For Reliance, it's all hands on deck as it chalks out its future

The group has multiple plans that could mitigate geopolitical risks

- ANDY MUKHERJEE

Asia's richest tycoon has summoned all hands on deck to help him steer his $250 billion empire through the biggest geopolitical storm of its five decades as a public company. Friends and family answered Chairman Mukesh Ambani's call.

The CEOs of Alphabet, Meta Platforms, Walt Disney and Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund showed up at Reliance Industries Ltd.'s virtual annual general meeting (AGM) on Friday, together with he himself, his wife and three children.

The 68-year-old patriarch, whose processing of discounted Russian oil seems at the heart of fraying US-India ties, needs all the support he can get. US President Donald Trump has sanctioned the most-populous nation with exorbitant 50% tariffs, allegedly for feeding Russia's war machine. US officials have not directly accused Ambani. But when White House trade advisor Peter Navarro made a bizarre reference to the Ukraine conflict as "Modi's war," he puts the largest single buyer of Russian oil in India in a pickle.

"I assure our respected prime minister that Reliance will follow his command with redoubled efforts," Ambani said at the AGM. That show of solidarity with Modi's call for self-reliance is along expected lines. To say anything else may mean losing political influence.