Mukesh Ambani Leading Innovation @ Reliance Industries

The Reliance Innovation Council was floated by Mukesh Ambani three years back, to bring the best scientists and Nobel laureates from various parts of the world to interact and co-operate with RIL’s research and development initiatives. Besides Ambani and Mashelkar, the membership comprised people such as the late C K Prahalad, George Whitesides of Harvard University, Nobel laureates Jean-Marie Lehn and Robert Grubbs, and Larry Summers, former president of Harvard University.

The association of Mashelkar and Mukesh Ambani is not new. After retiring as the director-general of CSIR, he joined RIL as an independent member of the board. RA Mashelkar is also chairman of the Reliance Innovation Council.

RIL has also invested heavily in the Reliance Innovation Leadership Centre in Pune and in Reliance Research and Technology Centre (RRTC), planned with a floor space of more than half a million square feet in Navi Mumbai. RRTC is to act as a hub for the research centres already operating at various manufacturing locations. Both initiatives are to support the business of Reliance by harnessing cutting-edge, futuristic but practical science, technology and innovation initiatives from within and outside the organisation.

Reliance Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation that handles educational, health and other corporate social responsibility activities of the group. Nita Ambani, wife of Mukesh Ambani, is chairperson. it is also planning to set up one of the largest universities in the world under the leadership of Nita Ambani.