Asked about issue regarding Pakistani artistes: Mukesh Ambani says nation always first

Mumbai:Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani today said the nation should come first and not arts and culture.

“I am absolutely clear about one thing – that for me it is always country first. I am not an intellectual so I don’t understand all these. But undoubtedly like for all Indians, India is first for me,” Ambani said here tonight.

The billionaire businessman was answering questions from the audience on ban on Pakistan actors and other artistes at a digital media show event.

Asked whether he will join politics, Ambani replied in the negative, saying “I am not made for politics.”

On Jio venture

Ambani said his new telecom venture Jio is a well thought-out and well-engineered business, while terming the trouble with interconnectivity as similar to a meritorious student “getting ragged”.

“It is a well thought-out, well executed, well engineered ecosystem. It is a Rs 2,50,000 crore investment,” Ambani said.

He was replying to a question.

About the troubles Jio had with the regulator and the incumbents, he said, “Yes we had troubles” and compared it to a bright student getting admission into prestigious institute on merit but getting ragged in the hostel for being meritorious.

“You have to take it in the right spirit. There is a principal and there is an ecosystem so there is a governance system…I’ve no problem as long as I or Reliance get ragged, you are the big boys and you can take it but the consumer should not suffer and I think that is what Jio is doing.”

He said the group had already pumped in Rs 2.5 trillion into his second attempt at telecom, offering highspeed 4G services with focus on data.

Stating that Jio meets all the criteria of investment that Reliance has set out openly, Ambani said, “Reliance at this scale and size will not do anything that does not create huge societal value. At the end of the day I strongly believe that the society gives the licence to operate and making only money is not the licence.”

He reiterated that Reliance’s consumer businesses, which consist of digital services, media and entertainment and retail, in the next few years will be as big as its energy business.

On whether Jio had disrupted the telecom market with low data tariffs, Ambani said, “What I really don’t understand is that you progress from generations of technology. It is not new as we had announced it in 2010-11.

“We didn’t do anything on stealth. In all my AGMs we have said we are going to bring the Internet to the masses because I firmly believe that the benefits of technology should go to the end-consumer,” he said.

Jio had brought about an opportunity for all incumbent operators to work together and take the nation to the next level of digital revolution, Ambani said.

PTI