Akash
Ambani
, son of India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani, took over the reins of
telecom behemoth Reliance Jio on Tuesday. The 31-year-old business leader, who
was a non-executive director at Reliance Jio, took over the chairmanship after
his father Mukesh Ambani resigned from the Reliance Jio board. Here are five
things you need to know about Akash Ambani:

1.       Akash Ambani has been closely linked
to the family’s headway into the digital space. A company statement says Akash
Ambani’s elevation to chairmanship is to recognise the specific contributions
made by him to Reliance’s digital journey.

2.       The 31-year-old has a degree in
Economics from Brown University in the United States

3.       Akash Ambani is married to Shloka
Mehta, his high-school sweetheart. Shloka Mehta is the daughter of diamantaire
Russel Mehta. The two got married in 2020 and have a son named Prithvi. Akash
Ambani is the eldest of the three Ambani children. He has a twin sister named
Isha and a younger brother named Anant Ambani.

4.       Akash Ambani is said to have been
closely associated with inventing and launching an India-focussed Jiophone in
2017. The Jiophone has gone a long way in connecting rural Indian users to the
internet. Akash has also made many of the key acquisitions made by Reliance Jio
in the digital space over the last few years.  

5.       While the telecom business, Reliance
Jio, has gone to Akash Ambani, Mukesh Ambani is expected to handover Reliance’s
retail business to Akash’s twin sister Isha. Isha Ambani is married to Anand Piramal,
son of Piramal Group’s Ajay and Swati Piramal. Anant Ambani, Mukesh Ambani’s
youngest son, is a director on Reliance Retail Ventures and on Jio Platforms.

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Mukesh Ambani resigns as Director of Reliance Jio, son Akash named chairman

Among Akash
Ambani’s major business achievements so far is that he was part of the team
that negotiated investment into Jio’s parent firm by Mark Zuckerberg-owned Meta
Platforms Inc. He was also led several other key acquisitions.

Following
the announced, Kavil Ramachandran, professor and executive director at the
Thomas Schmidheiny Centre for Family Enterprise at the Indian School of
Business (ISB), said, “This is another clear signal Mukesh Ambani is taking the
next step of redefining his involvement with the group,” Reuters reported.