Dial Data For Disruption

Democratised data will help unleash the next phase of economic growth, believes Mukesh Ambani, and he is pulling out all the stops to make this digital-age currency affordable and available to every Indian

- Aveek Datta & Harichandan Arakali

Data is the new oil: When Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), made that statement at the Nasscom India Leadership Forum in February 2017, what he meant was that, simply put, data has the same power to fuel human capabilities which oil has had over the last five decades. He should know: Ambani is, after all, the leader of India’s largest company by turnover, which has generated billions of dollars in wealth over the years by refining crude and manufacturing petroleum products.

At the same forum, Ambani also said it was only four years ago that he “truly understood the true meaning of the term exponential”, adding, “I believe we are on the verge of exponential change, where we have the opportunity to solve large problems in a short span of time.”

Few would have imagined how the key themes of Ambani’s talk—data and exponential change—could come together to change the paradigm of India’s telecommunications industry and alter the way in which Indians consume data. Yet, over the last one year—since Reliance Jio Infocomm (Jio), RIL’s broadband wireless and digital services company commenced operations—that is exactly what has happened.

It took Jio a while to get to this point.