Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) Chairman and Managing Director (MD) Mukesh Ambani on February 7 said Reliance Jio has become the largest investor in the digital space in West Bengal.
Speaking at the 2019 Bengal Global Business Summit, Ambani said: “Bengal was the cradle of industrialisation in India over a century ago. Now, the time has come for your state to become a leader to the Fourth Industrial Revolution.”
Jio had rolled out “world-class infrastructure with bouquet of affordable services” to help rapid adoption of the technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, Ambani said.
Ambani highlighted that Reliance’s investment of Rs 28,000 crore in West Bengal accounts to about one-tenth of the conglomerate’s total investments in India so far. RIL’s investment in the state was Rs 4,500 crore in 2016, he said.
“Jio has thus become the largest investor in the digital space in this state,” he added. The RIL Chairman said the conglomerate is planning to further invest over Rs 10,000 crore.
Ambani announced that 100 percent of the state’s population is likely to be covered with the Jio network by the end of 2019.
“For Jio, digital rejuvenation of rural markets is a priority. Jio has close to 1 lakh active Business Partners across Bengal. Now, in yet another unique initiative, we have set up “Jio Points” as a direct distribution channel in deep rural markets, to cater to the growing rural market and each and every village in West Bengal,” he said.
“With these Jio Points, we will have brick and mortar presence in every tehsil of the state to serve every single village. As we speak today, 350 Jio Points are already operational and we will target a 1,000 by the end of the year,” he added.