5 things you may not know about Mukesh Ambani

Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani is the country's richest man with a personal fortune of $19.3 billion, according to the inaugural India rich list of China-based research firm Hurun. Here are some interesting trivia on the senior Ambani.

1. In 2009, the Reliance chief was ranked the 5th best-performing CEO in the world by the Harvard Business Review in its ranking of the top 50 global CEOs. He was the only Indian to feature in that list and shared space with Steve Jobs of Apple, Yun Jong-Yong of Samsung Electronics, Alexey Miller of Russian energy firm Gazprom, and John Chambers of Cisco Systems.
2. Antilia, his 27-storey home in a tony South Mumbai neighbourhood, reportedly needs a full-time staff of 600 to maintain. Named after an eponymous mythical Atlantic island, the ultra-luxurious building is estimated to have cost more than $1 billion.
3. His marriage proposal to Neeta Ambani was unconventional. Amid peak traffic, he asked her to marry him and refused to start the car until she accepted the proposal. “I was hooked by Mukesh, I was booked by Mukesh and I was cooked by Mukesh,” Mrs Ambani said, recalling the incident in an interview with NDTV Good Times.
4. He calls Internet “the biggest discovery after printing press”. “I am a big believer that technology shapes mankind,” Mr Ambani said at function early this month, adding that Mahatma Gandhi’s dream of self-reliance can be attained by making use of Internet and technology.
5. The Reliance Industries chief earns an annual salary of Rs 15 crore, which has remained unchanged for the past four years.