8 technocrats to help Reliance transform into renewable energy giant

Mukesh Ambani has enlisted eight global technocrats, many of whom are advisers to governments, as part of a nine-member New Energy Council to enable Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL NSE -0.37 %) to pivot from its traditional oil-to-gas business into a green energy giant.

The council will be headed by R Mashelkar, national research professor and independent director at RIL. It will include Alan Finkel, who led Australia’s National Hydrogen Strategy and is a special adviser to that country’s government on low emissions technologies; Rachid Yazami, a winner of the Draper Prize for engineering; Robert Armstrong, director of MIT’s energy initiative; and Martin Green, known among his peers as the ‘father of photovoltaics’ for having revolutionised the efficiency and cost of solar cells.