Aatma Nirbhar Bharat: Reliance Jio heralds new era for ‘Make in India’ tech innovations

Heralding a new era for the Indian tech ecosystem, Reliance Jio has announced a slew of upcoming homegrown innovations like a 5G solution, interactive Jio TV+, a Mixed Reality (MR) eye-wearable JioGlass and key updates on JioFiber and video meet app JioMeet.

Speaking at the annual general meeting (AGM), Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries, said that Jiofiber, the optical-fiber based, Gigabit-speed home broadband service, has connected over a million homes.

“Our growth will accelerate as we gear up to connect millions more over the coming months in the post-COVID period. Jio’s enterprise-grade voice and data services and cloud-based solutions are bringing Indian SMEs from zero connectivity and zero technology to operating with the same efficiency as large connected enterprises,” explained Ambani.

According to Prabhu Ram, Head-Industry Intelligence Group, CyberMedia Research (CMR), Jio has showcased an unprecedented depth of its technological vision for India’s digital inclusion and further digital transformation.

“In solving for India, Jio is solving for the world. At Jio’s core, is an end-to-end, and indigenously developed clean 5G network, that can be piloted in India, and scaled to the rest of the world. At a time when the world is looking for ‘clean telcos’, Jio has an opportunity to truly disrupt 5G globally,” Ram told IANS.

“Jio’s technology play, comprising products (JioGlass) and solutions (JioMeet), are aimed at enabling education and healthcare. In doing so, they are leveraging the strengths of Jio’s early tech acquisitions,” he added.

Ambani said that in combination with powerful cloud solutions, Jio’s enterprise broadband service is enabling Indian enterprises to make rapid strides towards digital transformation and global competitiveness.

Jio’s Narrowband Internet-of-Things (NBIoT) service is connecting billions of smart sensors with the highest reliability and lowest cost.

“In the next three years, I can see a strong path for Jio to connect over a half a billion mobile customers, over a billion smart sensors and over 50 million homes and business establishments,” said Ambani.

According to Neil Shah, VP Research at Counterpoint, Microsoft Azure Cloud platform could power the Jio cloud and collaboration tool.

“The in-house 5G network stack, Google partnership for affordable Android and JioTV+ are the key announcements. The JioGlass is a great announcement for now but commercialisation, rollout and integration will take time and will run better on fibre or 5G network,” Shah told IANS.