On Wednesday, the crucial board meeting of the Reliance Industries Ltd held at Makers Chambers in Nariman Point, Mumbai could decide the way Dhirubhai Ambani's scions would go.
But a day before that, there's angst building up at the Reliance Textile Complex in Naroda, from where the group's legendary founder Dhirubhai Ambani started it all in 1966.
Building up, because employees of the textiles business of the Reliance group feel like a jilted lot -- the goings on of the recent past make them feel that the textile business is not a priority for the brothers.
It brings an estimated one per cent of the Rs 85,000 crore (Rs 850 billion) revenue of the group. They have so far got no indication on which brother wants to take charge of the textile business. The man at the helm of Reliance's textile business, K Narayanan, refused to talk about the future of the entity.
"I do not know anything about who among the two brothers is going to run this business. How can I say anything to be decided at the board meet on Wednesday?"
Another top RIL official who has worked with Dhirubhai, on the condition of anonymity, said: "The textile business and the Naroda Complex will be with Reliance Industries, the flagship. So there should not be any doubt about who is going to control textile business in future."
Spread over 120 acres on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, the Reliance Textile Complex now houses 6,000 employees. In 2001, there were 10,500 employees.
A textiles business employee, who has been with the group for more than a decade, said: "There are so many rumours in the media everyday but none talks about the future of the textiles business. This is sad. Even our bosses are tight-lipped."
Another employee, who joined the home furnishings division of the company 4 years back, said: "We missed the India-Pakistan one-dayer live telecast but tomorrow, we are going to stick to the news channels as that's where the news comes first."
The textile division of Reliance has a total area of 484,950 square metres and the built-up area is 301,000 square metres. It houses one of the largest integrated textile facilities.
