Reliance Jio will pioneer the 5G revolution in India in the second half of 2021, said Mukesh Ambani on Tuesday in the inaugural speech at the India Mobile Congress 2020. Sharing his ideas to make India the world’s preeminent digital society with ease of living for all, Reliance Jio chairman said the country is among the best digitally connected nations in the world, and in order to maintain the lead, policy steps are needed to accelerate an early rollout of 5G, and to make it affordable and available everywhere. 

Ambani asserted that the Reliance Jio 5G network will be powered by indigenous-developed network, hardware and technology components. Jio’s 5G service will be a testimony to the government of India’s Atmanirbhar Bharat mission, he added. 

“I can say with utmost confidence that 5G will enable India to not only participate in the fourth industrial revolution but also to lead it,” said Mukesh Ambani at IMC 2020. 

Ambani also requested the government to urgently work on policy steps needed to ensure that underprivileged people on 2G network shift to affordable smartphones so they too can reap benefits such as direct benefit transfer into their bank accounts, and actively participate in the digital economy. 

“As the digitalisation of the Indian economy and Indian society picks up speed, the demand for digital hardware will grow enormously. India has developed world-class strengths in chip design. I clearly foresee India becoming a major hub for state-of-the-art semiconductor industry. When all the stakeholders work together, we can surely ensure that India’s success in hardware will match our success in software,” said Ambani, emphasising that India should not rely on large-scale imports of digital hardware.