Reliance Industries Ltd will invest ₹75,000 crore in the next four years in UP across telecom, retail and new energy businesses, Mukesh Ambani said during his UP Investor Summit 2023 speech in Lucknow today. He said these new investments will create an additional over 1 lakh jobs in the state. "The golden period of UP is getting started," said the tycoon.
He said Reliance's investments in the state have generated 80,000 direct and indirect jobs so far. "Thanks to your (Prime Minister Narendra Modi's) far-sightedness, regional imbalances are fast disappearing. Uttar Pradesh is a shining example of this. The divide between urban India and rural Bharat is also closing," said Ambani.
Reliance will continue to work for UP, said the businessman, adding that RIL has always backed its words with action. “When I last visited the summit in 2018, Reliance was just beginning its journey in UP. I had committed to Yogiji that Reliance will be a reliable partner. True to our word, we have invested ₹50,000 crore in UP."
Ambani said Reliance Jio will complete its rollout of 5G to cover every town and village in UP in 10 months from today. “Jio Platforms will help modernise all areas of business and industry, agriculture, the social sector, and governance.” It also plans to pilot two new innovative initiatives – Jio School and Jio AI Doctor – to bring top-class education and healthcare most affordably to villages and small towns across the state of UP.
He said Reliance's businesses have not only been a growth multiplier, as they enable several sectors of the economy to grow, but also an employment multiplier.
India is on a very strong growth path, said Ambani, while citing four major reasons to support his argument, which are technology adoption, a larger youth population, disappearing regional imbalances and unprecedented hope among people.
Indians are embracing technology at a rate unseen even in the developed world, he said, adding that India's economic fundamentals are “strong” and that it's now time for all enterprises to “step up on the accelerator”.
On the recently announced Budget 2023, Ambani said it has led the foundation for India's emergence as a developed nation. "It stands out for its highest ever resource allocation for building the foundation for the country's growth in terms of capital expenditure," said Ambani.
RIL had posted a profit of ₹15,792 crore for the quarter ending December 31, 2022, down 14.9% year-on-year (YoY). However, its revenue rose 13.3% to ₹220,592 crore versus ₹191,271 crore in the corresponding period last year on continued growth in consumer businesses, higher realisation in O2C business, along with nearly 2x growth in the oil and gas segment.
The company has already lined up its new round of investment, around ₹3.5 lakh crore, to build the 5G ecosystem, four Giga factories for the solar energy business, and for ramping up retail and FMCG and petrochemicals businesses. It plans to foray into the end-to-end financial services business through Jio Financial Services.
Besides, Ambani allocated ₹75,000 crore to build four Giga factories at the Dhirubhai Ambani Green Energy Complex in Jamnagar, to create 100GW of solar energy by 2030. The renewable investments will also set off RIL’s carbon footprint from the petroleum and petrochemical business. In the recently held annual general meeting (AGM), he announced the company will turn net carbon zero by 2035.