The biggest challenge for India has been to make sure that all citizens have access to the basic necessities of life. The NDA government in the last seven years has been working in this direction to provide each citizen the basics—a roof over their head, water in the tap, power in the switch, toilet in their house, a bank account, access to health benefits, a motorable road to their house, education for their children etc.
One of the biggest needs of any individual today is a smartphone and an Internet connection. Reliance Jio has been the pioneer in transforming India through their 4G network whereby every Indian has got access to almost unlimited data, at less than Rs 100 per month. A huge number of Indians have taken up this offer and today an average Indian smartphone user consumes 16GB of 4G data per month, one of highest in the world.
Although an estimated 750 million people in India have access to Internet, about 250-275 million do not have access to high-speed internet because they cannot afford a 4G smartphone. The great thing about India is that across 1.38 billion people, who are all consumers, there can be unbelievable demand, provided the price point comes to a level where they can all afford to buy a 4G smartphone.
The launch of the new Jio phone gives such Indians an opportunity to make a transition from a feature phone to a smartphone and get all the attendant benefits. Jio has very smartly created a new OS (Pragati) along with Google, reduced the cost by a huge margin in the production of a smartphone, and is giving nearly 250 million Indians a great incentive to move from 2G to 4G.
This transition will be seminal as all consumers who have a 4G smartphone can enjoy the benefits of making money transactions easily and getting huge quantum of video data, besides access to online learning tools and a lot more on the Internet. The Internet, after all, has become the transformative platform for the world and is ushering in a digital revolution.
We are in the midst of this digital revolution and India is certainly leading the way, for this revolution to take deep roots across all segments of society. The digital revolution will connect all consumers and producers across the world, bringing them onto a single platform, giving them the benefits of a truly global market and a truly global network.
Therefore, it is crucial that India ensures each individual has access to a smartphone and almost unlimited data plan at a price they can afford. And, Reliance Jio and the Jio phone do exactly that.
The launch of the Jio phone will transform India, create a single platform of 4G users—where almost every single phone will be a smartphone. It will also allow the transition to a 5G network almost seamlessly because the 4G network is built upon an intelligent layer whereby changes in the software can enable the transition to 5G at a much lower cost. And, 5G promises to give us much higher download speed and therefore, in many ways, significantly improve our productivity.
The Jio phone will give access to markets to those Indians who had a feature phone till now, at a much lower cost and without any hassle. It will allow them to buy and sell—and ensure they have an equal share in the Internet growth story and get to reap its many benefits. For a while now, the Jio phone remains the biggest technological breakthrough in the digital era.
The author is Chairman, Aarin Capital Partners. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the stand of this publication.
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