Dhirubhai and wife at Naroda Bhoomipujan

Dec 28, 1932: Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani, the third of five children, is born at Chorwad, Gujarat, to trader-turned-school teacher Hirachand Ambani and Jamunaben.

1948: Finishes school at the age of 16, and is recommended to A. Besse & Co. in Aden by his elder brother, Ramnikbhai.

1958: Returns to India and starts Reliance Commercial Corp. in a 350-sq ft office in Mumbai's Masjid Bandar district to trade in synthetic yarn.

1965: Differences crop up between Dhirubhai and partner Champaklal Damani, and the former buys out the latter's stake for Rs 6 lakh.

1966: Dhirubhai gets into textile manufacturing with Reliance Textiles, installing four machines in a 10,000-sq mt plot in Naroda. In the first full year of production in 1967, sales touch Rs 90 lakh and profits, Rs 13 lakh.

1977: Reliance goes public, offering 2.8 million shares.

1980: Reliance receives licence for the Patalganga project, marking its first step in backward integration.

1982: The polyester plant goes into production in a record 18 months.

Dhirubhai at the 1985 AGM

1985: Total assets cross Rs 1,000 crore.

1986: The PSF plant at Hazira goes on stream.

1988: Sales cross Rs 1,000 crore. Reliance raises more than Rs 500 crore for its Hazira project. In October, Reliance suddenly emerges as the single-largest private shareholder in engineering firm, Larsen & Toubro. The Patalganga paraxylene plant receives refinery status.

1989: Patalganga plant is flooded because of torrential rain. Mukesh Ambani and others pull off a stunning recovery operation.

Reliance's Hazira complex

1992: Reliance becomes the first Indian company to make a Euro GDR.

1993: Reliance, with sales of more than Rs 4,000 crore, overtakes Tisco as the largest private company in India. Reliance Petroleum makes the biggest IPO ever.

1994: Makes the second global depository receipt (GDR) issue.

1995: Net profits touch Rs 1,065 crore, the highest ever achieved by an Indian company.

1995-96: Reliance becomes the first private sector company to be rated by international credit rating agencies.

Anil Ambani announcing RIL-RPL merger

1996-97: The Rs 9,000-crore Hazira complex goes on stream. Reliance becomes the first corporate in Asia to issue 50- and 100-year bonds in the US debt market.

1998: Total assets cross Rs 35,000 crore, and revenues exceed Rs 14,000 crore.

1999-2000: The Rs 25,000-crore Jamnagar petrochem complex and most of the refinery goes on stream. With that, Reliance gets to boast of world's largest grassroots refinery, paraxylene plant, and polypropylene plant. Foray into telecom is announced.

Reliance's mega project: The Jamnagar facility

2001: Reliance Industries and Reliance Petroleum become the two largest companies in India. Reliance Infocom announces a Rs 25,000-crore investment plan. Group revenues cross Rs 60,000 crore. Reliance becomes the largest group in India.

2002: Reliance Petroleum merges with Reliance Industries. The new company acquires a 26 per cent stake in IPCL, India's No. 2 petrochem company.

June 24, 2002: Dhirubhai suffers his second stroke, and is admitted to Breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai.

June 26, 2002: Reliance mops up Rs 100 crore via a 12-year paper.

RELIANCE AND CONTROVERSY

July 1979: Morarji Desai-led Janata government falls. Dhirubhai is suspected of helping Indira Gandhi return to power.

March/April 1982: RIL stock is hammered by a bear cartel ahead of its debenture issue. Reliance brokers swing into action, mop up some 8 lakh shares at a cost of Rs 10 crore; bears suffer huges losses.

Bombay Dyeing's Nusli Wadia

May 1983: Reliance is accused of using companies registered in the Isle of Man to buy its own shares at below market price. Investigations lead to deadend.

1984: What would later get dubbed as a polyester war starts with Reliance on one side and Nusli Wadia of Bombay Dyeing and Kapal Mehra of Orkay Silk Mills on the other.

April 1985: Finance Minister V P Singh orders tax raids on companies, including Reliance.

May 1985: Reliance faces a profit crunch; a defiant Dhirubhai holds a mammoth AGM in Bombay's Cooperage Football Grounds, attracting some 12,000 shareholders.

June 1985: Reliance drops Textiles from its name and adds Industries to signify its new growth ambitions.

1986: Dhirubhai suffers a stroke in February, even as S Gurumurthy-backed by Ramnath Goenka of Indian Express-launches a series of exposes on Reliance, including alleged under-invoicing of plant and machinery. Enforcement Director Bhure Lal launches investigation into Reliance's overseas transactions.

August 1987: Nusli Wadia is arrested by the CBI. Reliance's hand in the arrest is alleged.

Anil & Mukesh walking out of L&T House

October 1988: Reliance takes over L&T and appoints Mukesh Ambani and M L Bhakta as directors.

August 1989: Kirti Ambani, a Reliance general manager, is arrested and charged with conspiracy to murder Nusli Wadia.

August 1991: FIs bring pressure on Reliance over L&T takeover. In an EGM called to approve Mukesh Ambani's appointment as L&T managing director, the two brothers are booed out.

April 1992: The Harshad Mehta securities scam blows up. Reliance's involvement is widely suspected.

October 1995: The Bombay Stock Exchange issues a show cause notice to Reliance over duplicate shares issue to Rajul Vasa, Dhirubhai's physiotherapist.

Kirti Ambani being taken away by sleuths

Nov. 1995: Reliance threatens to delist itself from the Bombay Stock Exchange, which it accuses of siding with bear operators. BSE refuses delisting.

Dec. 1995: Finance minister Manmohan Singh orders a joint enquiry by Sebi and DCA into the duplicate shares issue.

October 1998: A raid at Reliance' Delhi office recovers confidential government documents from locked drawers of President V. Balasubramaniam.

April 2002: A Delhi court remands group Vice President A N Sethuraman and Corporate Affairs GM Shekhar Adawal to 14 days' judicial custody.

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