Kokilaben Ambani is the widow of Reliance founder Dhirubhai Ambani and the mother of Mukesh and Anil Ambani. She is best known in Indian business as the person who brokered the 2005 division of the Reliance empire between her two sons, and her name is carried by one of Mumbai’s best-known private hospitals.
Quick Facts
| Full name | Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani |
| Born | 1934, Nawanagar (now Jamnagar), Gujarat |
| Spouse | Dhirubhai Ambani (m. 1955) |
| Children | Mukesh, Anil, Nina Kothari, Deepti Salgaocar |
| Known for | Matriarch of the Ambani family; mediator of the 2005 Reliance settlement |
| Honour accepted | Padma Vibhushan for Dhirubhai Ambani (posthumous, 2016) |
| Namesake | Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, Mumbai |
Early Life
Kokilaben was born in 1934 in Nawanagar, the princely state that is now the city of Jamnagar in Gujarat. She married Dhirubhai Ambani, then a young man working in Aden, and the couple later returned to India, where he began trading in yarn in Bombay. That small business became Reliance Industries.
Family
The couple had four children: two sons, Mukesh and Anil, and two daughters, Nina Kothari and Deepti Salgaocar. Her eldest son’s family and his own children are covered in Mukesh Ambani’s biography, and her husband’s story in Dhirubhai Ambani’s biography.
The 2005 Settlement
Dhirubhai Ambani died in July 2002 without leaving a will. A public dispute between Mukesh and Anil followed, and in 2005 Kokilaben mediated a settlement under which the group was divided. Mukesh kept Reliance Industries, with its oil, gas and petrochemicals businesses. Anil took the telecom, power and financial services companies, which later formed the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group. Anil Ambani’s later career followed a very different course.
Hospital and Honours
The Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital in Mumbai, which opened in 2009, is named after her and her husband. It is chaired by her daughter-in-law, Tina Ambani.
On 28 March 2016, President Pranab Mukherjee presented the Padma Vibhushan, awarded posthumously to Dhirubhai Ambani, to Kokilaben at a civil investiture ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi.
Personal Life
She is known to keep a low public profile and appears mainly at family and Reliance Foundation occasions. Her grandchildren include Akash, Isha and Anant Ambani, and Jai Anmol and Jai Anshul Ambani.
Featured image: Kokilaben Ambani receives the Padma Vibhushan awarded posthumously to Dhirubhai Ambani from President Pranab Mukherjee, New Delhi, 28 March 2016. Photo by the President’s Secretariat, Government of India, licensed under Government Open Data License – India, via Wikimedia Commons.
