The only time I interviewed Mukesh Ambani, which was years ago, all my jokes fell flat. Mr Ambani came prepared, knew what he was going to speak, and stuck to the agenda. That has been his public persona. He sticks to the agenda, in which frivolity has no place.

This, like everything else Mr Ambani does, has proved to be highly efficient. Yet, it was refreshing to watch him indulge in a touch of sentimentality at Reliance Industries Ltd’s Annual General Meeting on August 28. Talking about his children ascending to the board of directors, Mr Ambani recalled the time he had joined the board 46 years ago.

“This is truly an emotional moment for me because it reminds me of that day in 1977, when my father inducted me into the board of directors of Reliance. I was only 20 then. Today, I see both my father and me in Isha, Akash, and Anant. I see the flame of Dhirubhai shine in all of them,” he said.

Mr Ambani has taken his approach to succession far beyond what Dhirubhai did, or was able to do. The father died in 2002 at the age of 70, without a will. Soon after, Mr Ambani and his brother, Anil, fought a bitter feud in full public view until their mother split the empire down the middle.

In his late 60s now, Mr Ambani is smoothly ushering in the next generation of leadership, gradually blooding his three children: Twins Isha and Akash, who are 31, and Anant, 28. The second aspect that stands out just as much is the daughter, Isha.

You would notice above that Mr Ambani, when talking about seeing his father and himself in his children, mentions Isha before his sons. Some time ago, in a New York Times interview, he spoke about Isha questioning his business choices, especially his presence in plastics, which pollutes. Isha, a Yale graduate who worked at McKinsey, has been carefully groomed as an equal to her brothers. Some perceive her to be the first among equals. It is her part of the business, retail, that has been grabbing headlines of late. In 2021, Fortune magazine’s India edition called her “Heiress on duty”. The story goes that it was her observation about India’s slow internet speeds that may have ignited the idea of Jio’s data play.

Many business family daughters of an older generation, married into other business families, are not known for running companies. Look around at some of the best-known business families and you will find the daughters or sisters in the family tree, not in the org charts. They take care of the family and maybe do a bit of philanthropy.

Interestingly, the father-son relationship in India’s family businesses has not been filled with sugar and honey alone. There has been a fair bit of vitriol, leading to ugly battles for control. Yet, business family patriarchs would automatically pass on the mantle to their sons; to nephews if they did not have sons or did not marry. In the odd case, the daughter would step in, but professionals would run the show.

The times they are a-changin’.

Isha is one of several India Inc daughters who are playing crucial roles in family businesses. At the sprawling Godrej group, patriarch Adi Godrej’s two daughters as well his son are at the helm. Nisaba Godrej is executive chairperson, Godrej Consumer Products, and her sister, Tanya Dubash, is executive director, Godrej Industries. Their brother, Pirojsha, is executive chairman, Godrej Properties.

At TVS, Lakshmi Venu, the daughter of Chairman Emeritus Venu Srinivasan, as well as her brother, Sudarshan, are on the board of directors. In addition, Lakshmi is deputy managing director at TAFE Motors and Tractors Ltd.

One of the torchbearers in this area was Desh Bandhu Gupta, the founder of Lupin. Years ago, he planned a succession that saw his daughter, Vinita, emerge as the CEO. Her brother, Nilesh, is managing director. At Analjit Singh’s Max India, his daughter, Tara Singh Vachani, charted a new course by starting Antara Senior Living.

These, and many more, are examples of daughters in business families earning their spots in the sun, where their brothers are also thriving.

Kavil Ramachandran, the well-regarded expert in matters of family businesses, says this has a lot to do with education. “Education of girls and their exposure to the world have gone up substantially. Earlier, in some traditional family businesses, the girls stopped studying at pre-university levels and got married. The boys were groomed to run the business, the girls to run the family. Education was incidental. Now, the girls go abroad to study,” he says.

But there is a more momentous change: The rise of the nuclear family in business. For instance, Mukesh Ambani’s family now has his wife and children. His brother Anil is not a part of this family.

“In a nuclear family, the relationships are much closer, the members are fewer, and parental attention to boys and girls is more or less equal,” says Professor Ramachandran.

That gives a whole new spin to decision-making. “In a joint family, there is more patriarchy at work. Women are expected to take care of the family or spend their time in philanthropy. A lot of things are driven by tradition. The younger generation does not have as much say as the senior generation. The decision making is slower and single voices get subdued,” says the professor.

If you want to see the contrast, look no further than Valli Arunachalam’s struggle at Murugappa Group. A former nuclear scientist and eldest daughter of former group chairman, late M V Murugappan, she waged a battle for a greater role for women in the family business.