‘Thank you, Chairman’: The next generation of Ambanis take over from dad Mukesh
The next generation of Ambanis made their presence felt at the 45th AGM of Reliance Industries. While both Akash and Isha had made appearances multiple times, this time they took the stage as leaders of Reliance Jio and Reliance Retail. The Ambani twins made some significant announcements as they stood shoulder-to-shoulder with their father and billionaire, Mukesh Ambani.
When Mukesh Ambani spoke about the conglomerate’s 5G plans, his eldest son Akash Ambani took over. Speaking in turns with Kiran Thomas, President of RIL, Akash Ambani spoke about Reliance Jio 5G and said that it delivers breakthrough increases in broadband speed, while drastically lowering latency. “We don’t get 1 Gbps even on many of the fixed broadband networks in our country,” he said.
Jio 5G gives ultra-high fiber-like speed over the air without any wires, he said. “We are calling it JioAirFiber. With JioAirFiber, it will be really easy to quickly connect your home or office to Gigabit-speed Internet,” he said. He said that Jio 5G can improve the lives of millions of Indians in terms of agriculture, healthcare and education.
“With 5G being rolled out in India, the current 800 million connected internet devices will double to 1.5 billion connected internet devices in just a year,” he said.
Isha Ambani spoke about Reliance Retail and said that they served over 200 million registered customers at Reliance Retail’s physical stores and digital platforms, which is equivalent to the collective population of the UK, France and Italy.
Mukesh Ambani congratulated Isha Ambani and the Reliance Retail leadership on achieving Rs 2 lakh crore turnover and an EBITDA of Rs 12,000 crore. He said that Reliance Retail is among the top-10 retailers in Asia.
Reliance Retail’s digital commerce platforms continued their growth with nearly 6 lakh orders delivered every day, an increase of 2.5 times over last year. JioMart is delivering in 260 towns, she said.
Isha Ambani said that their brands’ presence was strengthened after they launched several news products across staples, home, personal care, and general merchandise categories. They also launched the WhatsApp-JioMart partnership, she said.
She said that AJIO Business gives merchant partners across 3,500 towns access to over 8,000 brands and a wide portfolio of their own brands. “Last year, we sold over 43 crore garments, enough to clothe the population of US and Canada,” said Isha Ambani.
Isha Ambani also spoke about the Reliance Foundation and said that they have touched the lives of 63 million people across 60,000 villages and urban locations.
“We welcomed the first batch of 120 students last month for post graduate programmes. And we will launch the Nita Mukesh Ambani Junior School as an expansion to Dhirubhai Ambani International School,” she said, speaking about the Jio Institute.
Isha Ambani further stated that they are working on a 10-year blueprint that will make the foundation more bigger and more impactful.
