Nita & Mukesh Ambani on Reliance's plans

In a rare joint interview, Nita Ambani, described by her husband as Reliance's "real programme manager" said the label of the world's "richest Indian" was one that made her husband very uncomfortable.

Mukesh Ambani:  Political resistance to retail "half of what I expected"

Mukesh Ambani:  Retail IPO not a priority right now; "we are not short of capital"

Mukesh Ambani: We need to create "maximum value" before de-merging  E&P

Mukesh Ambani: The gap between "perception and reality" of Reliance "hurts"

Nita Ambani: "It's destiny; we should leave it to destiny"- on a question about whether reconciliation with Anil Ambani is ever possible.

Mukesh Ambani believes that his dream project of Reliance Retail will not suffer because of political controversy and protests. Speaking exclusively to NDTV, after being awarded the 'NDTV Business Leader of the Year', Ambani said the resistance was much less than he had planned for.

"It's lessening and very frankly, when we start any transformational initiative…we always incorporate resistance. Let me tell you that the resistance we have seen is half of what I had expected and it's fast going down as people see the benefits and as we ourselves take upon ourselves the responsibility to earn the trust of all the stakeholders…whereby, we create win-win business models" said Ambani.

When asked about when the Retail IPO would be unveiled he said, "I think that more than the IPO, what's striving us today is that we are not short of capital, so, it's really the scaling up and you know, I am looking forward to a day when we can say that we have created new employment, direct employment to half a million people in retail…we are now transforming tens of millions of farmers and we have built a supply chain that the world can envy, just like we did in telecom."

How seriously was Reliance Industries considering de-merging E&P to unlock value?  Mr. Ambani did not commit, but indicated that this may not immediately be on the table. "We always look at options to generate more value," he said, "right now we think that the E&P potential for both Reliance and India are great and we think that we are in the business of creating value. Let us first create maximum value and then we will talk about unlocking value."

In a rare joint interview, Nita Ambani, described by her husband as Reliance's "real programme manager" said the label of worlds "richest Indian" was one that made her husband very uncomfortable.

Asked whether as the woman in the family, she believed that reconciliation was every possible between the two Ambani brothers she said, "It's destiny, and we should leave everything to destiny."

Watch Mukesh and Nita Ambani talk about Money, marriage and the future on NDTV 24x7 on Tuesday 29th January at 10 p.m.