Reliance’s AGM 2020 displays its indomitable spirit
Imagine Reliance Jio asking, “What pandemic?” and we wouldn’t be surprised at all. Because it looks like the homegrown oil-to-telecom conglomerate is operating in a parallel universe even as the economy is having a tough time.
So far, Reliance Industries’ telecom arm Jio Platforms has raised over Rs 1 lakh crore by selling a 25.24% stake to a host of reputed international entities such as social media giant Facebook, private equity company KKR, and UAE’s sovereign body Mubadala
Following the traction generated by such hefty foreign investments that the conglomerate received in the last few months, Reliance recently became India’s most-valued private company and crossed a market-cap of Rs 12 lakh crore
For long, Reliance Industries Limited has had the reputation of setting grand plans and turning them into reality, which does justice to the investors’ trust and expectations of it. Isn’t how Jio took over millions of subscribers from Vodafone and Airtel proof? But that was just the trailer. Picture tab bhi baaki thi aur ab bhi baaki hai. And its Annual General Meeting 2020 is proof.
Overview of RIL AGM 2020
On 15th Jul 2020, Reliance Industries Limited held its first virtual Annual General Meeting on JioMeet. The most striking feature of RIL AGM 2020 was Jio’s many firsts — a chatbot, 2-way live streaming, and a brilliant virtual platform — which allowed simultaneous login of over a lakh shareholders from 500 Indian and overseas locations. Call it a brilliant marketing tactic, but these and Reliance’s other goals were literally like the icing on the cake. Let’s take a look at them.
JioMeet, Reliance Industries Limited’s cloud video conferencing platform
Reliance’s very own cloud video conferencing platform, JioMeet was downloaded by 5 million users till the time. It is designed on the lines of Zoom and Google Meet, and would find a lot of use now when most Indians are working, studying or socialising via online platforms.
When you look closely, you can see that JioMeet’s design is very similar to Zoom. Here’s an interesting comparison of JioMeet and Zoom posted by madovermarketing on their Instagram profile.
Educative chatbot powered by Jio Haptik
To help stakeholders participate in the live AGM without any issues, RIL had launched an educative chatbot powered by Jio Haptik, which users log in to the live event. Jio Haptik was equipped to address 50,000 querists simultaneously via text and video. RIL was the first company to use such technology at an AGM in India.
Google, Reliance Industries Limited’s new marque investor
Ambani also took the opportunity to speak about Google, another big name in the digital realm who will invest Rs 33,737 cr for a 7.7% stake in Jio Platforms. Combined, the funds raised via these foreign investments make Reliance Industries a zero net-debt company, ahead of the schedule. Though there is no dearth of smartphones and decent internet plans in the country, accessibility and affordability continue to be matters of issues at the heart of migrating to the digital world.
Jio5G, making millions of Indians 2G mukt
The search engine giant Google and Jio have agreed to jointly develop an entry-level affordable smartphone and optimise Android OS and PlayStore to enhance smartphone penetration in India. The Operating System would offer 350 million Indians using a 2G feature phone with an affordable, entry-level 4G/5G smartphone. This would make India 2G mukt, which then brings us to Jio 5G — the technology that would enable you to connect all your electronic devices such as fridge, TV, microwave oven, and washing machine to your smartphone. Continue to read what would make investors bet on RIL after its AGM here.
