He spent his initial years in India living with his extended family on bare floors and rope beds in a house built by his grandfather. Mr. Mittal kickstarted his career working in the family’s steelmaking business in India, and in 1976 he took a plunge to establish the business international division by buying a run-down plant in Indonesia. Starting from Ispat Indo in Indonesia, Mittal transformed the moderate business of his family into a global steel giant, spanning across 14 countries and employing more than 150,000 people. With his vision and hard work.

Mittal pioneered the development of integrated mini-mills and the use of Direct Reduced Iron or “DRI” as a scrap substitute for steelmaking and led the consolidation process of the global steel industry. In 2004 Mittal Steel became the largest steelmaker in the world, with shipments of 42.1 million tons of steel and profits of over USD 22 billion. He made his big-ticket entry into the lucrative European market and acquired the massive 5 million-ton Kazakh steel plant, Karmet from the government of Kazakhstan. Mittal introduced new technology and transformed it. His trademark was to buy old rundown steel mills from governments at throwaway prices and then turn them into gold.

Between 2001 and 2004 takeover of plants in Romania, the Czech Republic and Poland followed. Mittal became the world’s largest steelmaker when he took over the US’ largest steel producer – the International Steel Group. He then consolidated all his steel holdings into Mittal Steel. The year 2005 saw a tug of war between Mittal and Arcelor as both bid for Ukraine’s largest steel mill – Kryvorizhstal.

Mittal beat Arcelor to the $4.8 billion deal, at more than twice what analysts had valued Kryvorizhstal. Less than three months later, Mittal launched his takeover bid of Arcelor. His idea was to eliminate any future messy battles. The rest is history. The Mittal family owns a controlling majority stake in ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steel company. His residence at Kensington Palace Gardens was purchased from Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone in 2004 for 57 million, making it the world’s most expensive house, at that time. It has 12 bedrooms, an indoor pool, Turkish baths and parking for 20 cars. The extravagant show of wealth has been referred to as the “Taj Mittal”.