RELIANCE REIMAGINED

India's largest company continues to grow in its traditional and consumer-facing sectors, but its digital businesses, data capabilities, and seamless connectivity will drive the next phase

- KRISHNA GOPALAN

FOR RELIANCE Industries Ltd, which closed FY23 with consolidated revenues of `9,74,864 crore, the decade gone by was about new ventures that gave the B2B conglomerate a healthy appetite for consumer-facing businesses.

In the year to March 31, 2023, Reliance’s bed rock, the refining and chemicals operations (which it calls oil to chemicals or O2C), fetched over 60 per cent of its revenue, while the rest primarily came from retail and digital. Looking into the future, Reliance Chairman & MD Mukesh Ambani told shareholders at its annual general meeting on August 28 that his three children—twins Isha and Akash (31) and Anant (28)—will be inducted into the board of Reliance, which retains its No. 1 spot on the BT500 list this year.

This clear succession planning lays the groundwork for the next decade, at least when each of its diverse businesses has to be reimagined to ensure revenue growth on a larger base and make them more profitable.

DIGITAL, DATA AND MORE

When Ambani rolled out his Jio telecom business in 2016, it brought down tariffs sharply, launched a new technology, and became the largest player with over 440 million subscribers. He had launched telecom under the Reliance Infocomm banner in 2002, but it was given to his brother Anil in the 2005 split of the Reliance empire.

Jio disrupted the industry and continues to grow on a large base. Those familiar with the con