Akash Ambani gets Jio reins

New Delhi: In the first clear signs of a succession plan being charted out at India's most valuable company, billionaire Mukesh Ambani resigned from the board of his $217 billion group's telecom arm, Reliance Jio, and handed over the firm's reins to elder son Akash.

In a stock exchange filing, Reliance JioInfocomm Ltd on Tuesday said the company's board at a meeting on June 27, "approved the appointment of Akash M Ambani, non-executive director, as chairman of the board of directors of the company." This comes after his father resigned with effect from the close of working hours on June 27, it said. Jio is a unit of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), whose business spans from oil refining and petrochemicals to retail, media and new energy.

Ambani, 65, has three children - twins Akash and Isha and youngest son Anant. It is widely anticipated that he may hand over the reins of the retail business to Isha, 30, who is married to Anand Piramal (son of Piramal Group's Ajay and Swati Piramal). Akash and Isha have been on the boards of Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd - the company that operates supermarkets offering consumer electronics, food and grocery, fashion, jewellery, footwear, and clothing, as well as the online retail venture, JioMart - and digital arm Jio Platforms Ltd (JPL) since October 2014.