Reliance Industries (RIL) Chairman Mukesh Ambani noted the transformative impact of Jio’s technological advancements and the company’s initiatives to furthering India’s digital landscape in the RIL's Annual Report for 2024.
“With the launch of Jio 4G in 2016, we set out on a journey to make digital inclusion in India a reality. Jio turned a Data Dark India into a Data Rich nation, supplying every Indian home with affordable, high-speed 4G data,” he mentioned in RIL’s Annual Report for FY24.
Ambani especially noted the introduction of JioBharat phone to be a big step towards bridging the digital divide. Positioned as a smartphone at the price of a feature phone, the JioBharat phone, he mentioned is designed to provide affordable, high-speed internet access to those still using 2G networks. This initiative aligns with Jio’s vision of creating a “2G-mukt Bharat,” or a 2G-free India, and has already captured 50 per cent of the market share in its price segment, he said.
In addition to expanding digital connectivity, he mentioned that Reliance is heavily investing in advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), robotics and natural language processing.
Ambani spotlighted Jio’s role in positioning India as a global innovation hub, leveraging these evolving technologies to drive growth and development.
In FY24, Reliance’s Digital services revenue and EBITDA growth in FY 2023-24 were 11 per cent and 12.7 per cent year-over-year (YoY), driven by an expanding subscriber base and the scaling up of digital platforms. Customer engagement on the Jio network saw a decent rise, with average per capita data usage reaching 28.7 GB and voice usage hitting 1,008 minutes per month across a total subscriber base of 481.8 million for the quarter ending March 2024.
The Annual Report noted that Jio Platforms and its subsidiaries have filed for 1,255 patents and were granted 144 patents in FY2023-24. This brings the cumulative count of granted patents to 331 as of March 2024. These patents cover a wide range of cutting-edge technologies including 6G, 5G, AI, large language models, deep learning, big data, devices, IoT, and NB-IoT. Among the notable new product launches by Jio are JioBharat, JioSpaceFiber, JioCloudXP, JioGamesCloud, JioCloudPC, JioMotive, JioSafe and JioTranslate.
