RIL may foray into agriculture, education and healthcare: Mukesh Ambani

After his successful push into the telecom sector, Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani is looking to venture into areas such as agriculture, education and healthcare to set the stage for the next phase of growth for Reliance Industries.

Ambani, who ventured into the telecom sector with Reliance Jio Infocomm last year, said Jio is not a loss-making proposition and is well on course to turning profitable as the company is already ahead of schedule in terms of the returns it is generating.

Speaking at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit in New Delhi on Friday, Ambani said businesses involve some risks that are related to the product and the consumer and ''there's no need to cry so much'' over losses – that businessmen should be ready to take setbacks in their stride.

He was responding to Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Mittal blaming Reliance Jio Infocomm for the telecom industry's woes.

Jio disrupted India's telecom sector with ultra-cheap offerings that made data available to millions of Indians and made India the largest consumer of data in the world, ahead of even the US and China. Ambani said that India is now No 1 in the broadband connectivity index as against 150th before Jio's launch.

The Mukesh Ambani group has made investments of $60 billion in recent times, largely through Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, which helped India leapfrog into the world's largest data network.

''We have nearly completed this investment cycle. We are now ready to commit even more in our next investment cycle. We are doing this out of our undiminished conviction that India is the biggest investment opportunity in the world,'' Ambani said at the Summit.

Going forward, Ambani said, Reliance will look at issues that create more and more value, like agriculture, education and healthcare.

''As we move forward, we will look at issues that create more and more value for all Indians. I think agriculture is difficult; education is important; healthcare is the most difficult. We can only think about what we can do in each of these areas,'' he said.

''What we did with Jio, not many in the world had backed us but... India in terms of the data infra will be ahead of the US by 2019,'' he added.

Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman of Bharti Airtel Ltd, which has been locked in a fierce turf battle with Jio, said in a recent interview with The Economic Times that Jio has made the industry write off as much as $50 billion since its launch.

Ambani, however, believes that the industry should not be dependent on regulations or policies for profits.

''For all of us within the industry, profits and losses are risks that we take. I don't think that we can rely on regulators or governments to make profits. For us, the most important (thing) is: do we really move the country forward and does the consumer gain? So, even if there are profits and losses, who gains and who loses? If the consumer gains and the country moves forward, it is worth taking those losses. Some of us are big boys, we can afford that,'' he said.

Ambani also said that India potentially offers the world's largest investment opportunity as data connectivity and artificial intelligence converge to trigger a new industrial revolution that could vault Asia's third biggest economy past China and the US in economic prosperity. This convergence has the potential to transform agricultural productivity, healthcare services and education to empower a new generation.

''Data is not only the new oil, data is also the new soil,'' said Ambani.

His blueprint for the next industrial revolution involves use of digital infrastructure and technology in the farm sector to bring about a green revolution by rejuvenating soil and improving efficiency in supply chains. In the education sector, mobile and data services through Jio and artificial intelligence could connect students in remote villages to faculty in the most advanced universities for delivering personalised lessons. In healthcare, data connectivity can help in delivering health services remotely.

"Today, Indians consume more mobile broadband data than users in the USA and China," he said. "If Data is Destiny, New India is well and truly ready for its new Tryst with Destiny."

India, Ambani suggested, can use digital technology to leapfrog in all sectors of the economy - be it financial services, commerce, manufacturing, agriculture, education and healthcare.

"As internet becomes accessible to all Indians, I believe we will be among the first to graduate to the Internet of Everything," he quipped.

The RIL chairman also said money never meant much to him and he has never carried money since childhood, adding that "I have somebody around who pays for me"