Possibilities for Assam are aseem: Full text of Mukesh Ambani's speech at Advantage Assam 2.0 summit

RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani at the Advantage Assam summit in Guwahati on Tuesday.

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) chairman Mukesh Ambani on February 25 announced that the company will invest Rs 50,000 crore across five different verticals in Assam over the next five years. He was speaking at the Advantage Assam business summit in Guwahati.

Here's the full text of his speech from the summit-

Most Respected Prime Minister Shri Narendrabhai Modi ji, Assam's Dynamic Chief Minister Honourable Shri Himanta Biswa Sarma ji, respected Dr. Jaishankar, respected Shri Sarbananda Sonowal ji, respected Shri Jyotiraditya Scindia, respected Governor Shri Lakshman Prasad Acharya, respected Shri Manik Saha, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen, 'sokolore proti nomoskar!'

It is an honour to be speaking again at the Advantage Assam summit. Before I begin my address, I want to sincerely pray to Maa Kamakhya, the Goddess of energy and creation, not only to bless all in Assam but to bless all of India.

Param Aadaraneeya Pradhan Mantri Shri Narendra Modi ji, the title of this summit is Advantage Assam. But the greatest advantage for every Assamese and every Indian is that we are blessed with your visionary leadership. In the past 11 years, you have brought four unique advantages to
Assam ...

Advantage 1: You have brought Assam and the rest of northeast from the periphery to the centre of India's developmental map. You have yourself visited the northeast over 70 times ─ more than any other Prime Minister in the past.

Advantage 2: You have given an inspiring new mantra to Assam ─ 'Act EAST, Act FAST, and Act FIRST'. Assam, indeed, has the potential to develop so fast that the southeast Asia and the East Asia will begin to look westwards towards Assam as the land of growth opportunities.

Advantage 3: You have heralded an unprecedented era of Connectivity Revolution in Assam and northeast. Not only physical connectivity, not only Digital connectivity, not only developmental connectivity but above all, you have promoted emotional connectivity between the people of this region and the rest of India.

Advantage 4: You have made technology the main driver of development. Because of the popularity of Assam Tea, until now Assam is known as the tea paradise. In the coming years and decades, I'm sure Assam will be known to the world also as a technological paradise.

Assam's tech-savvy youth will give a new meaning to AI in the coming decades. AI will not only mean Artificial Intelligence but will mean also Assam Intelligence.

Honourable Chief Minister Shri Himanta ji, under your passionate and youthful leadership, Assam has emerged as one of the fastest growing states in India. When you recently came to meet me in Mumbai, you said, "Mukesh bhai, it is not enough that Assam grows at double-digit rate. It should double in size in the shortest time and double again every time. I will not rest until I make Assam a mega economic powerhouse."

Your words convinced me that your vision for the future of Assam is bold and extraordinary. And I said to myself, "When Assam is setting such an ambitious goal for itself, how can Reliance in the industry stay behind?"

Dear participants in this summit, in the previous Summit in 2018, Reliance had committed an investment of Rs 5,000 crore in Assam. Since then, our investment in the state has exceeded Rs 12,000 crore. In the coming years, Reliance will more than quadruple this investment in
Assam to over Rs 50,000 crore over the next 5 years in the following five priority areas.

Our first priority is to make Assam tech-ready and AI-ready. For us, Assam's digital transformation is a noble and patriotic mission. Jio has made Assam not only 2G-mukt but 5G-yukt. We are very grateful for the people of Assam to adopt Jio with their heart. After building world-class connectivity infrastructure, we will now install high-performance computing infrastructure.

Reliance will establish an AI-ready Data Center in Assam, which will benefit - students with AI-assisted teachers, patients with AI-assisted doctors, agriculture will benefit from AI-assisted farmers and AI will help Assam's youth to learn from home and earn from home.

Our second priority is to make Assam a hub of clean and green energy. This will include Nuclear Energy, in line with the government’s new policy to invite private participation in the nuclear industry. And Reliance will build two world-class hubs of Compressed Biogas (CBG) over wastelands in Assam. This will produce 8 lakh tonnes of clean biogas annually, enough to fuel 2
lakh passenger cars every day.

Our third priority is to help Assam become a major supplier of food and non-food consumer products to national and international markets. We will set up a Mega Food Park, which will add value to the abundant agricultural and horticultural produce of Assam.

We have already set up a world-class bottling plant in Assam for our Campa Cola and Independence range of packaged drinking water.

Our fourth priority is to double the number of Reliance Retail stores in the  state from existing 400 to 800 stores in the next 5 years.

Our fifth priority is to boost high-end hotel and hospitality economy in Assam. Reliance will build a luxurious, seven-star Oberoi hotel in the heart of Assam.

These five mega initiatives will also create tens of thousands of direct and in-direct employment opportunities for the youth in Assam.

Friends, today, I am also pleased to announce a philanthropic initiative by Reliance Foundation.
Assam has a rich heritage of arts and crafts. It is one of the largest producers of bamboo, which is called 'Green Gold'. And Sualkuchi, the center of Assam's famous silk Industry, has the
potential to grow manifold in generation of incomes and jobs. Reliance Foundation, together with our 'Swadesh' stores, would like to collaborate with the state government to promote this heritage.

Most esteemed friends, I conclude by affirming that the possibilities for Assam are aseem (they
are limitless). I assure our Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji and the Chief Minister
Shri Sarma ji that Reliance will continue to remain a proud and dependable partner in this mission.

And I again end with my sincere prayers to Maa Kamakhya to bless us all.

Thank you!