Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani, on Thursday, told shareholders that Reliance Jio broadband 4G services would be launched within a year. He was speaking at the 37th annual general meeting of the company.
“Let me assure sceptics that my continued optimism (on digital broadband service) is based on the significant strides that we at Reliance have taken in the past year — towards engineering and testing a world-class broadband network, and in developing a suite of compelling and synergistic digital services. Today, I remain stronger than ever in my belief that Reliance will….. radically transform the lives of 1.2 billion Indians,” Mr. Ambani said.
“Together with our partners, we have charted an ambitious plan for the next 12 months, and we at Reliance Jio foresee making rapid progress over this period towards launching our services across India. Our impatience to reach our goal demands a sense of urgency, but not careless haste. The legacy we are striving to create for the country needs a solid foundation and we need to build it with diligence and care. That is our opportunity, as well as our promise,” Mr. Ambani added.
He said already 3,000 people had joined Reliance Jio. By next year, the staff strength would increase to 10,000, he added. The company had also finalised the key vendor and supplier partnerships that were required for the initial launch of our services, he pointed out. Mr. Ambani said RIL would invest Rs.1,50,000 crore in the next three years in various businesses. On RIL’s oil and gas business, Mr. Ambani said that efforts were on to ramp up production and address the challenges.
“The East Coast is full of geological challenges, and, as the first company to begin producing from the deep offshore in India, we have had our share of challenges. There have been challenges in sustaining production, which we are now addressing having received the requisite regulatory approvals. Various production augmentation efforts are underway, including to maximise recovery from the existing fields in KG-D6 block,” Mr. Ambani said.
He said additional hydrocarbon resources in the KG-D6 and NEC25 blocks were planned to be developed over the next few years, subject to all necessary regulatory approvals. ``We are all set to proceed with the development of two coal bed methane blocks in Sohagpur, Madhya Pradesh, despite various execution and infrastructure challenges. Again, a fair regulatory environment and timely approvals are key to success in exploitation of such unconventional resources, and we target for first gas from these fields in 2015,” he said.
