Ambani's ancestral village eager to see Anil touching the sky

By Sazida Khan

Junagadh (Gujarat), Jan 20 : The residents of Gujarat's Kukaswada Village always remember how the late industrialist Dhirubhai Ambani brought glory to his ancestral village by being an entrepreneurial success and are now, contributing to bring success to Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Groups' Reliance Power.

At the Kukaswada Village of State's Junagarh District, everyone is eager to be a part of the Anil Dhirubai Ambani's Reliance Power IPO. And, the ones contributing to its initial public offer (IPO) for shares include farmers and daily wage earners. "This is the birth place of Dhirubhai Ambani and we have full faith in Reliance Investments. People, who have trusted on Reliance, have become millionaires today and our village now has more than 100 Demat account holders in a very short time. Over ten million (a crore) applications have been field for this IPO segment.

"There were many people from our village who had a share in Jamnagar Refinery when it was started initially by Dhirubhai Ambani and now with the set up of Anil Ambani's IPO we all are expecting profits," said Arun Tanna, a stock broker, Kukaswada.

Be it any poor farm labourer to a trader or any landlord almost all have invested in Reliance Power One.

"I run a departmental store. My son is literate and he has some knowledge on investing his money in the right areas. He has also invested in Reliance IPO and does the marketing work of the company. We are happy and satisfied investing our hard earned money and we have full faith in Reliance," said Prabhudas Thakkar, owner of a provisions shop in Kukaswada.

Even the village women here have invested their savings with utmost confidence.

"We have full faith in Reliance IPO and most of our family men and villagers have invested. Our village has trust on this offering and we have invested in whatever ways we could afford," said Sumitaben Koli, a woman labourer in Kukaswada.

The IPO of shares by Reliance Power One, the venture headed by Dhirubhai Ambani's younger son Anil Ambani, created waves all over the country when the Reliance Power raised 3 billion dollars in India's biggest-ever IPO this past week.

The IPO were oversubscribed within 60 seconds. The public response has been such that it has opened a new chapter in the shares and debentures investments. It is considered to be India's largest IPO in the recent times. It may be recalled that it was Dhirubhai Ambani who mooted the equity cult in India and more than 58,000 investors subscribed to his venture in 1977 and today reaping rich dividends.

Kukaswada with its population of 12,000 boasts of around 100 Demat (dematerialised) account holders which, in turn, reflect that the villagers are investment-conscious.

Although many admit that Kukaswada is still quite backward and lacks proper infrastructure, the villagers take pride in the fact that one of the richest families of India hails from their village, no matter the place itself has remained little known.

ANI