Anil Agarwal was born on January 24, 1954, in Patna, Bihar, to a lower-middle-class Marwari family. His family’s financial situation was precarious at best. Dwarka Prasad Agarwal was his father’s name, and he owned a modest aluminum conductor company.
In 1976, he arrived in Mumbai as a scrap trader after leaving his father’s aluminum conductors manufacturing firm. He went on to develop an empire in aluminum, copper, zinc, and iron.
Miller High School in Patna was his primary school, and he graduated from Sir Ganesh Dutt Patliputra High School. Instead of going to university, he dropped out of school at the age of 15 and joined his father’s aluminum conductor manufacturing firm.
Anil moved to Mumbai from Patna when he was 19 years old to pursue employment prospects. Anil Agarwal is a staunch vegetarian and a devotee of the Hindu God Krishna.
Cycling is something he enjoys. Kiran Gupta, a fellow biker and family friend, is married to Anil Agarwal. The couple now resides in London with their daughter Priya and son Agnivesh.
Anil graduated from the Malaviya Regional Engineering College in Jaipur with a Bachelor of Engineering (B.E) degree. He started collecting scrap metal from other states’ cable providers and selling it in Mumbai.
With the help of a bank loan, Anil Agarwal started Hamsher Sterling Corporation, a company that operates in the Industrial sector and produces enameled copper, among other things. It was 1976.
In 1986, he founded Sterlite Industries to produce jelly-filled cables. The firm was the first private sector enterprise in India to build a refinery in 1993.
Madras Aluminium was purchased by Sterlite Industries in 1995. Anil Agarwal bought a 65 percent share in HZL (Hindustan Zinc Limited) and a 51 percent stake in Bharat Aluminium Company (BALCO), a public sector operation, in 2001.
In 1986, he founded Sterlite Industries, which specializes in the production of jelly-filled cables. The business built India’s first refinery in 1993.
In 1995, Madras Aluminium was bought by Sterlite Industries. Anil Agarwal purchased a 65 percent share in HZL (Hindustan Zinc Limited) and a 51 percent stake in Bharat Aluminium Company (BALCO), a public sector operation, in 2001.
Furthermore, when the government announced a disinvestment program, they were given their first major opportunity to develop domestically. Taking advantage of this, Anil went on to purchase a 38.8 percent stake in India Foils Ltd, a 51 percent stake in BALCO, and a 46 percent stake in Hindustan Zinc Ltd in 2001. These mining businesses were likewise thought to be sluggish and inefficient. Later in 2003, the business was renamed Vedanta Resources Plc., partly to get access to foreign capital markets.
A Watershed Moment
In the same year, Anil’s life was turned upside down by a pivotal event!
Those were the times when small, medium, large, and all types of enterprises were having a difficult and frustrating time. It was the era of the license raj! And among the many problems that every business encountered, one of the most painful was the inability to raise money in India.
As a result of his dissatisfaction with the country’s business environment, Anil relocated to London, the headquarters of the world’s leading mining and metals businesses. And with that, he changed the look of his company in general, whether deliberately or unknowingly.
