For Reliance, sustainable profits and social responsibility go hand in hand

Mukesh Ambani

An annual general meeting of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) always has its share of big announcements. In that regard, the 46th AGM of India’s biggest company held on Monday was no different with RIL underlining a slew of measures that would enable it to maintain its unassailable leadership position in the Indian corporate landscape for more time to come.

However, underlining all the ambitious proclamations pertaining to telecoms, retail, financial services and clean energy, and also, the mentioned changes in RIL’s board composition with Akash Ambani, Isha Ambani and Anant Ambani joining the board, and Nita Ambani stepping down from her board position, was a clear message from Reliance chairman Mukesh Ambani. His strong belief that sustainable profits and social responsibility can go hand in hand, exemplified through every business decision of Reliance being guided not just by how much it would benefit the company but also how it could better the lives of India’s 1.4 billion citizens, including the most marginalised among them.

For Reliance that has always been driven by the mantra of “faster, higher, stronger–together” (to borrow the latest motto of the Olympics), the announcements pertaining to its telecoms business related to the launch of “JioAirFiber” on the auspicious occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi and the decisions to create India-specific AI solutions and almost 2,000 MW of AI-ready computing capacity would open up for it new opportunities in the home broadband and the highly promising generative AI arenas. And, by extension, further cement Jio’s dominant position in the telecoms space which it entered just seven years back.

Good news for investors

From an investor standpoint, the telecoms business-related announcements would continue to keep them optimistic about Reliance coming up with an IPO for the telecoms business sooner than later. Seen from the perspective of average Indian citizens, the expansions proposed by Reliance in the telecoms space would democratise access to technology and enable a larger number of common people to leverage technology to better their quality of life.

The Reliance chairman’s announcement that Reliance Retail, at its current valuation, would rank among the top four companies in India and top retailers globally would bring loads of cheer to the investor community and as with telecoms, keep them hopeful that a Reliance Retail IPO would not be delayed much longer. The huge investments that Reliance Retail has been able to attract, including most recently from Qatar Investment Authority, would also raise overall goodwill for the business among citizens.

The announcement pertaining to Jio Financial Services – that was recently demerged from the parent RIL – entering the insurance segment, potentially in collaboration with global majors, would gladden the hearts of investors given the potential that the insurance business holds in a largely underinsured country like India. The proposed entry of Jio Financial Services in the insurance space would be one of the best news possible for Indian citizens considering that, going forward, this could lead to more competition among insurance providers, the launch of more innovative insurance offerings at affordable price points, and, also, an overall improvement in customer services.

For a country grappling with ways to counter pollution, the Reliance chairman’s announcement of RIL’s plan to establish 100 compressed biogas (CBG) plants in the next five years that would consume 5.5 million tonnes of agro residue and organic waste thereby mitigating nearly two million tonnes of carbon emissions would prove immensely beneficial. The fact that RIL has already commissioned the first commercial-scale CBG plant at Barabanki is further good news in that connection.

A strong foundation has always been the secret to the ongoing success of Reliance. The decision to elevate the younger Ambanis to the RIL board is in the fitness of things since Akash Ambani, Isha Ambani, and Anant Ambani have already demonstrated that they, under the mentorship of their father Mukesh Ambani, are more than capable of taking the Reliance legacy forward.

(Disclaimer: Moneycontrol is a part of the Network18 group. Network18 is controlled by Independent Media Trust, of which Reliance Industries is the sole beneficiary.)

The writer is a current affairs commentator.