Nita Ambani joins RIL board

Shareholders of Reliance Industries Limited approved the appointment of Nita M Ambani, chairperson of Reliance Foundation (RF), as a director on the board of Reliance Industries Limited at the company's annual general meeting today.

In her acceptance statement, Nita Ambani said she took the position with a sense of humility and responsibility.

''RIL has always aimed to better millions of lives and my mission will be to bring speed, scale and social contract to RIL's larger mission. I accept this responsibility as a tribute to millions of RIL stakeholders, as well as to my tireless colleagues at Reliance Foundation,'' she said.

Nita Ambani combines qualities of business stewardship and societal transformation, Reliance Industries said in a release. ''She was at the forefront of the ecological development of RIL's Jamnagar refinery site by implementing a biodiversity plan covering 3.2 million trees over 2000 acres,'' it added.

She is credited with developing a world-class township in Jamnagar from scratch, setting new standards in quality of life. Nita Ambani also made significant contribution to Reliance Retail by conceptualising and guiding its corporate identity development across all formats, the release said.

She was also behind RIL's path-breaking initiatives spanning education, health, rural transformation, environmental protection and sports over the past two decades. She has built institutions in fields such as education, sports and healthcare, in India, through Reliance Foundation and Mumbai Indians from scratch.

Reliance now has in its fold 13 schools, including the Dhirubhai Ambani International School. These schools provide quality education to more than 15,000 students.

The recently modernised Sir H N Reliance Foundation Hospital and Research Centre offers world-class healthcare facilities. The hospital will have state-of-art physical infrastructure developed to international standards, the latest of clinical technology across core specialties, imaging and diagnostic facilities and ground-breaking research laboratories. It will also have a unique connect with the disadvantaged communities in the neighbourhood, the release pointed out.

Besides, she is credited with the RF Drishti programme, the largest, corporate-driven, cornea transplant drive, the Bharat-India Jodo (BiJ) initiative that also promotes sustainable agricultural practices that ensure the nation's food security, protect the environment and bring about rural transformation among other things.