Mukesh Ambani roots for India to become a global leader, says Jio conceived to enable this journey

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) Chairman Mukesh Ambani today said that India now has the opportunity to not only catch up with the world leaders but to emerge as a global leader itself as it steps foot into the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Addressing TM Forum’s Digital Transformation World Series 2020 Virtual Conference, India’s richest man said that the fourth industrial revolution is driven by the convergence of digital and physical technologies such as Digital connectivity, Cloud and Edge computing, IoT and smart devices, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Blockchain, AR/VR and genomics.

“India missed out on the first two industrial revolutions and the changes brought about by them. During the third industrial revolution, where Information Technology came to prominence, India joined the race but still remained behind, trying to catch up with the leaders,” Mukesh Ambani said. He added that for participating in this revolution ultra-high-speed connectivity, affordable smart devices and transformational digital applications and solutions are necessary. “Jio was conceived for India to enable this journey,” he added.

Jio, the telecom behemoth, that Mukesh Ambani’s RIL carved out in 2016 has helped India’s push for digital transformation. Ambani said that Jio built a future proof 4G network in only three years while India’s 2G network took 25 years to build. “Today, India consumes over 6 exabytes of data every month… more than 30 times pre-Jio levels, just four years ago. We have gone from 155th in the world to number one in mobile data consumption in just four years,” Mukesh Ambani said.

Giving a glimpse of the future, the Chairman of the oil-to-telecom major said that to extend its global leadership in connectivity, Jio is now rolling out a high-speed, low-latency optic fiber network to more than 50 million homes and premises across 2,000 towns and cities in India while simultaneously is is preparing for rolling out 5G services across India.

With an eye out for quality, Jio Platforms, RIL’s digital solutions arm, now has a growing portfolio of over 20 start-ups with significant capabilities in areas like Cloud and Edge Computing, Big Data Analytics, AI & Machine Learning, Blockchain, AR/ VR and IoT. “Using these technologies, Jio Platforms is in the process of creating compelling solutions for multiple industry verticals and ecosystems spanning Telecom, Media and Entertainment, New Commerce, Financial Services, Education, Healthcare and Agriculture,” he said. Mukesh Ambani reiterated that each of these solutions, once perfected in India and proven at India-scale will be well positioned to address similar needs in other parts of the world.