Reliance Industries unleashes a full-scale war in the mobile business by blurring the divide between voice and data. But its entry as a harbinger of radical change is sullied by grave questions of regulatory negligence that has stifled competition.
MUKESH AMBANI, chairman, Reliance Industries Ltd, with wife Nita and son Akash arriving for the company's annual general meeting in Mumbai on September 1, where he announced his audacious foray into mobile phone services.
Mukesh Ambani, The Chairman, managing director and largest shareholder of the biggest Indian conglomerate, Reliance Industries Ltd, set the cat among the pigeons on September 1 when he announced an audacious foray into mobile phone services. In an address to company shareholders, but which was carried far beyond by live feeds on 'IV channels, Ambani announced that the company's subsidiary Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd would launch its much-delayed mobile services from September 5.
Ambani's speech can be broadly parsed into three sets. First was the general homilies about how Jio would transform Digital India. The second set of issues pertained to how Jio would enable popular access to data, the new currency of enlightenment and empowerment as he described. The third was his promise to obliterate the distinction between data and voice on his network, what in technical terms has been described as IT convergence and has accelerated over the last decade.
Ambani waxed eloquent on how Jio planned to transform India by enabling cheaper access to data. Data, he said, were the "digital oxygen" and he said Jio's service would enable India to move from a situation of data shortage to one of data abundance. While commentators have dissected Jio's data plans and shown them to be not very different from that of its competitors (see story on page 16), Ambani's killer punch to competition was the virtual elimination of the distinction between voice and data traffic on the Jio network.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der September 30, 2016-Ausgabe von FRONTLINE.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent ? Anmelden
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der September 30, 2016-Ausgabe von FRONTLINE.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent? Anmelden
How Not To Handle An Epidemic
The lockdowns were meant to buy time to put in place appropriate health measures and contain the coronavirus’ spread, but they have failed to achieve the objective and heaped immense misery on the marginalised sections of society. India is still in the exponential phase of the COVID-19 infection and community transmission is a reality that the government refuses to accept.
Tragedy on foot
As the COVID-19-induced lockdown cuts the ground beneath their feet in Tamil Nadu, thousands of migrant workers are trudging along the highway to the relative safety of their upcountry homes.
Sarpanchs as game changers
Odisha manages to keep COVID-19 well under control because of the strong participation of panchayati raj institutions and the community at the grass-roots level under the leadership of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
Scapegoating China
As the COVID-19 death rate spikes and the economy tanks in the United States, Donald Trump and his advisers target China and the World Health Organisation with an eye to winning the forthcoming presidential election.
New worries
Kerala’s measured approach to the pandemic and lockdown has yielded results. But it still has to grapple with their huge economic impact on its economy, which it feels the Centre’s special financial relief package does little to alleviate.
No love lost for labour
Taking advantage of the lockdown and the inability of workers to organise protests, many State governments introduce sweeping changes to labour laws to the detriment of workers on the pretext of reviving production and boosting the economy.
Capital's Malthusian moment
In a world that needs substantial reorienting of production and distribution, Indian capital is resorting to a militant form of moribund neoliberalism to overcome its current crisis. In this pursuit of profit, it is ready and willing to throw into mortal peril millions whom it adjudicates as not worth their means—an admixture of social Darwinism born of capital’s avarice and brutalism spawned by Hindutva. .
Understanding migration
When governments and their plans are found to be blatantly wanting in addressing reverse migration, exercises such as the Ekta Parishad’s survey of migrant workers throughout India can be useful to work out creative long-lasting solutions.
Waiting for Jabalpur moment
The Supreme Court’s role in ensuring executive accountability during the ongoing lockdown leaves much to be desired. Standing in shining contrast is the record of some High Courts.
An empty package
The Modi regime, which has been unable to control the COVID-19 infection, restore economic activity and provide relief to millions exposed to starvation, trains its sights on Indian democracy, making use of the panic generated by fear and a lockdown that forecloses paths of resistance.