“Growth has no limit at Reliance”; this old quote of Dhirubhai Ambai seems to be absolutely true and the group has already covered many more milestones under the able guidance of the next generation since his demise. Mukesh Ambani has made his intention clear by his recent pioneering initiatives and some aggressive steps that he is poised to take to the next formidable level.

Reliance’s petroleum refining and exploration business has been consistently growing at breakneck speed and along with that some of its recent ventures are expected to widen its topline by over Rs 1 lakh crore or so in the next few years.

The Mukesh camp has recently unveiled its aggressive plans to foray into businesses like healthcare units, shipbuilding and dredging. Also there was a buzz that that RIL might buy stake in Nagarjuna Fertiliser and this made the fertiliser sector to rally. However, Nagarjuna denied any such development.

According to the CNBC-TV18 report, Reliance plans to set up around 1,400 healthcare units in B and C class mandi towns to serve the rural population coming to these towns to trade. These healthcare units are expected to replicate government’s primary healthcare units and the group is expected to pump in Rs 25,000 crore over 7-8 years.

One pilot project is being currently implemented near Jalandhar. According to a latest report published by McKinsey, Indian healthcare market is expected to be worth $20 bn by 2015.

The Mukesh Ambani – owned Reliance group is also set to foray into shipbuilding and dredging business with two separate companies. Sources said that the largest Indian business group is expected to invest around $ 1 billion each in the two companies. It has begun talks with international majors for a strategic tie up for the dredging business. The shipyard will come up at Rewas, where Reliance is setting up a mega port and a special economic zone (SEZ).

By Om Prakash Singh