Mukesh Ambani Resigns; Akash Becomes Reliance Jio Chairman

Mukesh Ambani has resigned from the Reliance Jio board and has handed over the position to his elder son Akash. In a stock exchange filing, Reliance Jio Infocomm stated that on June 27, the company's board approved the non-executive director, Akash M Ambani's appointment as the chairman of the board of directors.

This announcement came as his father stepped down from his position at the close of working hours on Monday. Besides Akash, other appointments include Pankaj Mohan Pawar as the Managing Director of the company for five years, and Raminder Singh Gujral and KV Chowdary as independent directors.

Akash Ambani Becomes Chairman Of Jio

In recent years, Akash has been closely involved with the disruptive and inclusive growth path charted by the digital services and consumer retail propositions of Reliance group and is now leading the creation of the 'convergence dividend' for over 500 million consumers, digitally and with high-inclusivity across geographies and income levels.

His growth as the Chairman of Reliance Jio Infocomm recognizes the specific contributions made by him to the digital services journey and rededicates him to even higher levels of responsibilities, going forward Mukesh Ambani will continue to be the Chairman of Jio Platforms Ltd, the flagship company that owns all Jio digital services brands including Reliance Jio Infocomm.

Akash has been closely involved with the creation of the digital ecosystem around Jio's 4G proposition. He was closely involved with a team of engineers in inventing and launching an India-specs focussed JioPhone in 2017 which became quite a revolutionary device to take many people out of 2G to 4G.

Furthermore, he led the key acquisitions made by Jio in the digital space in the last few years and has also been keenly involved with development of new technologies and capabilities including AI-ML and blockchain. Akash was integrally involved in the trailblazing global investments by tech majors and investors in 2020, which in many ways catapulted Jio onto the global investor map.

Akash is expected to continue to operate on the cutting-edges of innovation and technology to encourage an ecosystem that will further digitalize solutions and make the power of data and technology more accessible to all, including those who are still at the margin.

In a separate move, Reliance Jio announced investments worth Rs. 152,022.45 crores to further the country's digital transformation.