I tried some back of the envelope calculation on the investment, return and payback period and the numbers are really worrying if not scary! With the current as-is trend and with basic assumptions, the pay-back seems to be not less than 10+ years. I can understand the growing concerns of the RIL investors – the Jio investments may not give them a nightmare but, surely, some investors may be losing their nights’ sleep.

However, investors have massive faith and trust on Ambani and the investments are made largely on his or RIL’s name rather than on any business feasibility analysis.

However, times are changing. Although Ambani has also transformed the group and Jio is of a different category altogether, just building scale as entry barrier will not ensure success.

Apart from petrochem, Ambani has successfully built the organised retail business. Though Reliance Retail is a $10 billion plus business, with the Flipkart-Walmart deal, questions are being raised if Reliance has missed the e-commerce bus or got the calculations wrong.

It seems questions are being raised on the Reliance chairman’s wisdom. It is also a well-known fact that Mukesh Ambani has an emotional connect with the telecom business, and that the company has been meticulously re-building the business for nearly a decade, after RCOM had to be renounced in the family settlement. Are the investors paying the price in RIL chairman’s emotional investments?