India's Minesweeper

BOLD, STRATEGIC ACQUISITIONS HAVE SHAPED THE FORTUNE OF VEDANTA RESOURCES CHAIRMAN ANIL AGARWAL, WHO IS NOW FOCUSSED ON CHANNELLING HIS BILLIONS FOR THE GREATER GOOD .

- Varsha Meghani

As he strides across the living room of his residence in South Mumbai, Anil Agarwal looks into the distance where leafy greens give way to sweeping views of the Arabian Sea. “It is often said that what you take from the Ganga, you must return to the Ganga,” says the billionaire boss of Vedanta Resources. Dressed in a sober blue suit and rectangular-framed glasses, Agarwal is a towering figure in India Inc. Not just because he’s almost six feet tall, but also because the self-made industrialist’s London-listed natural resources conglomerate, which turned over $11.5 billion last fiscal, is the sixth biggest in the world (by Ebitda). And with a personal fortune of $3.2 billion he is ranked 44 on the 2017 Forbes India Rich List. (Up from rank 63 and $1.86 billion last year.)

Yet the description of a billionaire disappoints him. “I have pledged most of my wealth. Where are the billions?” he says referring to his promise to give away 75 percent of his fortune to philanthropy—a decision he took with his family in 2014. In fact, even getting this interview with him was difficult. Time constraints aside, Agarwal is disconcerted about being profiled among India’s richest, as this issue of Forbes India sets out to do. “Money is important. It gives you confidence. But I never came from that background, so it makes me uncomfortable,” says Agarwal, whose shaven head and light grey stubble lend him a more rough-and-tumble look.