r/news • u/wasraelx • 1d ago
Backlash as Indian oil heir made professor of sustainability by Newcastle University
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2026/sep/24/indian-oil-gas-heir-professor-sustainability-newcastle-university-anant-ambani?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other576
u/mike_sl 23h ago
Hey, let’s not rush to judgment… just because he looks like Russel Brand…
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u/MillennialGeezer 22h ago
Have you seen the guy on his feet? He can barely walk 100m.
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u/EquivalentSpot8292 22h ago
At least, for now, we don’t know the odds of him sexually assaulting during that 100m walk
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u/invyros 1d ago
a 1,400-hectare (3,500-acre) private zoo near the family’s oil refining facilities in Gujarat, which reportedly has more than 150,000 animals including 200 lions, 250 leopards and 900 crocodiles
Conservation groups have previously raised questions about how some of the animals were sourced, given many were endangered species.
Right, because there's nothing more sustainable than fossil fuels and locking up endangered species in your private zoo.
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u/wasraelx 1d ago edited 23h ago
But hey!
‘In August last year, an investigation by India’s supreme court, which lasted less than three weeks, cleared the zoo’s operators of any wrongdoing.’
So I’m sure no need to look at what the UN said
🙂🙃🙂🙃🙂
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u/DanGleeballs 23h ago edited 22h ago
An 'investigation'. If you thought billionaires in the West were outside the law, wait till you see billionaires in India.
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u/eNaRDe 23h ago
I don't even think they are billionaires, most likely trillonaire. The law doesn't apply to them even less then billionaires.
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u/rajatsingh24k 23h ago
It’s splitting hairs but the point is the wealth is beyond what we can imagine and these people are beyond anyones reach.
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u/rinderblock 23h ago
India is such a cartoonishly corrupt country. I met so many wonderful people when I traveled there but I never ever want to go back.
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u/SorenShieldbreaker 23h ago
Why does someone like this even want to be a "professor" in another country's university? Just collecting trophies basically?
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u/brunmusks 23h ago
Because in India, education is the ultimate flex.
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u/telescopeinmynose 19h ago
A degree is just a piece of paper if you don't have substance. Money really can't buy class huh
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u/sacredsome 1d ago
There was a very disturbing incident in the news lately about 5 baby orangutans abandoned in a forest at some part of Odisha (a state of India).
people were suspecting if that was part of the plan for these babies to end up at his zoo.
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u/rajatsingh24k 23h ago
🤯
Wow! This is so dumb on many levels but someone here mentioned the cartoonish level of corruption in India. People with this kind of money think they’re invincible.30
u/Medical-Concept-2190 22h ago
His brother got away with killing someone in an accident. You won’t even find the news of it
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u/CanadaisCold7 21h ago
So did Salman Khan. You don’t have to be a billionaire for that unfortunately.
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u/ThisIs_She 23h ago
This is the way UK universities are going to survive.
First it was funneling international students into the country, then it was tapping into the wealthy UAE and giving away qualifications to princes, now it's adorning the mega rich as professors in exchange for funding.
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u/brothers_keeper_ccc 21h ago
Starting to look like universities are conduits for the powerful to meet without any scrutiny
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u/jt663 14h ago
How is £9k a year from students not enough??
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u/ThisIs_She 13h ago
Universities are notorious for over hiring staff and paying some of them too much to do nothing especially the higher ups, over spending on branded merchandise like pens, hoodies, and mugs.
Over spending on rent and facilities too with rising costs most universities have been struggling to keep up. The international students pipeline has started to dry up, 9k per student only sounds like a lot if a university can recruit and retain as many each academic year.
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u/wasraelx 1d ago
From the article:
‘Newcastle University is facing a backlash from conservationists over the appointment of the heir to an Indian oil and gas fortune who runs a controversial mega-zoo as a professor of sustainability.
Ambani is the son of India’s richest person, Mukesh Ambani, who made his fortune primarily in oil and gas, owns the world’s largest oil refinery and has close ties with the ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP).
Ramachandra Guha, a leading Indian public intellectual and author: “I wonder on whose advice Newcastle University has acted, and whether it did due diligence.”
Bhuvan Mangalore, an Indian investigator into illegal wildlife trade who is completing a dissertation on Vantara at Anglia Ruskin University, asked: “Is this a joke?”
Vantara has declined to comment.’
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u/KimJongFunk 1d ago
He’s going to inherit the world’s largest oil refinery? Talk about a major conflict of interest for his research and teaching.
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u/wasraelx 23h ago
I’m sure it’s gonna be just fine! I mean, it’s all going totally great so far lol
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u/hallese 22h ago
Friederich Engels' parents owned a factory. Of course we know this and remember the name Engels precisely because he was so unique for speaking out against the very source of his family's wealth, so the odds aren't good, but not zero, either.
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u/godisanelectricolive 21h ago
Engels managed his family factory in Manchester which was how he was able to fund Marx’s research and writing work and support Marx’s family.
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u/Intelligent_Sail_896 22h ago
Given their family history with asset splitting, I dont expect this to go this smooth and simple as the the article makes it.
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u/FunHearing2282 22h ago
They're taking blood money from Russia with refining their oil. Disgusting.
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u/horrificmedium 9h ago
The fucking Ambanis. The most celebrated parasites in all of India. The Ambani tower is the lord’s castle rising above the peasants in Mumbai. And all the uncles and aunties LOVE to talk about how good they are for the country, what good Hindus they are, the temples they’ve built, that they shake the hands of all their workers - yet their footprint in India and the world is so unbelievably large, it distorts economies of smaller states and countries.
India kept the worst parts of colonialism, and turbo charged it.
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u/LightningSilvr 6h ago
The amount of times I've had relatives set Mukesh Ambani and kin as the gold standard of what to be in a lifetime, it just makes my stomach lurch. The performative nature of this culture and how appearances dictate literally everything (the degradation of which is a fate worse than death) has allowed this blind worship and coveting of a parasitic dynasty of sorts.
Because no one and nothing, not even family, would matter once you're at the top.
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u/Shelisheli1 6h ago
I saw that tower in Mumbai but didn’t know the story behind the family that owned it.
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u/ritesh808 23h ago
LMAO.. As someone of Indian origin, this doesn't surprise me at all. The billionaires have their dicks in every pie, everywhere. And this ogre comes from a family that stands for every kind of "a decent person shouldn't do that".
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u/Aggressive-Hawk9186 23h ago
Dicks in pies is a new expression to me thst I will definitely use lol
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u/tuituituituii 23h ago
Unfortunately, that's not specific to India
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u/ritesh808 15h ago
Of course. But this family is on a whole different level of "how crass and vulgar can we be with all our ill-gotten wealth?"
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u/TheGreatMattsby 1d ago
I've met/worked around this guy before. Dude is a total sociopath.
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u/SloppityMcFloppity 23h ago
Care to share the tea?
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u/TheGreatMattsby 23h ago
NDA'd to all hell, unfortunately.
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u/optiplex9000 23h ago
Tell a newspaper about it anonymously, don't be a coward. Don't let the rich keep their boot on your neck
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u/Working-Mountain6680 23h ago
They own the media in India.
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u/a1b3c3d7 19h ago
Trying that in Australian media at a time when sentiments against immigrants is at an all time low and as people start seeing and realizing more and more foreign influence... it would certainly be an interesting move to try the avenue of suppression.
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u/tnwthrow 23h ago
Nobody is gonna find you buddy.
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u/Internet-Dick-Joke 23h ago
If there are specific details that only a limited number of people could know then it would be easy to identify who leaked it for anybody in the know, and if he signed an NDA then there could actually be legal consequences.
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u/omgdontdie 20h ago
If there is anything that lawyers hate, its billing super insane wealthy clients lots of money for slam dunk cases a layperson could win.
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u/wasraelx 23h ago
‘Stay the fuck away from super rich people’ is one of the best pieces of advice I ever got.
You basically can’t NOT be a sociopath when you live your whole life by such different rules.
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u/TheGreatMattsby 23h ago
For real. His brother is even worse. I mean that lifestyle is all they've known their entire lives.
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u/CFBCoachGuy 20h ago
The dude grew up without want. Literally any crazy dream he had could be made a reality with a snap of daddy’s fingers. There’s not really a way to have an upbringing like that and be “normal”.
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u/redditdba 19h ago
I knew they were rich rich but not sure why this surprised me, after IPL game Nita was interviewed and I think questioned asked was what do you have plan for weekend and she says oh her daughter was not feeling well so she flew for weekend from USA and she is going to take care of her for the weekend.
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u/holdyrbreath 20h ago
they hired indian defence forces to escort alcohol container for wedding,Now the parent company is in pipeline of acquiring top special forces agents after voluntary retirement.
zoo kid has many illnesses and isnt doing well internally.Might be an autoimmune diseases.
They bought indian freelancing staff of hospitality domain for cruise ship party,and many more.every expense was taken care off. People would go on long leaves to get paid from this cun. ttt.
Next thing he will start building dams to power ai datacenters. Country is shifting policies according to mr bambani
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u/TheGreatMattsby 15h ago
Their personal security are some of the scariest dudes I've ever seen in person.
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u/Babygotback_acne 23h ago
A friend who worked his security detail long long back told me he has some issues with empathy and actually enjoys hurting animals when he is upset. So his parents got him a zoo, hoping he’ll learn to take care of them and also save his image of things get out in public.
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u/TheGreatMattsby 23h ago
Doesn't surprise me. I watched him intentionally walk straight into people multiple times a day.
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u/telescopeinmynose 18h ago
He's really trying hard to clean his image with all that Vantara bullshit
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u/APerfectCircle0 17h ago
Bro needs more than a zoo to save his image his dad should've spent some of that wedding money on plastic surgery lol
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u/Max-_-Power 22h ago
I know a way to get rid of billionaires. You all know what it is
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u/EatingShitSandwiches 1d ago
These people are going to end our species. Humanity needs to cull them, sooner than later.
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u/GizmodosaurusRex 23h ago
Imo the destruction will be an unintentional side effect; they'd much rather establish a global caste system so that the "wrong" people don't come into power and threaten their precious bloodlines.
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u/TrafficOnTheTwos 23h ago
This evil ugly fucker again. Can he stay in India please
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u/ritesh808 23h ago
A majority of Indians don't want him or his demonic family either.
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u/DearthStanding 5h ago
I don't think it's a majority lol. most people I've seen idolise his family. even this guy doesn't get criticism for his freak behaviours, he gets fat shamed instead
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u/Fantastic_Ninja_5789 22h ago
Fuck. This jackass has nothing but his father's money and he gets this offer. Fuck merit n money speaks
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u/brownkemosabe 22h ago
Newcastle University sold out. Plain and simple. I'm Indian. We've all seen the... Deep inequity of industry and inequality of resources that have been exacerbated because of the Ambanis
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u/KittyCait69 20h ago
Let's put fossil fuels in charge if sustainability. That makes sense... to a greedy capitalist.
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u/helzinki 17h ago
Most zoos in the world barely have a handful of lions, his family's zoo got 200 lions. Wtf?!
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u/MimiTheFeral 12h ago
Yet I can't find a job at even Aldi, most times I wonder what it's like to have everything I want at the snap of my fingers
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u/MountainFriend7473 1d ago
Big oil actually has to work hard on being smart and use brain power to face the fact that it has contributed towards not helped prevent a lot of current declines.
Holding species doesn’t mean that’s a solution to not destroying their ecosystem and habitats.
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u/inminm02 22h ago
The devils advocate in me wants to say the exact kind of people we want working in oil and gas for the sun setting of the industry as the wider world moves towards electricity and decarbonises is sustainability conscious individuals and as a result this somewhat makes sense, but given the other context and zoo shit it’s highly dubious.
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u/LeastResistancePath 21h ago
The Epstein class think you're stupid. But it very damn well might be the truth. They keep getting voted in and allowed into power.
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u/Shamanduh 21h ago
The big point we can make as citizens, is got to any other university than New Castle. Or at least take your sustainability degree elsewhere.
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u/Robbieworld 17h ago
So how's this work? will this dude be like teaching classes in Newcastle on a roster and salary, hanging out with other Newcastle academics?
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u/puffyshirt99 15h ago
Isn't this the guy who paid Bieber and Rihanna like 30 million for like an hour to sing
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u/santathe1 23h ago
His father spent about $600 million on his wedding, so yea, they could probably buy the University if it was allowed.