Often referred to as the ‘Empress of India”, Nita Ambani grew up in the suburbs of Mumbai. Nita Ambani, daughter of a senior Birla executive, always had keen interest in Indian classical dance and wanted to pursue a career in dance. While her mother aspired for her to become a chartered accountant but she wanted to pursue a career in dance. Nita Ambani who holds qualifications as a teacher and an interior designer is a Commerce Graduate from Mumbai University.

With motto, ‘Dare to Dream. Learn to Excel’, Nita Ambani heads Indian as well as an international curriculum based school Dhirubhai Ambani International School. This school aims to develop a new model for education at the school level in India. Nita Ambani has been working tirelessly in order to raise the living standards of the underprivileged and needy as part of the Dhirubhai Ambani Foundation. She has supervised the development of villages around the Reliance projects personally along with taking a keen interest in the upliftment of people in the vicinity. Appreciating her phenomenal qualities of leadership, selfless service and innovative ideas, Nita Ambani was awarded with the Samaj Seva Vishwa Bhushan award.

Nita Ambani is married to Reliance Industries Limited’s chairman and CEO Mukesh Ambani. She is a proud mother of a lovely beautiful daughter Isha, and two sons, Anant and Akash. Nita Ambani, proud of the presence of compassionate streak in her kids, instills Indian traditional values in them. She believes that if her kids are anchored to such roots, it will resonate in their personality. Nita Ambani strongly believes that service to humanity is service to God. And it is this very fundamental lesson that she imparts to her three children.

Nita Ambani dons many hats as the Chairperson of DAIS, co-owner of Mumbai Indians, first lady of Corporate India, an educationist, social worker and many more. Nita Ambani always values any initiative or institution that sprinkles hope and brings new sparkle and smiles to the lives of those who are not as blessed. For Nita Ambani educating and empowering these children and embedding self-esteem in them, is a joy forever.

Nita Ambani is sure of her role and confident of playing it to perfection. As a heavy duty power lady, Nita Ambani is all set to assume fresh responsibilities on all levels. Nita is a definition of calmness. Wife, mother and businesswoman, are some of the many roles that India’s first corporate lady dons 365 days a year.

From a normal childhood in Santacruz to becoming a part of the country’s biggest corporate household, Nita Ambani has dealt with numerous twists and turns of life. Perhaps Vicerine is an appropriate title for her!

Nita Ambani has always been in news. Let’s face it, the media loves her. So whether she is inaugurating a function, cheering her team “The Mumbai Indians” or she is busy with monitoring the progress of Dhirubhai Ambani International School, she always makes it to the front page. Lately, Nita Ambani has been in news more for her business achievements.
So, it’s not every day that Nita Ambani chooses to speak about her three lovely children — daughter Isha and sons Akash and Anant.
She reveals that they plunged headlong into charitable activities like their illustrious dad, businessman Mukesh Ambani and of course, Nita herself!
“Isha is interested in imparting education to underprivileged children. This summer she led a group of students from Yale visiting India as part of an NGO initiative. Akash supports sporting activities for underprivileged children. Anant is an animal lover and runs an animal shelter for injured animals and animals in distress. We are proud that our children have this compassionate streak in them,” she says.
With a twinkle in her eye she also reveals that her three children have picked up some very specials skills along the way. Aakash has a keen interest in wildlife photography, Isha is a natural artist and Anant is a naturalist. “I have always been particular to instill Indian traditional values in our children. I believe that when they are anchored to such roots, it will resonate in their personality.”
To add more to the charity work already being performed by her, she has also decided to support a charitable art and luxury auction, The Treasure Trove co-patronised by Bijal Meswani.
Talking about the initiative and why she chose to be a part of it, she says, “I always value any initiative or institution that sprinkles hope and brings new sparkle and smiles to the lives of those who are not as blessed. The Research Society, Jai Vakeel School is one such exemplary institution, serving the differently-abled children for nearly three-quarter of a century. Educating and empowering these children and embedding self-esteem in them is a joy forever.”
The future of the great empire of Mukesh Ambani will soon fall in the hands of these three bright young minds. Only time will tell what happens then. But for the moment, Nita Ambani stands a proud mother of three compassionate and talented kids who might soon be the torchbearers of Reliance Industries.

How would you feel going to a store near looking out to by the latest designs from Reliance? Yes, this is true. Soon you might just find Reliance selling you luxury amenities at exclusive stores near you.

Reliance Brands, a subsidiary of Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Retail, is scouting for acquisition in the domestic market, besides launching its own luxury label in the next 18 months. The company, which at present predominantly focuses on men’s range, plans to focus on women and kids wear categories.

Reliance Brands President and CEO Darshan Mehta explained to the media that Reliance Retail has become serious about launching its own brand and has already started work on that and dedicating resources on the same. If everything goes as planned, in the next 18 months it should get going”.

The company is also in discussions with a few existing Indian companies operating in apparel, footwear and accessories space for an acquisition. “The due diligence is for the acquisition,” Mehta said without specifying details. When asked what would be the focus of the company in case of an acquisition or launch of an own label, Mehta said women and children are the two categories, which could be looked at.

Launched in 2007, Reliance Brands has joint ventures with Diesel, Zegna and Timberland. It is also a licensee for Italy’s fashion brand Paul & Shark. The company opened the first outlet for Diesel in March this year and plans to gradually expand the reach of existing brands in its kitty.

“We are not in a hurry to scale up the operations. The company is still in investment mode and the focus is to partner with strong brands,” Mehta said. “In the next two years we are likely to announce tie-ups with two more international brands,” he added without mentioning the names.

On the expansion of the existing labels, Reliance Brands plans to have three more Diesel stores, 10 outlets for Timberland, five outlets for Zegna and four stores for Paul & Shark. Mehta, however, did not reveal the investment planned for the expansion of these brands in the country.

Hence it is pretty clear from the way that reliance has been moving ahead with acquisitions in other sectors that the message here is pretty clear. The women and children categories are always in demand and hence the wily brain of Reliance Retail is going to no doubt target this audience. The only question remaining is that how will reliance manage to keep its buyers interested in the clothesline. Would people like to wear Reliance? Only time will tell.

Reliance Retail, the India largest organized retail company with Value & Special formats, with a pan India footprint, with over 1000 stores is entering the cash and carry business this year. Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries said its retail arm Reliance Retail is entering into this cash and carry business by opening at least three outlets in the next six to eight months.

Reliance retail plans to enter cash and carry segment Solo without any foreign joint ventures. The company has already identified locations and work was on for the construction of the outlets with an area spread over 1.5 lakh square feet each. This is, however, a scaling-down of the company’s initial plan to open its stores at 15 locations, mostly Tier-II centres such as Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Rajkot and Salem.
Reliance’s entry into the cash and carry business assumes significant at this point, as the market is abuzz with reports of global retailers such as Wal-Mart, Tesco, Metro and Carrefour expanding their presence in India amid anticipation that the government is likely to ease FDI norms in both the wholesale and retail formats.
“The company is back with a bang. It is soon going to announce its revived cash-and-carry business plans and will open three outlets over the next six to eight months,” the source said without divulging details.
Since its inception in 2006, Reliance Retail has grown into an organization that caters to millions of customers, thousands of farmers and vendors. Based on its core growth strategy of backward integration, Reliance Retail has made rapid progress towards building an entire value chain starting from the farmers to the end consumers. Reliance Retail currently operates 15 formats such as Reliance Fresh, Reliance TimeOut, Trendz and Digital and Jewels, among others.
Cash-and-carry would be the sixteenth format that would sell goods to those with a sale tax certificate such as modern retailers, fruits and vegetables re-sellers, restaurants and hotels and small mom and pop and kirana stores.

The Star has struck again. The Commander of the Reliance Industries brigade is soon to become the hospitality leader as well, the reason being that he will now be the majority shareholder in EIH, at par with the Oberoi Group.
Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and the Oberoi family will increase their shareholding in East India Hotels by buying the unsubscribed portion of the Rs 1,300-crore rights issue, which was cleared by the hotel major’s board today. EIH has decided to form a committee to decide on the rights issue price, ratio and other procedural formalities.
It has been confirmed by dependable sources that RIL will be making an open offer after the rights issue, as its stake will go beyond the 15 per cent threshold mandated by the market regulator. And hence, RIL and the Oberois will eventually have an equal stake in EIH.
The impact of the Mukesh Ambani’s acquisition of a 14.8 per cent stake in EIH has had the share of the Oberoi’s drop down to 32 per cent from 46.43 per cent in August. Also, ITC, which holds 14.8 per cent, may not be interested in raising its stake. Similarly, Analjit Singh, who controls 4 per cent, will also prefer to exit EIH.
It has also been in news that EIH is planning to float two new companies. One would operate the hotel chain and would be controlled by EIH, while the other would hold the hotel chain’s assets and be controlled by RIL, with Nita Ambani, wife of RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani, drafted as vice-chairperson.
This is the icing on the cake for Mukesh Ambani as RIL will be in the driver’s seat as far as ownership of EIH is concerned, while the Oberois will operate the hotel chain. “It’s a deal between two friends – P R S Oberoi, who needs funds to expand his chain’s footprint abroad, and Ambani, who has the funds, and is happy to let the Oberoi family manage operations,” said a source.
The Oberoi’s, who are the pioneers of luxury hospitality in India, also manage the EIH Associated Hotels. This is another hotel company which is an equal-stake joint venture between them and the Raheja family, which has interests in real estate, the media and industrial batteries.
Now, with this rise in stake in the hospitality sector by RIL, Mukesh Ambani has made it pretty clear that his plans in the sector are long term and only time will tell how Reliance will be makes the best out of this venture as well.

Reliance Trends, the fashion apparels and accessories specialty concept of Reliance Retail has been rated as India’s favorite department store. The survey was conducted by Which? Right Choice magazine, the Indian magazine which is bringing to the Indian market a fully fledged consumer offering that is independent and rigorous.
Reliance Trends which houses some of the best brands from various parts of the world was rated as India’s favorite by the latest 10-city survey. Aim of this survey was to reveal which department store is India’s favorite. 1,917 people participated in the survey and revealed that relative newcomer Reliance Trends was the most preferred department store, with a customer score of 74%. It got four stars for service, in-store experience, price and product quality, and five stars for product range. This survey also revealed that price was the biggest draw for consumers, and product and in-store experience were also important when choosing a retailer.
Chief Executive of Reliance Trends, Arun Sirdeshmukh said, “We are elated to know that Reliance Trends has been rated as favorite department store by our customers. This reinforces our endeavor to offer latest fashion and high quality products at a very affordable price to our customers and also thrive to give the best. And getting accolades from our customers makes this even more fulfilling. With this recent survey conducted by Which? Right Choice magazine, we have reiterated our leadership position in the fashion and value segment.”
Reliance Trends houses some of the best brands from various parts of the world including their collections. The store’s core principle is – ‘Fashion at great value’. It offers a mix of private brands across men’s, women’s and children’s categories. The collection offers high fashion, latest trends, cuts and styles and top-quality material backed by technology and innovation.
Reliance Trends seems unbeatable as they offer fashionable and trendy clothes at prices unmatched in the market. Reliance Trends is leaving no stone unturned in tapping the homogeneous mix of world famous brands and private The brand is all set to expand to 56 stores by the end of current financial year.

Kids are the wonders of god. Who would not fall in love with these lovable and innocent mischief-makers! And when Mukesh Ambani owned Reliance Retail’s subsidiary Reliance Timeout got an opportunity to welcome an army of toddlers home, how could they defer.
Reliance Timeout at Ambience Mall, Gurgaon utilized the dying art of live storytelling with the help of a team from Kara 4 Kids, Gurgaon’s premier extended preschool and daycare centre. The Kara team of early years’ practitioners narrated a meaningful tale regarding respect diversity; a grown up concept, presented in an age appropriate format.
Learning can take place in the most unexpected ways and keeping this in mind, the jungle scene was set, the audience was in place and the animals were chomping at the bit off stage; time for the performance to begin.
For the team from Kara 4 Kids it was also an amazing experience to have the attention of so many innocent moldable minds. And so commenced “The Jungle Rumble”, a tale of friendship and cooperation.
The response which the team received was tremendous. The children were simply bowled over as Kara’s trained teachers stepped onto the TimeOut stage in full costume to introduce Zeba the Zebra; The Elephant; Jiffy the Giraffe and the Cheeky Monkey.
To further reinforce these values, children were provided with the chance to explore their creativity through a selection of multi-sensory learning opportunities, including making masks, puppets and more. These were further complemented with a range of at-home extension activities, including cold cooking Jungle Energy Bars and making a Jungle Rainstick, thus completing Kara’s customized approach to early childhood teaching.
As regards feedback from the parents, the smile on their faces said it all, as mobile phones and cameras were whipped out to record every moment of their child’s experience, albeit interacting with Kara’s teachers as they revisited the concepts taught by making a giraffe puppet and an elephant mask, or carrying home their Kara good-bag full of their creative handiwork.

Reliance Brands, a part of Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Group has formed a joint venture with Ermenegildo Zegna Group, a world leader in luxury menswear, to develop the Zegna brand in India.

Reliance Brands, a unit of Reliance Retail is buying 49 percent stake in Ermenegildo Zegna group’s India retail operations. The Zegna group will hold 51 per cent stake in the firm. Reliance group company said Mumbai-based, Zegna South Asia Private Ltd, will be re-organized as a joint venture between Ermenegildo Zegna Group and Reliance Brands Ltd.
Ermenegildo Zegna Group has been active in India since 2003 and was one of the first global luxury brands to get FDI approval for mono-brand retail following liberalization by the Indian government. The first directly managed store was opened in Mumbai in 2007, followed by openings in Bangalore and New Delhi in 2008.

The JV company plans to set up more than 10 stores across 6-7 cites by 2015, beginning with a single-brand boutique to be opened in Hyderabad in October. At the end of 2015, the company hopes, India could potentially be the largest market in South and South East Asia for Ermenegildo Zegna.

On the joint venture with Ermenegildo Zegna Group, Darshan Mehta, president and CEO, Reliance Brands, said, “Zegna is one of the most coveted brands in men’s luxury, and it is a matter of prestige and excitement for Reliance to partner with them in India. Given the rising aspirations and influence of western luxury on the Indian consumer, this partnership is well timed.”

Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Brands began operations in October 2007 with a mandate to launch and build international and domestic brand equity in the premium to luxury segment across apparel, footwear and lifestyle businesses. With this JV Reliance Industries wants to focus on international brands like these, especially when the segment is less competitive and can offer much higher margins than its other formats.

Reliance Trends kicked off Play India, a sportswear festival across all its stores. To mark the sportswear festival, the apparel, luggage and accessories speciality format of Reliance Retail, Reliance Trends has announced the launch of its new private brand, Performax, an active sportswear brand with performance-enhancing fabrics at competitive prices.

The festival offers customers unbelievable schemes across its newly-launched brand, Performax, and also the existing active wear brand, Team Spirit and will go on till September 23, 2010

Performax, caters to those who play sports and the brand Team Spirit caters to sports lovers. Performax is powered with the latest technologies such as Quick Dry, Fly Weight, Zonal Venting, Compression and Reflective. It has a huge range for training, running, tennis, football, basket ball and cricket.
It also offers accessories such as caps, ergonomic socks, wristbands, headbands and gym bags.

Speaking on this occasion, Arun Sirdeshmukh, Chief Executive, Reliance Trends said, “With the launch of ‘Performax’ we have reiterated our leadership position in the fashion and value segment. Performax offers customers a wide choice of sportswear range with cutting edge technology and style at an unbelievable price. Many upcoming sportsmen cannot afford an international sports wear brand. We have made it even more accessible, offering the same technology and style.”

Besides the Play India festival, Reliance Trends is also reaching out to corporates in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Delhi to promote a healthy lifestyle with the Fastest Cyclist contest. Winners will take home gift vouchers from Reliance Trends.

Reliance Trends houses some of the best brands from various parts of the world including their collections. The store’s core principle is – ‘Fashion at great value’. It offers a mix of private brands across men’s, women’s and children’s categories. The collection offers high fashion, latest trends, cuts and styles and top-quality material backed by technology and innovation.

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), after having won spectrum for providing broadband wireless access (BWA) services in the 22 telecom circles through its subsidiary Infotel Broadband, will now use WiMax technology rather than long term evolution (LTE) BWA technology.

RIL entered into an agreement to acquire a substantial stake in Infotel Broadband Services (P) Ltd, owned by the son of Mahendra Nahata, managing director of Himachal Futuristic Communications Ltd (HFCL). They had invested about Rs 4,800 crore by way of subscription to fresh equity capital at par to be issued by Infotel Broadband. Post this investment, RIL owns 95% of the equity and Infotel Broadband which is now a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited.

From what we have heard from a trusted source,” Infotel has now finalized the technology and is in an advanced stage of negotiations with Samsung for sourcing WiMax equipment.”

The Korean giant is a player both in network equipment as well as WiMax handsets business. The source further said, “Reliance Infotel has been conducting WiMax trials for the last couple of months.”

Samsung has already provided equipment to 56 mobile operators in 34 countries including Clearwire in US, UQ Communications in Japan and YTL Communications in Malaysia.

Infotel deciding to go with WiMax will act as a saviour for the technology, which has received several setbacks in the recent past. Earlier, players such as Yota in Russia and Sprint in USA have announced plans to go forward with LTE thus leaving Wi Max stranded. It will also deal a body blow to short term LTE prospects in India.

Samsung also makes a range of electronic equipment such as USB dongles, embedded devices and mobile phones. It has developed several devices with combinations of WiMax, GSM, CDMA and WiFi for connectivity.

Since RIL has chosen Samsung, it is clear that deployment will be on the mobile WiMax platform and not fixed WiMax standard. However, despite most operators keeping the option of using both technologies open, it is still unclear as to whether Reliance Infotel will keep the doors open for LTE in the future or not.