Last Updated on Mar 24, 2021 by Manonmayi
Imagine Reliance Jio asking, “What pandemic?” and we wouldn’t be surprised at all. Because it looks like the homegrown oil-to-telecom conglomerate is operating in a parallel universe even as the economy is having a tough time.
- So far, Reliance Industries’ telecom arm Jio Platforms has raised over Rs 1 lakh crore by selling a 25.24% stake to a host of reputed international entities such as social media giant Facebook, private equity company KKR, and UAE’s sovereign body Mubadala
- Following the traction generated by such hefty foreign investments that the conglomerate received in the last few months, Reliance recently became India’s most-valued private company and crossed a market-cap of Rs 12 lakh crore
For long, Reliance Industries Limited has had the reputation of setting grand plans and turning them into reality, which does justice to the investors’ trust and expectations of it. Isn’t how Jio took over millions of subscribers from Vodafone and Airtel proof? But that was just the trailer. Picture tab bhi baaki thi aur ab bhi baaki hai. And its Annual General Meeting 2020 is proof.
This article covers:
JioMeet, Reliance’s cloud video conferencing platform
Educative chatbot powered by Jio Haptik
Google, Reliance Industries Limited’s new marque investor
Jio TV+, a holistic viewing experience
Jio5G, making millions of Indians 2G Mukt
Jio Developers Program, venture into software development
Jio Glass, dipping into the waters of Mixed Reality solutions
JioMart, bringing together retail kirana owners and customers
Conclusion, upholding environmental wellbeing
Overview of Reliance AGM 2020
On 15th Jul 2020, Reliance Industries Limited held its first virtual Annual General Meeting on JioMeet. The most striking feature of Reliance AGM 2020 was Jio’s many firsts—a chatbot, 2-way live streaming, and a brilliant virtual platform—which allowed simultaneous login of over a lakh shareholders from 500 Indian and overseas locations. Call it a brilliant marketing tactic, but these and Reliance’s other goals were literally like the icing on the cake. Let’s take a look at them.
JioMeet, Reliance Industries Limited’s cloud video conferencing platform
Reliance’s very own cloud video conferencing platform, JioMeet was downloaded by 5 million users till the time. It is designed on the lines of Zoom and Google Meet, and would find a lot of use now when most Indians are working, studying or socialising via online platforms.
When you look closely, you can see that JioMeet’s design is very similar to Zoom. Here’s an interesting comparison of JioMeet and Zoom posted by madovermarketing on their Instagram profile.
Educative chatbot powered by Jio Haptik
To help stakeholders participate in the live AGM without any issues, RIL had launched an educative chatbot powered by Jio Haptik, which users log in to the live event. Jio Haptik was equipped to address 50,000 querists simultaneously via text and video. RIL was the first company to use such technology at an AGM in India.
Google, Reliance Industries Limited’s new marque investor
Ambani also took the opportunity to speak about Google, another big name in the digital realm who will invest Rs 33,737 cr for a 7.7% stake in Jio Platforms. Combined, the funds raised via these foreign investments make Reliance Industries a zero net-debt company, ahead of the schedule. Though there is no dearth of smartphones and decent internet plans in the country, accessibility and affordability continue to be matters of issues at the heart of migrating to the digital world.
Jio5G, making millions of Indians 2G mukt
The search engine giant Google and Jio have agreed to jointly develop an entry-level affordable smartphone and optimise Android OS and PlayStore to enhance smartphone penetration in India. The Operating System would offer 350 million Indians using a 2G feature phone with an affordable, entry-level 4G/5G smartphone. This would make India 2G mukt, which then brings us to Jio 5G—the technology that would enable you to connect all your electronic devices such as fridge, TV, microwave oven, and washing machine to your smartphone.
While the trials of Jio5G are to start soon, Mr. Ambani promised to deploy the technology in just the next year. Is that even realistic? Well, experts say that this plan will likely face a major hurdle of spectrum allocation, an altogether different battle between telcos and the government. But as mentioned, Reliance Industries Limited has had a reputation to turn its bold ambitions into reality. So, let’s see what’s in store for Jio and its existing and potential subscribers.
Jio TV+, a holistic viewing experience
In its AGM 2020, Reliance also shed light upon Jio TV+, which telecasts a host of media forms such as TV channels, movies, and shows from various services, apps. The application hosts 12 OTT names such as Amazon Prime, Voot, Netflix, Hotstar, SonyLiv, JioCinema, JioSaavn, Zee5, and YouTube to give viewers a holistic viewing experience.
Jio Developers Program, venture into software development
Reliance is looking to imprint its operations in almost every domain of the market including software development and application market. For instance, Reliance Industries has launched Jio Developers program, a scheme that allows developers to develop, launch, and monetize their apps. For more details, visit http://developer.jio.com. Further, Jio App Store on the Set-Top Box would give users access to a host of applications related to health, cooking, education, entertainment, yoga, and religion.
Jio Glass, dipping into the waters of Mixed Reality Solutions
Jio is also looking to test the waters of Mixed Reality Solutions and its demo in the AGM looked promising. Jio Glass, Reliance’s potential cutting-edge technological product, is a Mixed Reality Solutions that offers an immersive viewing experience.
This comes at a time when educational institutions across the countries are conducting online classes. Together with JioMeet, Jio Glass would redefine the teaching-learning process by bringing together teachers and students in 3D virtual rooms and allowing instructors to conduct holographic classes in real-time. Imagine learning in such classes, we would certainly love it!
JioMart, connecting retail kirana owners and consumers
Last but not least, JioMart. While this offering is available for users in beta in 200 cities across the country, Mr. Ambani didn’t leave the opportunity to reiterate and promote the online platform that would disrupt the retails sector. By the way, JioMart would put Reliance in stiff competition with Amazon and Flipkart, the e-commerce giants that already have strong foundations in the domain.
For the uninitiated, JioMart is Reliance’s online platform that brings together retail kirana owners and customers to transact groceries. The platform works closely with WhatsApp to offer a seamless and convenient selling and buying experience. Further, JioMart would benefit from the widespread physical network of Reliance retail that already exists.
Conclusion, upholding environmental wellbeing
Apart from the many firsts and several bold ambitions that Reliance Industries made known to its shareholders in its virtual Reliance AGM 2020, the oil-to-technology conglomerate also upheld environmental wellbeing. Stressing that clean and affordable energy is the need of the hour, Mr Ambani announced that Reliance Industries Limited aims to become net carbon-neutral by 2035.
Woah, that was a lot to digest but we hope Reliance Industries Limited delivers its promises and continues to offer value to its stakeholders.
