Anil Agarwal, Chairman of Vedanta Resources, spoke at length about the company’s vision, its history, its plans and his pride at hailing from Bihar. Agarwal spoke on Day 1 of the India Today Conclave 2023, held over March 17 & 18
Anil Agarwal said Vedanta will produce cheaper, quality and innovative semiconductors and displays, in the next two and a half years. He said that India has signed MoUs with 100 Japanese companies.
Anil Agarwal said the cluster of over 100 Japanese companies will help manufacture cheap and quality raw materials (semiconductors and display). This will be, in turn, used in manufacturing electronics in India.
Anil Agarwal said at the India Today Conclave 2023 that he further foresees over 700-800 companies associating with Vedanta.
Anil Agarwal said that the company never defaulted in debt repayment ever in his career. “People are wondering how we never defaulted on anything,” he said at the event.
Anil Agarwal said that he invested $22 billion in oil and gas, $17 billion in aluminium, $20 billion in zinc. “My total debt from all these investments stands at $13 billion,” he said. “I have earned $5 billion last year from my different companies and expect to earn $10 billion next year,” he added.
Anil Agarwal said that BALCO (Bharat Aluminium Company) that was acquired by Vedanta in 2001 will significantly scale up capacity by next year. “When we acquired BALCO its capacity was 1 lakh tonne and now it is 6 lakh tonne. We expect the capacity to increase to 10 lakh tonne next year,” he said.
“Hum Bihari log hai, Bihar se aaye hai…koi geenti kar ke nahin aaye the…kya khoya, kya paya, lekin kuch kar guzarenge (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, recounting his journey.
Anil Agarwal said that the Renukut aluminium factory dazzled him as a young child of 14-15 yrs. “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.