“Data Is the New Oil,” Says RIL Head Mukesh Ambani

Mukesh Ambani said that the Indian economy does not have access to next level digital infrastructure yet.

Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries. (Photo: PTI)

Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani, on Wednesday said his telecom venture Jio is close to achieving its target of getting 100 million customers on its network.

At a three-day Nasscom leadership forum being held in Mumbai, he said:

When we started Jio, we set a target for ourselves that we will acquire 100 million customers in shortest time. Even we didn’t imagine that we would do it in months

The company has been providing free 4G service since its soft launch on 27 December, 2015 for RIL employees only and later opened it for all customers on 5 September, 2016 thus completing over 160 days of its commercial operations.

The company provides connection on basis of instant verification of Aadhaar number of customers.

Mukesh Ambani stressed also on the importance of data and said, "Data is the new oil and Indians should not have scarcity of it in terms of quality, quantity or affordability."

"The 4th industrial revolution is connectivity and data. To my mind, data is new natural resource. India is naturally blessed with 1.3 billion people. Data in raw form is useful but it has to be processed...we are in the beginning of an era where data is the new oil...it has immense potential to bring benefit to the people.”

Speaking at the Nasscom Summit on Wednesday, he also said that US President Donald Trump could be a blessing in disguise. His protectionist moves will get India’s IT industry to focus on solving local problems, The Economic Times reported him saying.

Also Read: Mukesh Ambani Gets Candid About Jio & How His Kids Boss Over Him

"We should remain open to global trade and not be influenced by changes in a world where walls are being built," Ambani said.

He termed mobile phone as the “technology of the century” and said that combined with machine learning and language processing, it would redefine the quality of information.

Ambani further said that Aadhaar has enabled the company to acquire a million customers a day. “Individual identity in terms of Aadhaar serves us in multipurpose ways,” Ambani added.

The RIL head told Indian entrepreneurs that they should focus on solving problems and not get disheartened by failures.

(With inputs from PTI)