Reliance's initial investment in jio is Rs -150000cr says Mukesh Ambani - At FICCI FRAMES

Reliance’s initial investment in Jio is Rs 150,000 cr, says Mukesh Ambani Posted on: 31/03/2016 01:14 AM   TelevisionPost Team MUMBAI: Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) chairman Mukesh Ambani has said that the company will be initially investing Rs 150,000 crore in its ambitious telecom project Reliance Jio, making it the world’s largest start-up. “Jio is one of the largest transformational greenfield initiatives in the world with an initial investment of over Rs 150,000 crore. This is really the world’s biggest start-up,” Ambani said during his address at the FICCI Frames 2016, where he was the guest of honour. In 2014, Ambani had called Jio a Rs 70,000 crore initiative. In July 2015, the company had outlined an investment plan of Rs 100,000 crore leading up to its launch in December, which was later pushed to 2016. He noted that the Indian media and entertainment (M&E) industry is set to touch $100 billion in the coming decade. It has grown nine times to $18 billion today from $2 billion in 2004. Ambani stated that the world is at the beginning of a digital revolution, with everything from entertainment, commerce, healthcare to education going digital. India, Ambani said, cannot afford to be left behind in this digital race. But there is a long way to go from here as India is ranked 150th in the mobile internet rankings out of 230 countries. Ambani expects India to be among the top 10 of mobile internet rankings with the launch of Jio. This will be achieved through four key interventions—coverage, quality, quantity and affordability. He pointed out that the coverage of mobile broadband in India is only about 15–20 per cent. With Jio, Ambani expects this number to shoot up to 90% from Day 1, with rest of the industry contributing 20 per cent coverage. “Jio will start services with 70% coverage of India from Day 1,” he said. Referring to quality, he said that Jio mobile broadband will offer speeds that are about 40–80 times faster than the current average speeds. He also feels that Jio will fuel the quantity of data consumption in the country from 0.15 GB per month to a capacity of 10 GB per month for every user. “Jio’s network is engineered to provide capacity of 10 GB per month for every user,” he said. On the affordability front, he said that Jio will significantly up the quantity, quality and coverage for broadband internet while lowering the cost to the user. “With these four interventions, India will leapfrog into being among the top 10 of the digital revolution sweeping across the world,” he asserted. Ambani contended that Jio is not only a telecom network but also an ecosystem. This ecosystem consists of devices, broadband networks, powerful applications and services, distributed to every doorstep in India. He also revealed that Jio’s media offerings will include the most comprehensive libraries and programming of recorded and live music, sports, live and catch-up television, movies and events. Calling upon the industry to co-create with Jio, Ambani said that India will become a powerhouse in the world of digital media and entertainment, and will lead in the new tele-media world if the industry comes together. Jio and Jio-enabled Indians, he said, will create a whole new digital economy, which will bring growth, empowerment, employment and prosperity for the country. Five major trends Ambani also outlined five major trends that are going to shape the digital world in future. Firstly, he said that the world is undergoing a tectonic shift from the spoken and the written word to the visual world. He feels that images and videos will rule in the digital world with the video being the new voice. Secondly, digital technology is exponential while human beings are linear. Any exponential change will create large opportunities and embracing the change will reap rich dividends for everyone. Thirdly, the world is graduating to a tele-media world. Earlier, telecommunication, media and entertainment, television and broadcasting were considered separate industries. However, with the emergence of mobile broadband, the telecom/ICT and various media sectors are converging. “We all are part of the tele-media future. The rules of the game have changed. The model will shift from ownership to digital access, and the user’s focus has shifted from downloading to streaming. The traffic in this world is not linear or one way—it will be interactive. From monologues it will be all about conversations. From copyright to usage rights and more importantly from paying with cash to paying with attention,” he said. Fourth, he predicted that abundance of choice, distribution and content will be a global trend. This kind of abundance will make intelligent analytics the need of the hour. He also said data is the new oil, and intelligent data is the new petrol. Extreme abundance will also lead to scarcity of context, happiness and purpose of life. According to him, anything and anyone who can address this scarcity will be a winner. “And this media and entertainment industry is well-positioned to address the twin issues of abundance and scarcity,” he averred. Lastly, he stated that the true power of technology is its ability to make human life better. The future, he said, belongs to creative empathisers, pattern recognisers and meaning-makers. 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