THICKER THAN OIL

Reliance Industries has transformed itself from a petrochemicals company to a true conglomerate with interests in telecom, energy, retail and media. And leading it in the new era will be a new generation of Ambanis

-  NACHIKET KELKAR

December 29, 2021, was the 89th birth anniversary of Dhirubhai Ambani. Reliance Industries Ltd, the company he founded in 1973 and helped become an industrial behemoth, celebrated the occasion—as it does every year—as Reliance Family Day. Only that this time RIL’s 2.3 lakh employees got an indication of what the future would look like for India’s largest company, as Mukesh Ambani, chairman of RIL and Dhirubhai’s son, mentioned a “momentous leadership transition”.

Ambani, 65, has three children—twins Akash and Isha, 30, and Anant, 27. Though all of them have been involved in the family business, it was the first time that he had talked about succession. “We should guide them, enable them, encourage them and empower them... and sit back and applaud as they perform better than us,” he said.

The succession plan is well and truly underway. On June 28, Reliance announced that Ambani was stepping down as director of Reliance Jio Infocomm, a telecommunication services provider, and Akash was appointed chairman of the board of the company. Reliance Jio Infocomm is India’s largest telecom operator and a unit of Reliance Jio Platforms, the RIL subsidiary that houses all its digital businesses. Mukesh remains the chairman of Jio Platforms.