Nita Ambani - Chairperson of Reliance Foundation, Family and Facts

Nita Ambani was born as Nita Dalal on November 1, 1963, in Mumbai to Ravindrabhai Dalal and Purnima Dalal. She has a sister, Mamta Dayal.

After completing her school education, she enrolled at the Narsee Monjee College of Commerce and Economics for a degree in Commerce.

Since an early age, Nita was fond of dancing. She felt that dance helped her connect to God. It was her way of meditating and connecting to her spiritual self. Nita took up Bharatnatyam from an early age and steadily grew up to become a professional Bharatnatyam dancer.

Interesting as it may seem to be, much before Nita treaded on her career, she was married to the illustrious Indian business magnate Mukesh Ambani, son of the patriarch of the Reliance conglomerate Dhirubhai Ambani. At that time, Nita was barely 22 years of age.

During the early years of her marriage, Mukesh was setting up a plant in Patalganga. It was there that Nita gave her passion as an educationist a real go. Together, they set up a small school, teaching children from the rural areas. It was while serving as a teacher that Nita realized her passion for the job. She decided to spend the rest of her life teaching children.

After the Patalganga school, she helped set up the Jamnagar school. In 1997, she headed the Jamnagar Township Project; the main motive of which was to build a company township for the employees of Reliance’s mega-refinery at Jamnagar. The project included setting up a well-planned, environment friendly colony for housing 17000 residents. Today, Jamnagar Complex is one amongst the best complexes in the country.

In 2010, Nita Ambani founded the Reliance Foundation. A philanthropic initiative from the Reliance group, Reliance Foundation soon became the largest private foundations in the country. It has supported in various areas including education, sports, healthcare, rural transformation, urban renewal, women's empowerment, art promotion and preservation of India's rich cultural heritage.

Under Nita’s guidance, Reliance Foundation extended to disaster management as well. It has conducted various relief & rescue operations and rehabilitation efforts during natural calamities in various parts of India including Gujarat, Chennai and Kashmir floods, Kedarnath tragedy, Marathwada drought etc.

When Indian Premier League started, Nita Ambani became the co-owner of the Mumbai Indians team. Though she was apprehensive of the new role initially, she soon upped her sleeves and got involved in game. She learned about its technicalities to be in a better position to motivate her team. Her team, Mumbai Indians won the Indian Premier League in 2013, 2015 and 2017.

Along with her IPL team Mumbai Indians, she started the Education for All (EFA) initiative. Under the initiative, she aimed at providing education to underprivileged children. EFA has also helped creating awareness for education using various media and digital platform. The number of underprivileged children benefiting from the initiative has risen to 70000.

Nita Ambani’s passion for teaching and her vision for providing quality education in the country led to the foundation of the Dhirubhai Ambani International School in Mumbai. DAIS, as it is called, aims at empowering both teachers and students and helping them build the foundation for a glorious academic future. She serves as its founding member and chairperson.

DAIS is ranked as one of best schools of the country. It also bagged the top school award in Mumbai several times and also was ranked India's top international School for the four years consecutively by Education World.

In June 2016, Nita Ambani was among eight candidates nominated by the Swiss-based panel for membership in the International Olympic Committee (IOC). With this she became the first Indian woman member chosen as a part of the prestigious global sports event. At the 2016 Rio Olympics, she distributed medals to the winner of Women’s 400 m Freestyle Competition. She shall continue to be an individual member till the age of 70.

Nita Ambani’s most promising work came in when she founded the CSR arm of Reliance Industries, Reliance Foundation. Formerly known as Dhirubahi Ambani Foundation, it aims at promoting sustainable growth in the country through five spheres, rural transformation, health, education, urban renewal and art and cultural growth. Over the years, the foundation has collaborated with various NGO’s and philanthropic institutes. It has also extended in the sphere of disaster management, supporting and aiding victims of natural calamities.

In 2016, Nita Ambani was listed among the most influential women business leaders in Asia by Forbes magazine.

India Today named her one amongst the fifty high and mighty Indians.

She was honoured by the Metropolitan Museum in New York for her work in philanthropy, education and promoting the arts.

Nita and Mukesh Ambani tied the nuptial knot in 1985. More than 30 years into their marriage, they have three children, twins Isha and Akash and a boy Anant.

Akash Ambani is an economics graduate from Brown University and currently chief of strategy at Reliance Jio Infocomm, while Isha is a graduate in psychology from Yale University. She is a director at Reliance Jio Infocomm and Reliance Retail.