Mukesh Ambani says Jio was first thought of by daughter Isha in 2011

business

Updated: Mar 16, 2018 14:03 IST

India’s welathiest person, Mukesh Ambani, said his telecom venture Jio, which has catapulted India as the world’s largest mobile broadband data consuming nation in less than two years, was first thought of by his daughter, Isha, in 2011.

Ambani made the statement in his acceptance speech at an awards function in London on Thursday night.

Since the idea first cropped up, Reliance Industries, which owns and operates the world’s largest single location refinery complex at Jamnagar in Gujarat, has spent more than $31 billion to break into India’s mobile-phone market. The 2016 upstart, called Jio, dislodged rivals and has emerged as the nation’s No. 4 carrier by offering call services free for life and data transmission at rates cheaper than most other players in the market.

Reliance Jio is also gearing up for newer data-heavy services that can connect homes, businesses, and cars to the internet.

With abundant youthful talent, Ambani said India is poised to become the third largest economy in the world by 2028 -- within just a single decade.

“The idea of Jio was first seeded by my daughter, Isha, in 2011. She was a student at Yale, and was home for holidays. She wanted to submit some coursework, and she said, ‘Dad, the internet in our house sucks’,” he recalled.

“Isha and Akash belong to India’s young generation that is far more creative, far more ambitious and far more impatient to become the best in the world. These young Indians convinced me that broadband internet is the defining technology of our age and India cannot be left behind,” he said in his acceptance speech for the ‘Drivers of Change’ award at the Financial Times ArcelorMittal Boldness in Business Awards in London.

Ambani said while the United States pioneered 1G mobile network, Europe ushered in 2G, and China leapfrogged with 3G, Jio has created the largest greenfield 4G LTE-only data network in the world.