Friday, 15 November 2024
Friday, 15 November 2024
Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani is the lone Indian in Fortune's inaugural list of 100 Most Powerful People in Business, which is headed by Tesla CEO and new Donald Trump appointee Elon Musk.
Ambani is the richest man in India and Asia with a net worth of $98 billion, as per Forbes.
The Indian billionaire secured 12th position in the list, which includes leaders from 40 industries, ranging in age from their 30s to 90s.
These individuals are founders, chief executives of great businesses, disrupters, and innovators. Among Indian-origin people on the list, four out of the five are CEOs of tech giants, while one runs a makeup brand.
Ambani's Reliance Industries’ market cap is Rs 16.96 lakh crore, as of November 13.
The conglomerate has interests in petrochemicals, retail, entertainment, telecommunications and more). The billionaire is trying to groom the next generation to take over his business empire. Akash, his eldest son, is the chairman of the telecoms business Reliance Jio, and his younger son, Anant Ambani, is in the energy business. Daughter Isha Ambani is leading Reliance’s retail arm.
The news about Mukesh Ambani comes at a time when the Isha Ambani-led Reliance Retail has announced a temporary shutdown of its fashion store Centro on November 14. Centro has 33 storesin 24 locations across India. It must, however, be noted that this is only a temporary closure.
Ambani-led Retail has informed its Centro stores across the country about the shutdown which is being implemented to reposition the format with mostly its own brands and labels which the retail major has launched in India as a licensee partner. These brands include Azorte and Yousta.
By the end of this month, Reliance Retail could close as many as two dozen outlets, according to an Economic Times report. Ambani-led Reliance Industries had in September 2022 converted Future Group's Central into Centro in locations where it had taken over the lease after the Future Group surrendered the property to it.
The Isha Ambani-led retail arm of RIL has already shut 3 stores, the report added, citing executives of companies which have been asked to take back their inventory and fixtures citing renovation and repositioning of the format.
"RRL (Reliance Retail) has decided to temporarily pause operations of all its Centro outlets across the country as part of the remodelling process," it said in a letter to the brands, according to The Economic Times.
"Display, storage, and sale of the merchandise shall be paused at the outlets. In view of the imminent hiatus of operation of the outlets, you are hereby required to arrange for the removal of all goods, merchandise, stocks, promotional materials, or any other items belonging to you which are at present, deployed at the outlets," it added.
Other than Ambani, Satya Nadella is the top ranked Indian origin on the list at number 3. Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, just made the cut in the list of top 10 most powerful people in business along with Amazon's Jeff Bezos at 11. Them being in the top 10 shows the influence of tech and AI as an industry on the world.
There is no other Indian-origin person in the top 50.
Shantanu Narayan, CEO Adobe, is ranked 52nd, indicating his influence on the software industry, especially with its AI tools.
Nael Mohan, CEO YouTube, is ranked 69th, showing that the content industry is thriving. The streaming platform introduced short form content in 2021.
Veteran venture capitalist Vinod Khosla is ranked 74th.
Tarang Amin, CEO of makeup brand Eyes Lips Face (ELF), is ranked 94th on the list.
The list also features significant figures like Warren Buffett, Jamie Dimon, and Apple’s Tim Cook, who continue to shape finance and consumer technology.
