Mukesh Ambani, Reliance Industries chairman and managing director, resigned from the board of his group’s telecom unit, Reliance Jio, Tuesday, June 28. He handed over the charge of the company to his eldest son Akash Ambani. Mukesh Ambani’s decision is seen as a step in succession planning by India’s richest man.

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Who is Akash Ambani?

Akash Ambani is the eldest son of Mukesh Ambani and Nita
Ambani. He was born on October 23, 1991. 
He has a twin sister, Isha Ambani and a younger brother, Anant Ambani.
Akash has graduated from Brown University with a major in Economics. Coming
back he joined his father’s business and currently works as Chief of Strategy
and non-executive director at Reliance Jio Infocomm.

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On March 24, 2018, Akash got engaged to his school-time
girlfriend, Shloka Mehta, the daughter of India’s richest diamantaire – Russel
Mehta. On March 9, 2019, they got married at the Jio World Centre (JWC), Bandra
Kurla Complex in Mumbai.

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He has closely worked on the digital services and consumer
retail propositions of the Reliance Group and is now leading the creation of
the convergence dividend for more than 500 million customers, digitally and
with high inclusivity across geographies and income levels.

According to the company, Akash’s promotion as Chairman of
Reliance Jio Infocomm recognized the specific contributions made by him to the
digital services journey and “rededicates him to even higher levels of
responsibilities, going forward”.

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Akash Ambani has been closely involved with the development
of the digital ecosystem around Jio’s 4G service. He worked with a team of
engineers in inventing and launching an India-specs-focused Jiophone in 2017.

He personally led all the key acquisitions made by Jio in
the digital segment in the past few years and has also been closely involved
with the development of new technologies and capabilities including AI-ML and
blockchain.

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He was closely involved in the groundbreaking global
investments by tech giants and investors in 2020, which in several ways put Jio
onto the global investor map.