Mukesh Ambani - CMD, Reliance Industries Ltd.

Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani – business tycoon, industry icon, respected leader… Many are the adjectives that can be associated with the Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries Limited, India’s largest private sector company.

FAMILY
Born on April 19, 1957 in Yemen, Mukesh Ambani is the elder son of the legendary Dhirubhai Ambani. He grew up with 3 siblings, Anil, Dipti and Nina. The passion of their father was balanced by the softness and love of their mother, Kokilaben and the prudence and practicality of Mukesh Ambani’s wife, Nita. In subsequent years, daughter, Isha, and sons, Anant and Akash, were beloved additions to their home.

EDUCATION
Mukesh Ambani did his schooling from Abaay Morischa School, Mumbai and went on to earn a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering degree from UDCT, Mumbai. His choice of education reflected his father’s philosophy of investing in businesses of the future.

To prove to the world that Mukesh Ambani could do whatever he put his mind to, he applied and got accepted by some of the top universities when he applied for their Master of Business Administration course. Eventually, he chose Stanford University as his alma mater, but his growing entrepreneurial instinct urged him to drop out and help his father with his polyester plant.

Even while pursuing the challenging chemical engineering course, Mukesh Ambani was actively involved in his father’s company. As soon as he joined the company formally in 1981, he became one of the main impetuses for the company’s gargantuan progress.

EMERGENCE OF THE ENTREPRENEUR
Reliance’s backward integration from textiles into polyester fibers and further into petrochemicals was Mukesh Ambani’s brainchild. Reliance’s Jamnagar Refinery in Gujarat, which is now the world’s largest grassroots petroleum refinery, was directed under his watchful gaze. He was the force behind the creation of 51 new, world-class manufacturing facilities encompassing diverse technologies that increased its annual manufacturing capacity from less than a mission tons to over thirteen million tons. Currently, the refinery has a manufacturing capacity of 60,000 barrels per day.

Dhirubhai’s dream project, Reliance Infocomm, which is looked after by brother, Anil Ambani, after the company split in 2005, was also entrusted to Mukesh Ambani in its earlier stages.

Mukesh Ambani’s next strategy is to take a giant leap into the retail with stores across the country.

ACHIEVEMENTS AND ACCOLADES
Mukesh Ambani’s popularity clearly shone forth in 2007, when he was selected as Businessman of the Year by a public poll conducted by NDTC. In the same year, he was presented the United States-India Business Council (USIBC) Leadership Award for Global Vision in Washington D.C., USA as well as the Chitralekha Person of the Year Award by the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Shri Narendra Modi. The same year also saw him recorded as India’s first trillionaire.

Rewinding his life, Mukesh Ambani was chosen as Economic Times Business Leader of the Year in 2006 and ranked 42nd among the World’s Most Respected Business Leaders and 2nd among the four Indian CEOs featured in a survey conducted by Pricewaterhouse Coopers and published in the Financial Times, London in 2004.

He was also conferred with the World Communication Award for the Most Influential Person in Telecommunications by Total Telecom and chosen Telecom Man of the Year by Voice and Data magazine in 2004. He ranked 13 in Fortune Magazine’s Asia’s Power 25 list of the Most Powerful People in Business and topped the Power List published by India Today for the second consecutive year.

LOCAL KING
In spite of managing the country’s biggest private sector company, Reliance Industries Ltd., Mukesh Ambani’s sight is currently on the Indian market alone. His vision is clear – he wants to expand rapidly within the country and change the lives of its people for the better. However, his focus extends beyond merely size increase to value generation and upscaling.

The MODERN INDIAN PHILANTHROPIST
Mukesh Ambani is regarded as the ‘modern day philanthropist’, whose paragon actions have inspired and cultured a socially sound community today. As the saying goes, ‘A man’s true wealth here-after is derived by the good he does in this world’; Mukesh Ambani has persistently held social welfare through corporate social responsibility (CSR) and charitable deeds in high esteem. He believes in industrious innovations that transform society; and that unless a business has a larger purpose that serves the millions readily, sustainable growth is impracticable.
The Reliance Foundation, spearheaded by Mukesh Ambani and his wife Nita Ambani, is one of India’s largest corporate run social organization that addresses social development imperatives of India; namely quality, formal and vocational education, affordable high-quality health care, meaningful rural development and urban renewal, and protection and promotion of India’s priceless heritage of arts and culture.

The VALUE CREATOR

Mukesh Ambani run Reliance Industries Limited has been accorded with the second position in the list of world’s 10 biggest ’sustainable value creators’. By generating the largest shareholder value in terms of market capitalization, Mukesh Ambani and Reliance Industries Limited, both, are held as the finest corporate entities of the world today.

Mukesh Ambani has for long regarded ‘value-addition’ process as primal to any business establishment. He affirms that unless a business admits value; in regards to its products, services, work force, shareholders and end users, a business’s worth is futile. With the influx of this belief into tangible action at RIL, Mukesh Ambani’s conviction has been proven true as Reliance climbs high on prosperity charts, becoming India’s most trusted and value-rich brands today.

THE STORY WITH NO END
Mukesh Ambani dons a cap with many feathers, but he carries them with grace and panache. At 53 years, his sheer energy is enough to take one’s breath away. Having achieved so much, Mukesh Ambani remains hungry for more. So, he continues to create, continues to build and continues to shine brightly on India’s business horizon.

The Reliance Digital store at Moments Mall Kirti Nagar, in the city of Delhi is all set to welcome actor Imraan Khan, Katrina Kaif and Ali Abbas Zafar today(5th September 5, 2011) at 5:00 PM. The actors and their team will visit the store for the promotion of their latest flick Mere Brother ki Dulhan. The cast is expected to interact with the crowd and media at the promotion event.

This Reliance Digital Store is the latest addition to the electronics chain. The store was launched on 3rd September. As a part of special launch festivities, Reliance Digital has put in place exclusive launch offers which range from price-offs and discounts to exchange offers. As a part of the ‘Mismatch Exchange’ scheme, customers can bring in their old refrigerators, washing machines and television sets in exchange for any of the latest electronic product from the store. Reliance Digital is also offering a special purchase scheme where customers can take home any product of their choice at an easy EMI of just Rs. 51. And every purchase will be backed by Reliance Digital’s customer support team at ‘Reliance resQ’, available 365 days a year.

About Reliance Digital:
Reliance Digital is a one stop shop with cutting edge technology for the entire range of household electronics, appliances, computers, gaming and telecom products. Reliance Digital Stores house over 150 international and national brands and over 4000 products. The range at Reliance Digital spans, Audio and Video products (TV’s, DVD players, Car Audio players), Electronic Musical Instruments and Digital Cameras, Gaming Consoles, Computers and Peripherals, Mobile and Fixed line instruments, Durables like, Air Conditioners, Refrigerators, Water Purifiers, Kitchen and Home Appliances.

Chairman and Managing Director of the country’s biggest private sector entity Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), Mukesh Ambani is setting an example for moderation in managerial compensation levels. He has kept his annual salary at Rs 15 crore , foregoing Rs 24 crore from the remuneration approved for him by shareholders.

Ambani has not deviated from this salary level since the fiscal year 2008-2009. In the recently published annual report the company said that, “The Chairman and Managing Director’s compensation has been set at Rs 15 crore as against Rs 38.93 crore that he is eligible as per the shareholder’s approval, reflecting his desire to continue to set a personal example for moderation in managerial compensation levels.”

Mukesh Ambani is eligible for a pay package of Rs 38.93 crore from the last fiscal year. His actual salary is 23.93 crore lesser than the pay package.

In the last fiscal year of 2011-2012, Ambani had foregone his salary by Rs 23.93 crore. He had decided to stagnant his salary at Rs 15 crore in Oct 2009. There was a debate on-going at that time that discussed the right-sizing of CEO salaries. He was the country’s top paid executive when he decided to cap his salary which dropped from Rs 44 crore to Rs 15 crore in the year 2008-2009.

His remuneration includes Rs 4.16 crore as base salary, Rs 60 lakh towards prerequisites and allowances, Rs 89 lakh as benefits and Rs 9.35 crore as commission.

Apart from this, RIL’s total payments towards the annual compensation for its top managerial positions for the year 2012-2013 also remained same at Rs 44 crore. This compensation was hiked from Rs 41 crore to Rs 44 crore in the preceding year. The top executives of RIL , namely Nikhil Meswani and Hital Meswani are paid 11 crore each. Other executives like PMS Prasad and P K Kapil will be given Rs 5 crore and Rs 2 crore as their annual remuneration for the current fiscal year.

Overall, the employee strength of RIL has increased in comparison to last year. So, the overall staff cost at consolidated level rose considerably to Rs 5,179 crore from Rs 3,955 crore in 2011-2012. The total number of employees rose from 23,166 to 23,519 in this current year. The company has recently hired 75 management graduates and 436 engineers from campus selection drives in the last fiscal and the numbers will rise in future.

Here, it has to be noted that RIL is coming up with its 4G services in India soon. The company will also expand its overall employee strength to take care of the future expansions in Reliance Retail and Reliance Jio Infocomm.

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) is gearing up to enter the defence space of India by investing and signing new deals with global market players to procure offset management of defenceequipments. With reports floating that there are apparent changes happening in the country’s defence procurement by giving more prominence to private sector companies, MukeshAmbani led RIL is already setting the sails according to the winds.

Reliance already has set up Reliance Aerospace Technologies and Reliance Security Solutions back in 2011.In order to come up with new strategies in the defence play, MukeshAmbani is planning to invest about $1 billion in the aerospace field over the next three years. The company is also planning to recruit2,000 engineers.

Gauging more opportunities ahead, RIL has also inked a deal with Boeing. Apart from this deal, RIL had also partnered with Dassault Aviation in 2012, to enter defence and home land security sectors in India. The country’s largest private conglomerate had applied for license to design, develop and manufacture equipments and components for military and civilian aircraft.

The objective behind both these deals by RIL was to get offset projects from global names that are looking forward to have a stake in India soon. Dassault Aviation and Boeing are already in contract with Indian Air Force and Indian Navy respectively. Dassault has to supply 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft whereas Boeing has to supply 20-24 P81 aircrafts.

Both these companies are in offset arrangement pact with RIL. According to the government’s defence procurement policy, the multi-national companies are bound to plough back to India a fixed percentage of the value of the contract they win from Indian defence.

The future of RIL in the defence sector doesn’t remain confined to winning offset projects only. It further plans to incubate tier-2 and tier-3 companies that provide components to tier-1 companies manufacturing the original equipment. According to report published by KPMG, Indian defence market is expected to be worth $94 billion by 2020. So, it is the correct time for RIL to enter this market.

The other players in this market are Tata Advanced Systems Limited, Larsen and Toubro, Kirloskar Brothers, Mahindra Defence Systems and Ashok Layland. But with RIL entering this space, as experts say, it has the capacity to replicate the same phenomenon it created in oil and gas market of the country.

Time will only tell this new defence story for Reliance Industries.

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL)’s retail business arm, Reliance Retail will execute further expansion of its digital format stores in Tier -1 and Tier- 2 cities across the country. Mukesh Ambani led RIL is considering the digital sector as one of its prime contributing factors for the growth verticals of its retails business. Reliance Retail had crossed Rs 10, 000 crore turnover milestone in 2012-2013 fiscal as per the annual report of the company.

Furthermore, Reliance Digital will add more stores to its name and also come up with a new chain of stores under the brand name of Reliance Digital Express. Currently, Reliance Digital operates a total of 139 stores, out of which 46 were added in the last fiscal year. Essaying the overall performance and future of Reliance Retail, Mukesh Ambani said, “We are delighted to see our retail business achieving a milestone of annual revenue crossing Rs 10, 000 crore in FY 2012-2013. Our revenues have grown by 42 percent on a year on year basis.”

Another important thing for this retail arm is that it has turned EBITDA positive last year. In the last fiscal, the company has opened 184 new stores in the country, the total number which now reaches to 1466 stores.

RIL is keen to capture the market of consumer durables, IT and telecom (CDIT) segment ,the estimation of which is forecasted to reach Rs 2,15, 000 crore by 2016. The company is also looking forward to strengthen its client service arm ResQ along with its expansion of stores.

“Digital sector would be one of the growth verticals for the coming year. Reliance Digital Stores and Digital Express stores would be rolled out in Tier-1 and Tier-2 cities and would bring a world class shopping experience for consumers.” RIL stated in its Annual Report for 2012-2013. It also mentioned that the penetration of CDIT products in the Indian markets is comparatively slow as compared to other developing markets. But the belief prevails that as the disposable income increases, more people would adopt technology products. New technology innovations and trends will drive the replacement and overall market behavior.

The company will also focus on multi-product, multi- brand servicing at multiple locations. For this, it will strengthen ResQ, the service arm of the digital format. ResQ brings in strong service orientation towards meeting the requirements of the customers during the entire product life-cycle. Reliance Retails is currently growing at a rate of 10 percent each year.

Mukesh Ambani is keen to make Reliance Retail one of the leading retail chains of the country as well as is investing huge amounts to bring a world-class shopping experience for Indian consumers by bringing international and multiple brands under one roof.

Reliance Jio Infocomm, the telecom arm of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has cleared its mode of operation by finalizing on the key pacts that will drive the company once 4G services are rolled out all over the country. It has decided on the key agreements with its technology partners and device manufacturers prior to the launch of its 4G services. Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and managing director of RIL has said that the project has acquired the basic infrastructural requirement for its launch across India. He also stated in the Annual Report for 2012-2013 that Reliance Jio Infcomm Ltd (RJIL) will provide reliable and fast internet connectivity to citizens across the country.

“RJIL has completed the detailed planning for Pan India implementation of the infrastructure needed for the project, “he said. He also added that RJIL has also finalized key agreements with its technology partners, service providers, infrastructure providers, application partners, device manufacturers and other strategic partners for the project.

Speaking about the enormous potential waiting to be captured by 4G services, Ambani emphasized on the fact that India has the capability and talent to surpass the world and become a leader in the delivery of digital content. In 2001, there were less than 5 million mobile phone users, while today India has more than 860 million mobile users. However, the same rate of growth has not been achieved in the growth of broadband connections. “Today, broadband in India has only around 1 percent market penetration as compared to other countries”, Ambani said.

RJIL is the sole player telecommunication player in the market today that owns Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) spectrum that will be helpful in providing fast Internet connectivity across the country.

RJIL has decided to provide reliable , fast internet connectivity across the country and offer end to end solutions that addresses the entire value chain across various digital services in key domains of national interest such as education, healthcare, security, financial services , government –citizen interfaces and entertainment.

Further plans of RJIL are to use Time Division Duplex-Long Term Evaluation (TDD LTE) technology for its nation-wide next generation network deployment to provide connectivity and related digital services to its customers.

Overall, the launch of 4G services is not the only package coming fromRJIL, but it will focus on providing all the components of the entire digital value chain.

Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Industries Limited (RIL ) is going to invest $5 billion for the development of the oil and gas fields in KG-D6 blocks located near Bay of Bengal.

This investment will be used by a series of projects that will cumulatively result in higher output of natural gas and oil from these basins. In the annual report of 2012-2013, MukeshAmbani said, “We are planning to invest in a series of projects to develop around 4 trillion cubic feet of discovered natural gas resources from the block.”

Along with their European partner BP Plc, RIL has agreed to governmental plans to bring to production satellite fields in the eastern offshore KG basin block to raise the output of the natural gas and oil production. “The field development plan for the R-Series project (in the KG-block) has been submitted to the Government of India for approval. This along with other projects is expected to add incremental production in the next four to five years.” he added.

Various activities like work-overs, side tracks and compressor addition have been taken up to accentuate the current rate of production. In the existing infrastructure, the search for new blocks has begun. The production from this new-found well will add to the overall result in the next four-five years.

RIL had originally discovered 18 gas fields in the area. From this, Dhirubhai-1 (D-1) and Dhirubhai-3 (D-3) are the highest productive blocks. Various base management actions like work overs, side tracks, compressor, enhancement of water handling capacity will be taken up to maintain and upscale the productivity of D-1, D-3 and MA fields. RIL said, “ The next wave of projects in KG-D6 block are envisaged to e undertaken over the next three to five years and entail potential total investment in excess of USD5 billion to develop around 4 trillion cubic feet of discovered natural gas resources.”

There are a series of projects in the pipeline for the next phase of oil and gas development one of which is satellite discoveries in KG-block. The company also plans to invest a huge amount in the block enhancement plans.

The vision of Mukesh Ambani behind this expansion plan is to make India completely import-independent. “We believe gas from these projects will deliver energy to millions of Indians and would significantly help India in reducing import dependence.”Ambani said. The company also said that by the end of 2012, fields in KG-block had produced 2 TCF of gas and 22 million barrels that saved nearly USD 35 billion in energy imports.

Apart from this, the company also looks for new opportunities globally that strategically fit with its integrated value chain. RIL aspires to become one of global top ten independent hydrocarbon producers.

Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Jio Infocomm is gearing up for its launch by the end of this year. To make this launch smoother and faster, Reliance Jio Infocomm is striking deals for infrastructural benefits at a stupendous speed. The recent one is with Nimbuzz – the messaging platform on mobiles. This messaging platform of Nimbuzz helps to compile the phone book contacts of the mobile device with all other social media and email contacts to enable messaging on all these diverse platforms without any hindrances.

Vikas Saxena , CEO of Nimbuzz feels that this messaging platform has great potential and it can work incredibly well when gelled up with speed and 4G networks. He says, “The kind of speeds that I have seen on 4G demonstrations is fantastic. If only India allows us to launch voice over IP phone calls, Nimbuzz will be attaining new heights.” Reliance Jio Infocomm is planning to integrate Nimbuzz onto mobile devices which are separately formulated for its 4G services.

In the mobile advertising industry, the revenues have grown by 350 percent in the last year and it is expected to grow more in the upcoming years. If voice over IP telephony is allowed in India, Jio Infocomm will be able to offer voice telephony using VoIP and Nimbuzz can play an important role in designing the required apps. Jio Infocomm already has the license to offer voice telephony using VoIP, but some more clarity is needed as to how it will bundle voice telephony alongside its broadband internet access.

As per Saxena, “This deal is a win-win situation for both.” Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has also signed deals with other players to gear up the launch of first of its kind services in India. It has signed deal with Samsung to design 4G compatible mobile phones that are priced at a medium range. To use the existing infrastructure, Reliance has also partnered with Reliance Communications to use the latter’s fibre optic cable network spread across the country. It will also use its mobile towers for the initial time phase. To reach out to International borders, a deal with Bharti Airtel has also been signed to use its submarine cable network. However, these deals will be useful until Reliance comes up with its own indigenous network. According to Mukesh Ambani, initial investment on infrastructure demanded more time and effort which was delaying the launch of the services.

Reliance Jio Infocomm will be first soft launched in metros like Delhi, Mumbai and Banglore. After this initial phase, Reliance plans to cover the whole country by the end of 2015 with its fourth generation services.

Vodafone Group Plc and Reliance Jio Infocomm have formed a consortium along with a group of telecom carriers to set up an undersea cable system to connect Southeast Asia with the Middle East, across the Indian Ocean.

This 8,000-km-long Bay of Bengal Gateway (BBG) undersea cable system will also have connections that would reach out to India and Sri Lanka. Other telecom carriers who joined forces include Dialog Axiata from Sri Lanka, Omantel, Etisalat from the UAE and Telekom Malaysia Bhd. The parties signed the agreement and the supply contract on April 30th in Kuala Lumpur.

This cable system when built would offer upgradeable and transmission facilities with 100 Gbps capability. The cost of the cable system, however, has not been disclosed yet. It is likely to carry commercial traffic by the end of 2014.

Some analysts predict that the upcoming BBG undersea cable system will play a crucial role in breaking the monopoly of the existing operators in the region. In addition to that, it will also minimize the cost of infrastructure for the consortium partners.

This new tie-up is critical for Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries and it gears up for the launch for 4G services in India. Reliance is presently the only company to have permits for 4G services in India. It is expected to launch the 4G high-speed wireless data services later this year and is also seeking international bandwidth.

This shows how telecom companies in India are putting forth their money to set up wireless data networks in a market where only a tenth of the population uses the internet. Although use of data services is growing at a faster rate in India, 80 percent of the revenue earned by telecom carriers is still earned from voice calls.In fact, major Indian telecom operatorscollectively spent $20 billion to acquire 3G and 4G airwaves in an auction that took place in the year 2010.

BBG is a major step towards business growth since it will provide with a backing for present and potential high-end requirements of next generation Internet applications and requirements of surrounding regions.

Apart from providing connectivity between Southeast Asia, South Asia and the Middle East, the BBG undersea cable system will also provide connectivity to Europe, Africa and Far East Asia.This will be carried out through inter-connections with other existing cable systems in India, the Middle East and Far East Asia.

The launch preparations of 4G services (high speed and voice services over fourth generation telecom networks) by Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) are in full throttle. Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Jio Infocom will sign an intra circle fibre pact with Reliance Communications. This pact will inundate RIL with complete connectivity in larger cities.

Under this pact, RIL will have access to over 50,000 towers across the country. According to current plans, the high speed and voice data services over fourth generation (4G) telecom networks will be operational by the end of this year. Mukesh Ambani wishes to launch the telecom services on the birth anniversary of his father, Late Mr. Dhirubhai Ambani.

This is a part of various collaborations made by RIL in order to set up the basic infrastructure for 4G services. The first collaboration was where Jio Infocomm will get access to RComm’s fibre optic cable network spread across the country. One pact with Bharti Airtel has also been signed according to which, Jio Infocomm will have an access to the submarine cable network of the former spreading from Chennai to Singapore. This submarine network will also help RIL to extend its network to USA, as USA hosts 90 percent of the total web content. These cables have a capacity of transmitting over 30 tera bits per second (tbps), from which only 1 percent is used right now.

Apart from this deal, another deal was devised where Reliance Jio Infocomm had hired 32,000 towers from a total of 45,000 towers from RComm. RIL is speculating even meager details for the successful launch of its fourth generation services. These services will change the telecommunication scenario in the country. The strategy devised for the success of these services is to absorb mobile subscribers from different telecom operators by pricing it at lower cost than current prices initially and then giving them more value for money.

It also struck a deal with Samsung to devise medium budget phones which will be specially designed to work according to the standards of fourth generation devices. The services will be launched in three phases-the initial experimental phase will begin in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. The company plans to cover the entire country by the end of 2015. The idea is to skim the market first and then capturing the market at a later stage. RIL doesn’t want to rush into the market first. It is also hiring the telecommunication industry veterans to ensure experienced yet innovative decisions to be taken for the success of this long perceived dream of Mukesh Ambani.

Reliance Industries Limited(RIL) is leaving no stone unturned for the launch of its 4G services under the brand- Reliance JioInfocomm. This yet to be launched high speed and voice services over fourth generation telecom networks led by Mukesh Ambani is already setting new trends. Reliance JioInfocomm has inked a pact with BhartiAirtel to use the latter’s 3,100 km submarine cable i2i connecting Chennai to Singapore.

Reliance will have the sole privilege to use one of the eight fibre pairs of the cable which has a capacity of 8.4 terabits per second (tbps). One tbps can support up to 250,000 units of high definition video conferencing simultaneously across the country. It is suggestive that the capacity is magnanimous that is a pre-requisite for the launch of high speed 4G long term evolution (LTE) services. There is a total capacity of 30 tbpsavailable on the four submarine cables on the route from India to Singapore. However, currently less than one tbps of capacity is being used. This connection to Singapore will help Reliance JioInfocomm to set up future routes to US, Hong Kong and Japan. Experts say that lone connectivity to Singapore won’t suffice the need of web content, as Singapore only hosts 0.3 percent of the total web content.

“Bharti has a submarine cable capacity which is not fully utilized and Reliance can access it without laying its network. This deal might not have any immediate impact, but the deal is future-proof”, said Rishi Tejpal, principle researcher at Gartner.

According to Reliance, this cable will provide direct access and ultra-fast connectivity to major centres over Asia Pacific region. Also, it will help RIL to meet the bandwidth demand and provide ultra fast data experience to its users. The original amount has not been officially declared yet. However there are speculations that the deal would be around $25 million. This pact will accentuate Reliance’s future sign-ups to secure international connectivity for its telecom venture.

Apart from this deal, previously Reliance has already signed a deal of Rs 1,200 crore with Reliance Communications to use its fibre-optic cable network spread across India. It is also in talks to use the capacity of 56,000 towers across the country. These steps will cumulatively speed up the launch of RIL’s 4G services and save on extra costs on infrastructure too.

The government’s decision to offer Z category security cover to industrialist Mukesh Ambani is completely justified. While there has been a fair bit of criticism in the media over the decision, the government has chosen to defend its stand stating that the threat perception is very real.

Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari was also quoted as saying that “security is given only after threat perception assessment.”

Reliance Industries Ltd. chairman Mukesh Ambani had reportedly received death threats from Indian Mujahidin. This is the same terror group that had carried out a number devastating terror attacks across the country including the recent Bengaluru and Hyderabad blasts. Sources reveal that the letter proclaiming the death threat was hand delivered at Mr. Ambani’s south Mumbai residence.

Government sources claim that the decision to provide the high profile security cover, that’s only given to a select few, has been taken only after considerable due diligence and threat analysis by law enforcement agencies including inputs from the Intelligence Bureau which has strongly recommended round-the-clock security cover for Mr. Ambani.

As part of the enhanced security arrangement, the industrialist will now have armed commandos with escort vehicles accompanying him all the time.

If some media reports are to be believed, sources in the Mumbai Police have revealed that Mr. Ambani would be paying for the security cover. The industrialist’s existing security entourage is ill equipped to handle the current threat level both in terms of resource deployment as well as weaponry.

This makes the furore and criticism in some sections of the media over the security cover pretty much uncalled for.

Every law abiding citizen has the right to security cover should there be a direct threat to his or her life. And given the serious nature of the threat, Mr. Ambani does deserve the appropriate level of security.

And to all those who argue that why should Mr. Ambani be given a special cover; why not look at it from the point of view of politicians who are guarded round the clock for little or no contribution towards the country’s progress. If a politician can get security cover for life, then why not for Mr. Ambani who contributes to nearly 3% of country’s GDP.

The home ministry has stated that Mr. Ambani is a “national asset.” With more than 15 lakh people indirectly depending on him for their livelihood, the statement pretty much stands vindicated.