‘Hum Bihari log hain, kuch kar guzarenge’: Vedanta’s Anil Agarwal lauds the resolve of people from Bihar

Anil Agarwal, Chairman of Vedanta Resources Limited, recalled the early days of his life, and exalted the resilience and determination of Bihari people. Speaking at the India Today Conclave 2023, when Agarwal was asked if, now looking back at the acquisition of Bharat Aluminium Company in 2001, he believes that the deal had done more harm to them than god. 

“Jo sir pe kafan bandh ke chalte hai, woh lene ke dene calculation nahin karte. Hum Bihari log hai, Bihar se aaye hai…koi geenti kar ke nahin aaye the…kya khoya, kya paya, lekin kuch kar guzarenge (people who wear a shroud on their heads do not calculate profit and loss. We are Bihari people, we have come from Bihar, we didn’t calculate and come…what we lost, what we gained…but we were sure to do something),” he said. 

“When I was 14-15 years old, I used to go to Renukut with my father. From Patna we used to go to Benaras, and from there we used to take a shared taxi and go to Renukut. Around seven people used to sit in the taxi. And my father wished that one day only four could travel in the taxi. The Renukut factory would dazzle our eyes – that an aluminium factory could be like this. From that time to now – Vedanta is the largest producer of Vedanta in the world,” said Agarwal in Hindi. 

He said that when they acquired BALCO (Bharat Aluminium Company) its capacity was 1 lakh tonne and now it is 6 lakh tonne. He expects the capacity to increase to 10 lakh tonne next year. “It feels great to know that today BALCO is Chhattisgarh's honour,” he said. 

The Vedanta Chairman also spoke about the company’s ability to repay debt. He said that they have invested $22 billion in oil and gas, $17 billion in aluminium, $20 billion in zinc, and the total debt from all these investments stands at $13 billion. He said that they earned $5 billion last year from my different companies and expect to earn $10 billion next year. 

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