India Can Become The Premier Digital Society In The World, Mukesh Ambani Tells Satya Nadella
India has all the components in place to become the world’s third largest economy within the next decade, said Mukesh Ambani.
India has the opportunity to become the premier digital society in the world, according to Mukesh Ambani.
“I can easily say that the mobile networks in India now are better or at par with anywhere else in the world,” the Reliance Industries Ltd. chairman told Microsoft Corp.’s Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella at an event in Mumbai. “The opportunity that we have for India, really, is the opportunity to become the premier digital society in the world.”
Companies, including Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. and Infosys Ltd., powered the technology that kick-started the financial and economic reforms in India, he said. That was growth was “supercharged in 2014 when Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) gave us the vision of Digital India.”
Jio’s Journey
Ambani also highlighted the role that his firm, Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd., played in India’s technology landscape. Prior to the launch of Jio in 2016, average internet access speed was 256 kbps, said Ambani, adding that post Jio, the speed has jumped to 21 mbps even in villages.
The pre-Jio, price of data in this country was between Rs 300 and 500 per GB. And for the poorest of poor people who use 2G, the prices were as high as Rs 10,000 a GB. Post Jio, the price is between Rs 12 and Rs 14 a GB.Mukesh Ambani, Chairman, RIL
Ambani added that 38 crore customers have migrated to 4G technology on Jio’s platform in the last three years.
India’s Entrepreneurial Power
Ambani added that the entrepreneurial power at India’s grassroots is “enormous”, citing the example of RIL, which his father Dhirubhai Ambani started five decades ago.
Why I’m saying this is fundamentally to just drive the point that every small business and entrepreneur has the potential in India to become a Dhirubhai Ambani or Bill Gates. And that is the power, that is what differentiates India, from the rest of the world.Mukesh Ambani, Chairman, RIL
India To Be Among Top Three World Economies
India, Ambani said, has all the components in place to “grow and march forward” and become the world’s third largest economy within the next decade.
I have no doubt in my mind that we will become among the top three economies in the world. We can argue about whether it will happen in 5 years or 10 years but it’s going to happen, and we will be in the top three economies in the world.Mukesh Ambani, Chairman, RIL
India became the world’s fifth-largest economy last year, according to the International Monetary Fund. When ranked by nominal GDP, the country leapfrogged France and the U.K. and now ranks behind the U.S., China, Japan, and Germany.
(With inputs from PTI)