Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani's 45-minute speech has made the headlines and got mobile users across India excited. Jio's commercial launch has been the most exciting news for consumers as the company built sufficient hype by providing unlimited access to its high-speed internet services on a trial basis.
On Thursday, Ambani waged a price war on its telecom rivals, including Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Vodafone, by launching disruptive pricing strategies. Jio is also the first network carrier to make voice calls completely free without charging the customers a special premium. The commercial launch of Jio is scheduled for December 31, 2016, until then all Jio users will get free and unlimited access to data, voice calls, SMS and Jio apps.
Those who missed Ambani's speech on Jio, here's a transcript for your reference:
Dear Shareholders,
I start with the newest and youngest member of the Reliance family – Jio. Let me begin my words with a dedication. In the journey of time, there comes a few life changing movements. Our Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi's inspiring vision of a "Digital India" is one such movement. Jio is dedicated to realizing our Prime Minister's vision for 1.2 billion Indians. Jio will give the "power of data" to each Indian to fulfil every dream and to collectively take India to Global Digital Leadership.
With these words, I want to dedicate the commencement of Jio to the Digital India Vision of our Prime Minister, 1.2 billion Indians and India. Esteemed Shareowners Why did we call our venture "Jio"? Why is our motto JIO – DIGITAL LIFE? Permit me to articulate the philosophy that has given birth to Jio. The world is at the beginning of a digital revolution. Anything and everything that can go digital is going digital – at an exponential rate. Faster than you and I can imagine. Whether it is manufacturing, commerce, healthcare, education, entertainment – life is going Digital.
Through the ages, information and knowledge have driven humanity's progress. When you put the power of data connectivity, computing, software and information together, the price/performance of everything changes drastically. Everything gets disrupted. I believe, in the next 20 years as human civilization, we will collectively achieve more than what has been achieved in the last 300 years. We are at the beginning of a new era for humanity. In this era, if you are not digital, and if you don't have globally competitive digital tools and skills, you simply will not survive.
You will get disrupted. You will be outcompeted. You will be left behind. You will become irrelevant. India and Indians cannot afford to be left behind. Today, India is ranked 155th in the world for mobile broadband Internet access, out of 230 countries. Jio is conceived to change this. I have no doubt that with the launch of Jio, India's rank will go up to among the top ten. 1.2 Billion Indians cannot be left behind as the world enters a new era. We have the youngest population in the world.
Give them affordable digital tools. Give them the skills. Give them the environment. They will surprise us. It is this opportunity to transform India, and transform the lives of our 1.2 Billion Indians that motivated Reliance to invest in this space. And Jio is the result. We have called it Jio because Jio means to live. There is nothing more precious in this world for the rich or the poor than Life.
I believe it is the fundamental right of every Indian to live a life of freedom, a life of fulfilment and to realize their fullest potential. Digital Technologies open the doors to this Life- the Digital Life. However, Life cannot survive without oxygen. Data is the oxygen of Digital Life, and oxygen must never be in short supply. Worse still, the supply of oxygen for digital life must never be unaffordable to any user. Doing so shows disrespect for Life. Jio respects Life.
Which is why Reliance created Jio. Jio is more than just business for us. Jio is our solemn commitment to enrich the life of every Indian. Jio means TO LIVE and to BE ALIVE. To every opportunity and realize the potential of every Indian. Dear Shareowners, The world's demand for Digital oxygen, that is data, is growing explosively. Jio's mission is to meet this exploding need for India, and to take our nation from data shortage to data abundance. And to enable a Digital Life for a Digital India.
The complete transcript of Mukesh Ambani's AGM speech 2016 can be read HERE.
