What the record actually says

At the 50th India Gem & Jewellery Awards — the golden jubilee year of the awards — the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council gave Russell Mehta its Lifetime Achievement Award, for what its citation called his contribution to, and example within, the world of gems and jewellery. The award was handed over by the Governor of Maharashtra, Ramesh Bais, and by Mukesh Ambani.

Seventeen years earlier the same award had gone to his father. Speaking as guest of honour, Ambani addressed exactly that:

“As the son of Dhirubhai, I know it is not easy following in the footsteps of a giant father who was a pioneer, and also making your own mark; yet you have grown the business and expanded the values you imbibed.”

Mehta’s own remarks on the night were, characteristically, an exercise in distributing the credit:

“I could have been just another individual in the diamond industry, but my heritage, coupled with the support of my family and partners, skills of our team, sound advice from a group of friends and camaraderie with industry peers elevated me to this position.”

Ambani also singled out the family’s community work in Palanpur, and the educational institutions it has supported there — the part of the record that appears on no balance sheet.

On 8 January 2026, Russell Mehta appeared as the guest of Coffee with CKM, the conversation series hosted by Dr. Chetan Kumar Mehta, Chairman and Managing Director of Laxmi Diamonds in Bengaluru. JewelBuzz was the live streaming partner and The Art of Jewellery the trophy partner.

The billed subject was growth: how a house of Rosy Blue’s size negotiates the complicated dynamics of expansion, and what that implies for the wider Indian gem and jewellery sector.

The conversation as it ran went further than that. It was described afterwards as a candid account of the realities of leadership — moving past the professional achievements to the success, the failure, the pain and the triumphs behind them. For a man whose public appearances have generally been institutional rather than personal, it was an unusually open hour.