Anil Agarwal once pretended to be ‘Maharaja Anil Kumar’ to impress Britishers

Billionaire businessman Anil Agarwal has praised India’s entrepreneur class for its “fire” and “risk-taking” appetite. Speaking at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit 2024, the founder and non-executive chairman of mining company Vedanta said that his experience of living abroad for 30 years had taught him that the Indian entrepreneurial class is unmatched. He also spoke about his own experience of building a business, revealing that he once pretended to be Indian royalty to impress business contacts.
Bihar-born Anil Agarwal started his career in the 1970s as a scrap metal dealer. By 2003, his company, Vedanta Resources, had become the first Indian company to be listed on London Stock Exchange. According to Forbes, his estimated net worth today stands at 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 full of talent.
Speaking about India’s entrepreneur class, Anil Agarwal said Indian entrepreneurs are full of fire. “I have lived for 30 years abroad. But the fire, the risk-taking ability I see in India, is nowhere else in the world,” said the mining mogul at the 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 punishable. To make money is sin.
“So whenever I do anything, I ask myself: Whatever I am doing, is it helping society?”
The founder of Vedanta Group gave some advice to budding entrepreneurs by drawing on his own extensive experience. He advised founders to not be afraid of failure, saying “The more failures you have, the more success you will get.”
Agarwal also spoke about the importance of hustle in doing business. As an example, he spoke about the time he pretended to be Indian royalty.
“When I went to England, nobody gave me any attention. I was puzzled about what to do, then I had an idea.
“I noticed that they [the British] like the concept of Indian royalty [In logon ko raja maharaja bahut pasand hain India ke].
“So I got visiting cards printed with the name ‘Maharaja Anil Kumar’,” said the billionaire, drawing laughter from the audience. “We are Indians, we always find a way,” he said.