If their is one company in India, which has benefitted the most , amid this Corona Pandemic than it undoubtedly is Reliance. Forced online push due to pandemic, Rising anti China sentiment in the world with newfound love for swadesi and a wish to become self reliant .
All the conditions are working In Mr. Ambani,s favour. Hence it comes as no surprise that He is attracting majority of the Foreign investment coming in India.
To put it in numbers, total Foreign investment that came in all startups in India was over 58 Billion USD in 5 years period 2014 to 2019, and his Jio which was also started during this period(though it is technically not a start up) has attracted an investment of more than 20 Billion USD, which is around 35 percent of all FDI in preceding 5 years.
The way Mr Ambani has made progress after the BJP govt. came to power in 2014, none of the other Indian businesses has done. His wealth which was 1.68 lakh crores in 2014 stands at a whooping 5.4 lakh crores now, and his ranking in the world,s richest has risen from 40th in 2014 to 6th rank in 2020.
Some people credit this spectacular rise of Mr Ambani to his closesness to the current government and they allege that many policies of the govt are made so as to benefit Mr. Ambani. Some people credit his luck for the same saying that things are automatically falling in place for him.
Whatever the reason may be , but the reality of today is if their is One Indian Company which is the front runner to make India self reliant in various sectors than it is Reliance, and the way the things are shaping up now it seems that Reliance can take leadership spot from a no. of Chinese companies not only in India but also in the world.
Foreign investors are trusting it with their investments, and in the domestic market too the share price of reliance has doubled in the last few months , showing the confidence investors are placing on it.
Reliance in the past few years has worked on establishing itself as a global technology company and its original oil refining business has taken a back seat.
Mr. Ambani clearly wants to establish jio as as technology powerhouse of the future and with this another sector which he wants to capture is the Indian retail sector where he is quitely making his moves.
Today ,in the global scenario world wants to reduce its dependence on China, as Corona pandemic has taught us that world supply chains can not be dependent on a single country, this gives Mr Mukesh Ambani a golden opportunity to expand his presence in world markets through JIO.
If we look at how he has made the most of the opportunity thrown at him by the corona pandemic so far than we can see this in a few examples
Everyone went online in this pandemic and all meetings, conferences etc were also being done online. Everyone was talking about and downloading ZOOM app to conduct online classes and to attend meetings , conferences were also on zoom, even the Indian ministeries were using zoom app. In between all this some news reports came out that zoom app is not safe for data security, Sensing an opportunity here Mr. Ambani was quick to launch an alternate to zoom app that is JIO MEET app and it looks exactly like zoom.
He has also announced JIO glasses in the recently concluded AGM, and this along with the jiomeet app will be used to create a virtual classroom or a meeting hall where all online classes can be conducted.
Next comes the 5G technology, which Mr Ambani announced in his AGM, that they have built indigenous 5g technology in India starting from the scratch, and they are now ready to roll it out whenever the government asks them to. Now 5g is the future and Do you know who the market leader in the world in 5g technology is, it is Chinese company Huawei. They are providing the cheapest 5 g solutions in the world and lot of countries have tied up with them
But their are a lot of security issues associated with Huawei as well, Countries like USA and UK have recently banned Huawei as they believe it steals the sensitive and important information from their country and passes it on to the Chinese government. The world needs an alternative to Huawei and Reliance Jio can provide it with it. So their is a great possibility that 5G can place JIO at the world stage and it can look at replacing Huawei network in many countries.
Some media outlets are already terming JIO as Huawei killer
The most recent major investment in Jio has come from Google, which is investing 4.5 billion dollars in it. Now this Jio and google partnership is working on developing an android based entry level smartphone for the Indian market . Their eye is on the 35 crore feature phone users in India whom they want to shift on their network and replace their feature phones with smartphones. Currently the entry level smartphone segment is dominated by the Chinese players like Xiomi, Oppo, Vivo. Realme etc and they are controlling more than 70 percent of the 2 lakh crore indian smartphone market.
Now a lot of people today want to buy an Indian smartphone , but their are not many options available , and this is providing Mr. Ambani with a great opportunity to bring an Indian made smartphone which can compete in price and quality with their Chinese counterparts and he know’s that their will be no dearth of buyers for an Indian smartphone.
Jio has also partnered with Facebook and with its help they are working on a super app for the Indian market,which will be made on the lines of Chinese company Tencent,s super app We chat.
This app will be a one stop solution for all your digital needs, be it chatting , online digital transactions, buying or selling goods and services etc. Using this app Mr. Ambani wants to connect crores of farmers of the country and enable them to sell their produce directly without involving a middleman. Crores of shopkeepers will be connected through this app and in the near future you would be able to order grocery online from your nearby shop after checking the prices and items available. He wants to connect crores of small and medium businesses through this app ,and they would be able to do their business through it.
whatsapp popularity in India and its capacity to handle instant payments will be made use of,in this app.
A lot of large technology companies of the world have bought a stake in JIO and with their experience and expertise Reliance wants to become such a company in India where it will be at the fulcrum of everything and there will be very few things left in the future where JIO will not impact your life directly or indirectly.
Through Jio network , Reliance also wants to become a major facilitator for Indian startups so that they can grow with its assistance.
Mr Ambani is working to Make Jio the technology powerhouse of the world and wants to take on the large Chinese Companies like Tencent, Huawei, Xiomi, Zoom etc . He wants to be an answer to a large no. of Chinese firms on its own.
So far Jio,s journey has been nothing short of spectacular and now it is assisted by able partners like Facebook and Google, So if he wants to prove that one Indian company can become the alternative to a no. of large Chinese global players than this is an golden opportunity for him to establish reliance and India as a global technology powerhouse, and we all should hope that he is successful in his endeavour
Bhaskar Sankhla
Disclaimer: views expressed are author,s own.
Bhaskar sankhla 