Mukesh Ambani: Slowdown in India is temporary, govt reforms will pay off: Mukesh Ambani

Losing $5 billion in the first two months of the year doesn’t seem to have rattled India’s richest man. Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance, said India’s current slowdown was temporary and he was hopeful that government’s reforms would soon pay off.

The chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries said that the coming decade would present a “historic opportunity” for businesses to excel and place India among the top three economies of the world.

Ambani further added the slump was caused by external turbulence, and the country has reasons to be more optimistic for the next decade.

“I think while we have seen temporary pains, with the leadership that the finance minister provided we’re just going to get out of it. External turbulence (has) hit us, but I am very very optimistic,” Ambani said.

“All the reform measures that have been taken in the last few months will see the outcome and I am quite sure that in coming quarter this will reverse,” he added.

Reliance, in its forty years, started off with textiles, became a petrochemicals player, shifted focus to refining and energy and has now built a world-class retail and consumer tech business, Ambani said.

The total net worth of Asia’s richest man, who ranks number fifteenth in Bloomberg’s Billionnaire index, stood at $53.5 billion. As Sensex plunged 1,400 points, Reliance share price closed 4.12% lower at Rs 1,328 on Friday, with its market capitalisation quoting Rs 8.4 lakh crore.

Falling for the sixth consecutive day, market indices led to an erosion of almost Rs 5 lakh crore from BSE, worst since the beginning of the global coronavirus scare.

India’s economic growth slowed to a near 7-year low of 4.7 per cent in October-December 2019 on continued slump in manufacturing, and now faces the next big challenge of virus outbreak stifling global growth.