Think of Reliance when you fly or drive a car: Mukesh Ambani

"We process about two per cent of the world's transportation fuels. So, whenever you fly or drive a car or things move in a truck, think about Reliance," Ambani said delving into evolution of the petrochemicals major at an award function here.

Receiving the Dwight D Eisenhower Global Award for leadership by the US-based Business Council for International Understanding (BCIU), Ambani described the Reliance story as a story of partnerships and further noted the partnerships are really with the US, which started with his education at Stanford University.

"We started in the textiles business with the objective of clothing tens of millions of people and our first relationship was with DuPont and DuPont was a leading American company. They gave us technology and even today we have a great relationship and our relationship really clothes hundreds of millions of people in India," he said.

RIL is also the world's largest polyester manufacturer.

Noting that RIL has worked with many American companies in the petrochemicals and materials area, Ambani said his group built a large refinery again with the US entities UOP and Bechtel.

"All of the technology came from the US and India now has the largest refining complex in the world at Jamnagar which is owned by Reliance," Ambani, one of the world's richest persons, said.

According to him, Reliance was founded with USD 1,000 as a private company in 1960 and went public in 1979. Presently, RIL employs more than 90,000 people worldwide.

"... more importantly over the last three decades we have continued to believe in power of youth and kept our average age for the company as a whole below 35," he pointed out.

He said that in the next few decades, India would see a historic transformation, where hundreds of millions of people would come out of poverty and get to a standard of living that is acceptable.