JUNE 6- As expected of the chairman of the country’s largest private sector company, known for its love of scale and expertise in execution, Mukesh Ambani talked of big investments and projects at Reliance Industries’ 39th annual general meeting in Mumbai on Thursday. All of those became secondary when, about halfway through his speech, Ambani began to talk of Reliance Jio, the 4G service. And then he didn’t really say much about it.
To be sure, the numbers were big. The omnibus figure is Rs.150,000 crore to be invested over the next three years “in all five businesses simultaneously” (that would be exploration and production, refining, petrochemicals, retail and digital). This is significantly higher than the Rs.100,000 crore over five years talked about at last year’s AGM. What will this lead to?
- RIL is on its way to be a top five petrochemicals producer in the world.
- Its retail business crossedRs.10,000 crore in revenue last financial year. It is tipped to grow at 50 per cent in the next few years to touch Rs.40,000 crore toRs.50,000 crore.
- The two-year-old RIL-BP venture has started to bear fruit with its first strike a few weeks ago and there is a lot more to come.
- Lots of action, investment and capacity growth in polyester.
And then Ambani talked of “digital content applications and services” and RIL’s opportunity to create “a cutting edge broadband network” and digital platform.
“Let me assure the sceptics that my continued optimism is based on significant strides made by our team in engineering and testing a world-class broadband network and a suite of compelling digital services. It is my belief that Reliance Jio will transform the lives of 1.2 billion Indians. India’s future is digital; indeed mankind’s future is digital.”
So far so good.
“I see an India that will use digital currency, instead of paper money.”
Wow, is he talking bitcoins?
“Engineers, teachers and students will take education and knowledge creation to a new level.”
Sounds good.
“Expert medical advice to be available anytime, anywhere. Medical practitioners can grow their practice without constraint.”
Things to look forward to.
“Reliance Jio’s next-generation digital infrastructure and services platform will embrace every facet of India’s economic growth and social progress.”
As it should.
“We had 700 people working for Reliance Jio a year back, most of them in Navi Mumbai. Since then the Jio team has grown to a national footprint of 3,000. Next year there will be 10,000 people — national and international.”
Global? Wow!
“Broadband and digital services will no longer be [the preserve of] a privileged few. Consumers and small businesses in far flung villages will be able to use them.”
Bharat nirman.
“We have finalised key vendors and partners to launch services.”
Now we are talking.
But we were not, really.
“[Reliance Jio] is not a business; we are bringing our passion and belief to the market to transform India,” said Ambani. And that was the time it seemed he was not really going to give the specifics.
So what we do know is that Reliance Jio has “ambitious plans” for the next 12 months, during which it will launch its services across India. But do not be too sure of that. For Ambani and his baby have a “sense of urgency but not careless haste”.
He will tell you at the next AGM about “the progress” Jio would have made. Th 4G licence was acquired in 2010. Make of it what you will.
