AsiaOne Magazine April-May 2018 Issue
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GLOBAL asian<br />
2017<br />
Mukesh Ambani<br />
FRONTRUNNER Of A DIGITAL REVOLUTION<br />
Vehemently asserting that “Data is the new oil” at<br />
almost every platform, Mr Mukesh Ambani has explicitly<br />
expressed his intensions of digital expansion. He further<br />
states, “Anything and everything that can go digital is<br />
going digital. India cannot afford to be left behind.” No<br />
wonder, under his quintessential leadership, Reliance<br />
has swept the communication market through the<br />
ambitious Jio project whose revolutionary impact will<br />
play a substantial role in molding the future of India<br />
and will work towards bridging the urban-rural divide<br />
by providing end-to-end digital solutions for businesses,<br />
institutions and households.<br />
His strategy of offering free domestic voice<br />
calls, economical data services and virtually free<br />
smartphones, has catapulted Jio to the most popular<br />
telecommunications brand.<br />
Efficiently providing wireless 4G LTE service network<br />
(without 2G/3G-based services), Jio is the only ‘VoLTEonly’<br />
(voice over LTE) operator in the country which lacks<br />
legacy network support of 2G and 3G, with coverage<br />
across all 22 telecom circles in India. Besides acquiring<br />
16 million subscribers, within the first month of its<br />
launch – the fastest ramp-up by any mobile network<br />
operator anywhere in the world – Jio crossed 50 million<br />
subscriber mark in 83 days since its launch and has<br />
subsequently earned more than 130 million subscribers.<br />
CARRYING FORWARd A LEGAcY Of RELIANcE<br />
The foundation of Reliance was laid in 1957 by Mr<br />
Dhirubhai Ambani as a provider of textile yarns to textile<br />
manufacturers. Foraying into textile manufacturing in the<br />
mid 1960’s, he set up his first factory in the year 1966. The<br />
lack of a proper distribution arm, which was necessary<br />
to avoid dependence on the existing players and to keep<br />
costs low, along with a shortage of funding led Reliance<br />
to come out with an IPO in 1977, raising US$ 1.8mn and in<br />
the process starting the capital markets culture in India.<br />
After completing his Bachelor’s degree in Chemical<br />
Engineering from the University of Mumbai, Mr Mukesh<br />
Ambani was pursuing his MBA from Stanford University<br />
when he dropped out to assist his father in the construction<br />
of a polyester filament yarn plant after it got a license<br />
from the Indian government in 1981 to produce polyester<br />
filament yarn, beating the likes of other well-known Indian<br />
business houses such as the Tatas and Birlas. He efficiently<br />
facilitated its backward integration from polyester into<br />
textiles and then into petrochemicals in 1986 and later<br />
on carried out its upstream integration with oil and gas<br />
exploration and production, and more recently has enabled<br />
its smooth venturing into various unrelated sectors.<br />
EXPANdING A COLOSSAL EMPIRE<br />
In the late nineties, Mr Mukesh Ambani spearheaded<br />
the creation of the world’s largest grassroots petroleum<br />
refinery at Jamnagar in Gujarat, with a capacity of 660,000<br />
barrels per day (33 million tonnes a year), and integrated<br />
it with petrochemicals, power generation, port and related<br />
infrastructure. This crude oil refinery is one of the largest<br />
in the world, with 2% of global processing capacity and<br />
constitutes 15% of India’s exports, 4% of its stock market<br />
capitalization and 3% of its tax revenues and is the country’s<br />
largest private corporate investor. Further, he steered the<br />
setting up of another 580,000-barrels-per-day refinery next<br />
to the first one in Jamnagar. With an aggregate refining<br />
capacity of 1.24 million barrels of oil per day at a single<br />
location, Jamnagar has acquired the coveted title of ‘the<br />
refining hub of the world.’<br />
He also led Reliance’s development of multiple new<br />
world-class manufacturing facilities involving diverse<br />
technologies and implementation of a pan-India organized<br />
retail network spanning multiple formats and supply chain<br />
infrastructure. Today, Reliance Industries is the world’s<br />
largest producer of polyester fiber and yarn and Reliance<br />
Retail is the largest organised retail player in India.<br />
He has created global records in customer acquisition<br />
for Jio, Reliance’s digital services initiative. He led<br />
and established one of the world’s most expansive 4G<br />
broadband wireless network offering end-to-end solutions<br />
that address the entire value chain across various<br />
digital services in key domains of national interest, such<br />
as education, healthcare, security, financial services,<br />
government-citizen interfaces, and entertainment.<br />
“under his quintessential leadership, Reliance has<br />
swept the communication market through the ambitious<br />
Jio project whose revolutionary impact will play a<br />
substantial role in molding the future of India”<br />
50 | ASIA ONE | april-mAY <strong>2018</strong>
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