Asia’s richest man, Indian billionaire tycoon Mukesh Ambani, on Tuesday kicked off his son’s lavish wedding celebrations by hosting a mass nuptials for 52 underprivileged couples.
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Mr Ambani, 67, who chairs Reliance Industries, India’s largest stock market capitalisation, attended the ceremony with his family and some 800 guests at Reliance’s premises in Navi Mumbai.
Each couple received gold and silver wedding jewelry, $1,200 in cash and provisions “enough for a year,” the company said.
The company said the mass wedding underscored the Ambani family’s “commitment to social welfare and community support.” “The family is committed to continuing to support hundreds of such weddings across the country,” it added in a statement.
Mukesh Ambani’s younger son Anant and his fiancee Radhika Merchant, both 29, are set to tie the knot in a three-day Hindu ceremony in India’s financial capital Mumbai starting July 12.
Festive preludes to the wedding have already included a three-day gala in February for 1,500 guests in the state of Gujarat, a cruise for 1,200 guests in the Mediterranean, a specially built Hindu temple and concerts by R&B star Rihanna and the Backstreet Boys, a leading American pop group of the 1990s.
In 2018, Mukesh Ambani threw his daughter the most expensive wedding ever in India, reportedly costing $100 million and featuring American singer Beyonce.
Jobs crisis
While India, the world’s most populous country, is the fastest-growing major economy on the planet, it still faces a jobs crisis.
Per capita national income is just $1,174, according to government data. Last year, it ranked 111th out of 125 countries in the Global Hunger Index, a global hunger index calculated by European aid agencies.
And many couples there are under strong social pressure to have an expensive wedding, which sometimes leads them to get into heavy debt.
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