Billionaire businessman Anil Agarwal has hailed India’s entrepreneurial class for its “fire” and “risk-taking” appetite. At the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit 2024, the founder and non-executive chairman of mining company Vedanta said his experience of living abroad for 30 years had taught him that the Indian entrepreneurial class is second to none. He also spoke about his own experience building a business, revealing that he once pretended to be Indian royalty to impress business contacts.

Bihar-born Anil Agarwal began his career in the 1970s as a scrap dealer. By 2003, his company, Vedanta Resources, had become the first Indian company to be listed on the London Stock Exchange. According to Forbes, his estimated net worth today is an impressive $2 billion.

As someone who rose from humble beginnings to build a mining empire, Agarwal knows a thing or two about entrepreneurship—and he feels India’s startup ecosystem is brimming with talent.

Anil Agarwal on India’s entrepreneurial class

Speaking about India’s entrepreneurial class, Anil Agarwal said that Indian entrepreneurs are full of fire. – I have lived abroad for 30 years. But the fire, the risk-taking I see in India, is nowhere else in the world,” the mining mogul said Hindustan Times Leadership Summit 2024.

However, he added that India’s attitude towards money is different from the West. “Creating wealth is celebrated (abroad),” he said. “In India, creating wealth is a crime. Making money is a sin.

“So when I do something, I ask myself: Whatever I’m doing, is it helping the community?”

On Being “Maharaja Anil Kumar”

The founder of Vedanta Group offered some advice to aspiring entrepreneurs by drawing on his own extensive experience. He advised founders not to be afraid of failure, saying “The more failures you have, the more success you will have.”

Agarwal also spoke about the importance of stress in doing business. As an example, he spoke of the time he impersonated Indian royalty.

“When I went to England, nobody paid me any attention. I was puzzled about what to do, then I got an idea.

“I noticed that they (the British) like the concept Indian royalty (In logon ko raja maharaja bahut pasand hain India ke).

“So I got business cards printed with the name ‘Maharaja Anil Kumar,'” the billionaire said, drawing laughter from the audience. “We are Indians, we always find a way,” he said.