In an announcement signaling a stiff competition to online shopping giants like Amazon and Flipkart, Reliance Jio and Reliance Retail will launch a new e-commerce platform in India. Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director, Reliance industries Limited (RIL) has announced that the new platform will be first rolled out in Gujarat. He said, “The new e-commerce platform will empower and enrich our 12,00,000 small retailers and shopkeepers in Gujarat,” while speaking at an inaugural ceremony of Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit 2019 in Gandhinagar.
Ambani also raised concerns over data colonisation and exhorted Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take steps to ensure that only Indian people control the data and not corporates, especially global corporations. He urged Modi to make this one of the principal goals of the Digital India Mission. He also added, “We have so far invested nearly £30 billion in Gujarat and created over one million livelihood opportunities. In comparison to the past decades, Reliance will double this investment and employment numbers over the next 10 years.”
The e-commerce platform was one of the major initiatives outlined by Ambani, who said these align with Gujarat's future development model. He also spoke about Jio Network, and said, “Jio is committed to making Gujarat fully digital and the best digitally connected state in India.” Stating that Jio's network is fully 5G ready, he said, “This means Gujarat will continue to remain on the forefront of digital connectivity for years to come.” Ambani also added, “Reliance's new business model will move away from concentrated investments in a few locations to much larger investments in a distributed manner all across Gujarat. As the world moves towards electrical vehicles, Reliance will use hydrocarbons less for fuel and more for producing high-value new materials with a wide range of uses in society.”
