The Polyester Prince

Dhirubhai Ambani's life is a rags-to-riches story, from Bombay's crowded pavements and bazaars to the city's extravagantly wealthy social circles where business tycoons, stockmarket speculators, smugglers, politicians and Hindi film stars mingle, make money, make and break marriages and carry out prolonged feuds - sometimes violent, often histrionic.

This is the story of a rising capitalist group in post-independence India. Until the arrival of Ambani, India's big business scene was dominated by a few industrial houses from British times. In just 26 years since its foundation, Ambani's Reliance group has risen to rival these houses. By 1995 the group had 2.6 million investors, one in every eight of Indian sharemarket investors, so many that it had to hold its annual general meetings in football stadiums.

Along with the dramatic expansion of the Reliance Group have come intricate political connections, a whole raft of corruption charges and a rollercoaster of booms and crashes for Ambani and his company. The textile tycoon, however, continues to realise his dream to be known as the outsider who took on India's business establishment and won, establishing a world-class company in the process.

This fascinating study shows how capitalism emerges by fair means and foul in the new industrial countries of the Third World, and is one of very few studies of Asian or Third World tycoons.

Hamish McDonald has worked for The Washington Post, Financial Times and the Far Eastern Economic Review. He has most recently been based in New Delhi as the bureau chief for the FEER and has now returned to Australia as Foreign Editor of the Sydney Morning Herald.