006.

  12 Arun K.Agrawal, Reliance: The Real Natwar, Manas Publications, New Delhi, 2008.

  13 ‘Mumbai tycoon Ambani a close second to steel magnate Mittal among Indian billionaires’, Associated Press, International Herald Tribune, 15 November 2007.

  14 Bruce Loudon, ‘Pull your horns in: Singh sermon waves a red flag at India’s bulls’, Australian, 6 June 2007.