Miss Alone
Prime VIP
Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani has said that his new telecom venture, Jio, is not a gamble but a well thought-out and well-engineered business, and compared the trouble with interconnectivity with a meritorious student “getting ragged” in college.
“It is no punt. It is a well thought-out, well executed, well engineered ecosystem. It is a ₹2,50,000 crore investment,” Ambani said at ‘Off the Cuff’, a show organised by The Print digital media, late on Monday night.
“You have to take it in the right spirit. There is a principal and there is an ecosystem so there is a governance system...I’ve no problem as long as I or Reliance get ragged, you are the big boys and you can take it but the consumer should not suffer and I think that is what Jio is doing,” he said when asked to justify his ₹1.5 lakh crore new entrepreneurial “punt”.
About the troubles Jio had with the regulator and the incumbents, he said, “Yes we had troubles” and compared it to a bright student getting admission into prestigious institute on merit but getting ragged in the hostel for being meritorious.
At the much-delayed launch last month, Ambani had said the company had invested ₹1.5 lakh crore in his new venture.
But on Monday he said the figure was already ₹2.5 lakh crore and rising, in his second attempt at telecom that offers high speed 4G services with focus on data.
On whether Jio had disrupted the telecom market with low data tariffs, Ambani said, “What I really don’t understand is that you progress from generations of technology. It is not new as we had announced it in 2010-11.
“We didn’t do anything stealthily. In all my AGMs we have said we are going to bring the Internet to the masses because I firmly believe that the benefits of technology should go to the end-consumer,” he said.
He reiterated that Reliance’s consumer businesses, which consist of digital services, media and entertainment and retail, in the next few years will be as big as its energy business.
“Reliance at this scale and size will not do anything that does not create huge societal value. At the end of the day I strongly believe that the society gives the licence to operate and making only money is not the licence,” Ambani said.
“It is no punt. It is a well thought-out, well executed, well engineered ecosystem. It is a ₹2,50,000 crore investment,” Ambani said at ‘Off the Cuff’, a show organised by The Print digital media, late on Monday night.
“You have to take it in the right spirit. There is a principal and there is an ecosystem so there is a governance system...I’ve no problem as long as I or Reliance get ragged, you are the big boys and you can take it but the consumer should not suffer and I think that is what Jio is doing,” he said when asked to justify his ₹1.5 lakh crore new entrepreneurial “punt”.
About the troubles Jio had with the regulator and the incumbents, he said, “Yes we had troubles” and compared it to a bright student getting admission into prestigious institute on merit but getting ragged in the hostel for being meritorious.
At the much-delayed launch last month, Ambani had said the company had invested ₹1.5 lakh crore in his new venture.
But on Monday he said the figure was already ₹2.5 lakh crore and rising, in his second attempt at telecom that offers high speed 4G services with focus on data.
On whether Jio had disrupted the telecom market with low data tariffs, Ambani said, “What I really don’t understand is that you progress from generations of technology. It is not new as we had announced it in 2010-11.
“We didn’t do anything stealthily. In all my AGMs we have said we are going to bring the Internet to the masses because I firmly believe that the benefits of technology should go to the end-consumer,” he said.
He reiterated that Reliance’s consumer businesses, which consist of digital services, media and entertainment and retail, in the next few years will be as big as its energy business.
“Reliance at this scale and size will not do anything that does not create huge societal value. At the end of the day I strongly believe that the society gives the licence to operate and making only money is not the licence,” Ambani said.
