Highlights Of RIL AGM: JioPhone, Akash And Isha Ambani
As all the eyes at the Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) annual General meeting were on the launch of much awaited JioPhone, RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani shifted all the limelight to the next generation Ambani Twins, Akash and isha Ambani, by formally introducing the force behind Jio.
"The average age at Jio is 30 years. Jio is a creation of the young, by the young and of the young. Akash and Isha, both 25, our directors at Jio, have been hands-on leaders. They represent the large contingent of less than 30 years at Jio,"Mukesh Ambani said in his address to the RIL AGM introducing his two children as the camera panned and zoomed to the siblings, who were sitting along with Nita Ambani, Kokilaben and youngest brother Anant.
Isha and Akash, who are directors of the new telecom venture launched the JioPhone.
Reliance Jiophone
Mukesh Ambani, on Friday announced the launch of ‘intelligent smartphone’ for the effective price of Zero. The phone will be available for beta testing from August 15.The pre-booking for the phone will start from August 24 and it will be given away on a first-come-first-served basis. It will be available for all from September.
“The JioPhone will be available to all Indians for an effective price of Rs zero,” Ambani told the company’s 40th Annual General Meeting here. The phone will be available from Jio Infocomm, a fully-owned subsidiary of RIL.
“I had challenged our young engineers at Jio to find a disruptive Indian solution to this problem. What they came up with, stunned me. And it will stun you. Today, Jio is going to reinvent the conventional feature phone. With a revolutionary device, an unmatched Indian innovation, Made in India, by young Indians and for all Indians. Let me introduce India ka Intelligent SmartPhone — Presenting Jio Phone,” he added.
The phone will come with free voice calls and SMS to customers. For 4G data, customers need to pay Rs 153 per month. To make it more affordable, the company would also introduced a weekly plan for Rs 54 and a two-day plan for Rs 24.To get the phone, customers have to pay a Rs 1,500 as security deposit which would be refunded to a user after three years when the phone is returned.
The phone will support 22 Indian languages and can be connected to any TV to watch videos.
“Our young Jio engineers have created an innovation to help them — a special and affordable ‘JioPhone TV cable’ that connects JioPhone with any TV, not just a smart TV, so that all JioPhone users can enjoy viewing on the big screen of their existing television sets. Along with this accessory, users can opt for the existing Jio Dhan Dhana Dhan Rs 309 pack that would allow users to watch almost three-four hours of videos daily, of their choice, on a large screen.”
Targeted at the 50 crore mobile users in the country, the phone will be a real disrupter for the cheap mobile phone market and will put additional pressure on existing operators on data prices.
“The new offerings will help significantly in overcoming the existing challenges of driving data usage beyond the urban, high usage customers. We believe that the feature phone will be a compelling attraction for those customers for whom device prices were a hurdle for shifting from a 2G to a 4G service,” said Rajan S Mathews, Director General, Cellular Operators’ Association of India.
“At Rs 153 with unlimited data, the offer is attractive and it will surely put pressure on the existing operators. At the same time, this will put pressure on the handset and the cable industry too, which will be compelled to match this price point,” he added.
The mood was upbeat as Ambani announced that “Jio, in next 12 months, will cover 99 per cent of our country’s population.”
He further added that the telecom sector in India took 25 years to build 2G network for customers but “Jio will do 4G in three years”.
The company said, it will open 10,000 Jio offices, across every city and tehsil town of India and will cater to over 10 lakh physical retail outlets that sell Jio services. In addition, we will integrate with all major e-commerce platforms,” he added.
At present Jio has 125 million customers across the country.
“This was the fastest adoption of any technology service, anywhere in the world. Faster than even Facebook, WhatsApp and Skype,” Ambani said adding that Jio has more than 100 million paying Jio Prime customers.
"Reliance dedicates JioPhone to the nation on the joyous occasion of India@70 - the 70th anniversary of India's Freedom and offers it to over 50 crore data-deprived mobile feature phone users in India. Digital Life will no longer be the privilege of the affluent few," Ambani added.
Rewarding Shareholders
Going down the memory lane, Ambani took an opportunity to describe how from its beginning as a textiles start-up, RIL has now created “multiple growth engines”, he told shareholders at the 40th AGM here that the company’s “net profit went from Rs 3 crore to Rs 30,000 crore” during the period. Ambani said its net profit index had jumped 10,000 times during the last 40 years.
“RIL’s market capitalisation has grown from Rs 10 crore in 1977, to over Rs 5 lakh crore now, at a compound annual growth rate of 32 per cent,” he said.
With that note Ambani announced a 1:1 bonus shares for RIL shareholders. In a regulatory filing.
The company said bonus would be issued by “capitalisation of its reserves in the ratio of 1 bonus equity share of Rs 10 each fully paid-up for every 1 existing equity share of Rs 10 each fully paid-up (that is in the ratio of 1:1).”
It was after eight years, company announced bonus shares.
The company’s shares closed trading at Rs 1,586.20 per share, up 3.76 per cent on the Bombay Stock Exchange on Friday.
Remembering Dhirubhai
Ambani ended his speech on an emotional note as he dedicated the 40 years to the founder Chairman and his father, Dhirubhai Ambani.
In an emotional speech, he said: “For the first 25 years, I sat by the side of my father, who tutored me with boundless affection, attention and hope. I can feel as if he is sitting here, smiling and talking to me and to all of you. I hear him telling me… Now, you are in my place. You have the responsibility to protect Reliance and promote the interests of all its shareowners, partners and employees. I am confident that you will take Reliance to greater height.”
Before ending his speech, he said: “Dhirubhai lives in our hearts for eternity. Let us welcome Dhirubhai again to this AGM.”
It was an emotional moment as his mother Kokilaben Ambani, who was present in the audience, burst into tears as cheering shareholders were heard shouting “Dhirubhai Zindabad!”
