Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), at its 46th annual general meeting (AGM) held on August 28, made slew of key announcements, including the appointment of its next generation leaders - Isha, Akash and Anant Ambani - as members of the RIL board, the plans to venture into the artificial intelligence (AI) space, and the launch date of the much-awaited Jio AirFiber, among others.
Here are the top 10 takeaways from RIL AGM 2023:
1. Isha, Akash, Anant Ambani to join RIL board
Mukesh Ambani's daughter Isha Ambani, and his sons Akash and Anant Ambani will be joining the RIL board as non-executive directors. Their appointments received nod from the board of directors in the meeting held earlier in the day, and would come into effect following the approval from shareholders.
2. Jio promises AI to everyone, everywhere
Jio Platforms wants to lead in developing India-specific AI models and AI-powered solutions across domains, thereby delivering benefit of AI to Indian citizens, businesses and government, Mukesh Ambani said while addressing the AGM. "We stand committed to create up to 2000 MW of AI-ready computing capacity," he added.
Ambani also noted that Jio Financial Services, the newly demerged entity, will explore "path-breaking features such as blockchain based platforms and CBDC" through its products.
3. JFS to foray into insurance segment, with potential global partner
Jio Financial Services will enter the insurance segment to offer life, general, and health insurance products, Ambani said in his keynote address. JFS will use predictive data analytics to co-create contextual products with partners and cater to customer requirements in a truly unique way, he added.
4. Jio True5G developer platform and True5G Lab announced
RIL announced the opening up of True 5G developer platform, that will grant control and options to firms to activate network slice on demand, deploy application's on Jio's multi-access edge-compute locations, and access a diverse ecosystem of partner applications on a single suite. The company also said that it would be launching Jio True5G lab, in a bid to ramp up industry transformation with the use of Jio True5G suite.
5. Jio AirFiber launch on September 19; pan-India Jio 5G by December
Jio AirFiber, which is key to the RIL telecom arm's plan to expand its broadband subscriber base in remote areas, will be launched by the company on September 19, when the festival of Ganesh Chaturthi wil be observed. RIL further noted that the pan-India rollout of the high-speed wireless 5G services is to be completed by December.
6. Jio Smart Home services to "redefine our homes"
RIL announced the launch of Jio Smart Home services, which are essentially devices based on JioFiber and Jio AirFiber. This includes a Jio Set-Top box, that would offer TV channels, digital apps, streaming content and large-screen games. This would be supported by a new Jio Smart Home app, that will provide an e-remote for the set top box.
"Over 80% of data consumption in India happens indoors. I’m thrilled to introduce Jio Smart Home services, which is poised to redefine how we experience and manage our homes," Akash Ambani, Chairman, Reliance Jio Infocomm, said.
7. Only Indian retailer in global top 100
Reliance Retail is the "only Indian retailer in global top 100", Mukesh Ambani said, adding that the company is poised for rapid growth in sync with the Indian economy. The retail arm of RIL was recently valued at $100 billion by the Qatar Investment Authority to invest $1 billion. In FY23, Reliance Retail reported an annual revenue of Rs 2,60,364 crore, a 30 percent surge over the last year.
8. Accelerating to achieve net carbon zero by 2035
The RIL chief stressed that the conglomerate has embarked on transitioning its oil-to-chemical business into a sustainable and green business. "We are accelerating our journey to achieve net zero by 2035 through renewables and bioenergy," he said.
9. To pursue wind power, target battery gigafactory by 2026
Wind power generation is on RIL's focus, and the company would be collaborating with global wind equipment manufacturers to provide cost-efficient solutions, Ambani said, adding that as part of the renewables push, a battery gigafactory would be set up by Reliance in 2026.
10. On track to build solar, wind, battery, hydrogen & bio-energy platforms
“We are well on our way to building the New Energy ecosystem of manufacturing solar, wind, batteries, hydrogen, and bio-energy platforms,” the chairman of the conglomerate said, while also noting during this address that the target is to attain 100 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy generation by 2030.
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