Nita Ambani calls youth, diaspora as “strength” of India, calls adoption of technology as greatest opportunity

Boston: Nita Ambani, Founder and Chairperson of the Reliance Foundation delivered the keynote address at the Harvard India Conference on Indian Business, Policy & Culture, where she said that the strength of India lies in its large youth population and the diaspora. She called the adoption of technologies such as artificial intelligence, green energy, and genomics as a great opportunity for the country. The Reliance Chairperson also shared stories from her life about the importance of resources.

When asked to give a SWOT (Strength Weakness Opportunity Threat) analysis of India, the Reliance Foundation Chairperson said, “So I think our strength is our youth, 50% of our population is under the age of 30, and our Indian diaspora. I think that’s our strength.”

Speaking about the weakness, she said, “I think the 200. Or 300 million people whose life we need to change for lying at the bottom and I think that should be our priority and we should be able to sort this out in the next decade.”

She noted that the greatest opportunity for the country is the adoption of technology at scale. “Whether it is artificial intelligence, green energy, genomics, I think that’s what India will do”.

“I speak as a mother here. I think we need peace. We need peace in the world. Only when there is peace will countries grow and prosper, and so that holds true for even India. So I think I think wars do no good. And I would think that is a threat”, Nita Ambani said while highlighting the threat aspect.

Sharing an incident from her life when after getting married she got a gold chain for herself but eventually had to return it so that the Reliance employees could be paid, Nita Ambani said, “I bought this gold chain and brought it home. And show it to Mukesh. Mush looked at me and said, Nita, I don’t think we can afford it. Reliance is going through really tough times. And we need to pay all our employees first. So It would be nice if you could return this gold chain…I did that without questioning Mukesh. And I told him, I’m sure good times will come, and you will turn around the situation, and he did.”

Nita Ambani said that this incident taught her the lesson that “Adversity should make you a better person and not a bitter person” and she called it a great learning for herself.