“I’m a Mumbai boy… On its streets I learnt to stand up for myself, in its roadside stalls I learnt to bargain, in its commercial centres I learnt business, and in its cinemas I learnt to dream.” – Mukesh Ambani
Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani is the pioneer of Modern India and a role model for many young entrepreneurs. He was born in Yemen where Dhirubhai Ambani was a gas station worker. Later they relocated to India in 1958 to start a business in trading spices and textiles called ‘Only Vimal’. They lived in a low rent two bedroom apartment in a communal society and never received any allowance. Later, Dhirubhai Ambani purchased a 14th floor apartment. Dhirubhai Ambani was successful in getting the PFY (Polyester Filament Yarn) license so he called Mukesh Ambani to India in order to help him run the family business while he was pursuing his MBA from Stanford University.
Following the death of Dhirubhai Ambani in 2002, due to a lack of will there was a feud between the brothers Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani regarding the assets of the business. Their mother Kokilaben intervened and split the Reliance Group into two. Mukesh Ambani got control of Reliance Industries Limited and Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Limited while Anil Ambani got Reliance Energy, Reliance Infocomm and Reliance Capital. After the split, Anil Ambani was under a lot of debt and he sold off the major power assets and the telecom assets to Mukesh Ambani. There was a reduction in the value of his investments which resulted in a heavy wealth loss. Mukesh Ambani swooped in and paid the money due to Ericsson and saved him from imprisonment.
In the meantime Mukesh Ambani launched Jio Infotel. The entry of Jio caused havoc in the telecom industry and the existing players incurred losses due to the economical services offered by Jio. It is the largest mobile network operator in India. The market capitalization of Reliance Industries is 4.9 lakh crore rupees. The share price of Reliance Industries has seen an 87% increase from its lows in March 2020. It has withstood all market turmoil resulting from covid19. NIFTY 50 has been increasing and its major contributor has been Reliance Industries with its high market capitalization.
Jio held its first virtual Annual General Meeting on 15th July 2020 through Jio Meet. The insights of the 43rd Annual General Meeting of the reliance highlights the latest ventures by the company. Jio platforms are getting investments by some of the world’s giant companies including Facebook, Intel and Qualcomm and Google. Jio is growing at a fast pace by capturing different spheres of digital connectivity. Jio is going to launch a made in India 5g network and trails are to be launched soon. Jio Mart, a digital way to engage kirana stores, will be working closely with WhatsApp. Also, Jio platform has launched Jio Meet, a video conferencing service with 24 hours’ time limit on each session. Reliance made a move towards a technologically advanced product, JioGlass, a cable that can be attached to your phone and can connect to the Internet, it can be used to attend a meeting while you are sitting at home to get a mixed real life experience. All these are the latest startups by the company and Mr. Ambani really believes in startups into the Jio roadmap leading to the fuller utilisation of the resources and reaching their full potential.
On August 14th the Supreme Court said that Reliance Jio should pay Rs.31000 crores of Anil’s RComm to the Department of Telecom because the company has been using the spectrum of Reliance Communication since 2016. The company is defending itself by saying that it is sharing the spectrum and following all the rules and paying the requisite fees. The Supreme Court is questioning as to why the company using the spectrum cannot pay the Adjusted Gross Revenue related dues to the government. The saddest part is the Government is quite ignorant about the dues to be paid by the big players of the market including Tata, Birla, Mittal and Ambani. Even worse, the opposition is not questioning such suspicious activities by the government. Further hearing is to be held on August 17,2020.
Reliance Industries has been the leading private sector company in India for the last many years. Reliance has jumped 10 places in the global Fortune 500 company. Its motto “Growth is Life” has been upheld through its enormous growth in the last many years. Since, Jio came into the market, RIL has become one of the biggest companies in Asia and its share prices are going up. It is capturing the different spheres of the market and Mukesh Ambani has become the world’s 4th richest person in the year 2020, a year where the world is facing the negative side effects of nature by tackling the covid-19 pandemic and other calamities, RIL has managed to move upwards towards success. Though the payment of the debt for Reliance Communication seems to be a hurdle in the company’s upliftment and this has created sense of tension for the shareholders as well as public but Reliance is known for beating all the odds against them and turning the situation around and continuing to prosper.
Written by- Devansi Masrani and Sweeni Saluja
Sources: Economic Times, Business Insider, Your Story, Bloomberg Quaint, Financial Express
Image Sources: DNA India, Economic Times, Google