Produced by: Manoj Kumar
At 19, Anil Agarwal landed in Mumbai with a suitcase and tiffin box. Today, he commands a ₹35,000 crore empire across four continents. How? One scrap deal at a time.
Before Vedanta, he tanked nine businesses—from aluminium rods to multiplexes. But Agarwal didn’t flinch—he saw failure as tuition for billionaires.
His empire began with a ₹50,000 loan and a dying cable company. He revived it by sleeping at the factory and stalking banks by day. That’s startup hustle, 1976-style.
Sick of raw material price swings, he flipped the game—built his own copper smelter and became India’s first private refiner. Sterlite was born, and so was a playbook.
In 2003, Vedanta raised $876 million in a bold London IPO. It was the first Indian firm on the LSE—and a middle finger to India’s red tape.
His genius? Buying struggling companies and making them shine. From Madras Aluminium to Konkola Mines, he turned undervalued assets into global profit centers.
He pledged 75% of his wealth to philanthropy. From Nand Ghars to hospitals, Agarwal is building more than business—he’s laying a legacy.
From scrap metal in Patna to deals with Anglo American and Cairn, Agarwal turned Vedanta into a $10B beast spanning zinc, oil, copper, and power.
In just 8 years, Vedanta paid ₹3.39 lakh crore to India. That’s more than most states’ annual budgets—and a comeback to every critic who doubted him.