DEAL BETWEEN RELIANCE AND FACEBOOK

WHAT EXACTLY THE JIO AGREEMENT MEANS FOR RELIANCE AND FACEBOOK

FACEBOOK'S PURCHASE OF CLOSE TO 10% STAKE IN JIO MARKS ITS ARRIVAL IN INDIA, BETTERS RELIANCE'S BALANCE SHEET, PERMITS EACH COMPANY TO ACQUIRE FROM THE OTHER'S REACH

Facebook's buy a nearly 10% stake in Reliance Industries digital business unit Jio Platforms shows of the world's biggest internet companies on the table with India's biggest telecom player. The $5.7 billion agreement values Reliance's digital operations at around $66 billion, pushes the Indian conglomerate ahead in its plans of deleveraging its balance sheet while accelerating the launch of its new commerce business. Further, it not only symbols the long-pending formal entrance of its telecom sector but also catapults it to a place among the largest foreign investors in India's technology space.

WHAT DOES THE AGREEMENT RELIANCE INDUSTRIES?

Back in August 2019, while communicating the shareholders at the annual general meeting, Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani had said the batch prepared a roadmap for becoming a zero net-debt company within 18 months. The other main contributors to the debt-reduction plan will be a potential $15 billion agreement Aramco for a 20% stake in Reliance Industries refining and petrochemicals profession 7000 crores sale. however, specialists,the Aramco agreement under threat on account of the oil prices crash caused by the COVID-19 outbreak. Besides the balance sheet de-leveraging, the scheduling agreement facebook is significant for another reason: online platforms selling essential goods have suddenly witnessed an upsurge in demand. Later lockdown, online platforms started to account for 50% of the grocery request country by some estimates before it corrected. We are one of the little industries that got more than enough business but not enough resources. 

WHAT DOES THE AGREEMENT FACEBOOK?

Facebook has been testing years to get its finger in the Internet pie.In 2015, it had assessed free Basics, which supply access to basic Internet services as a partnership with service providers. However, criticized for being a walled garden, it soon pulled out of the idea after differential pricing was disallowed by the telecom sector regulator. It had looked at the possibility of beaming free Internet from the air using a solar-powered drone called Aquila and enabled low-cost high-speed  Wi-Fi in some remote parts of India with an initiative called Express Wi-Fi. But data was expensive in those times, and free Internet access to the Internet was envisioned as the easiest way to bring the next billion users online. Then, Reliance Jio happened. It launched with data rates so low that it became the industry standard in one of the largest online markets in the world. It alone brings 388 million users online, well over a third of what Facebook had organized a partnership with Reliance could also assist book to mitigate the regulatory environment in India, where it has had various skirmishes authorities, including for its major initiatives such as WhatsApp Pay.

WHAT DOES IT SIGNIFY INDIA INTERNET ECOSYSTEM?

The agreements Facebook's arrival elite investors in India's technology space, connecting key of Softbank, Amazon, and Google that has together poured in billions of dollars in Indian tech startups and their own ventures over the years. prior to Jio Platforms, Facebook had invested around $20-25 million in social commerce platform Meesho in 2019 and participated in a $110 million funding round for Edu-tech company Unacademy earlier this year. The agreement Reliance also Facebook access to the latter's bouquet of digital apps. These include in-house apps such as Jio Money, Jio TV, etc in addition to the young startups, receive Reliance or its subsidiaries across classifications such as eCommerce, and artificial intelligence.

WHAT DOES IT CONVEY RELIANCE LOCALISATION PRINCIPLES?

In January last year, speaking at the Vibrant Gujarat Summit, Ambani has stressed that India's data must be controlled and owned by Indian people and, not by corporates, especially global corporations. For India to grow the data evolution we will have to relocate and ownership of Indian data back to India- in other words, Indian wealth back to every Indian. while some have increased over Facebook's track-record on data privacy issues, executives of both companies said Wednesday that data sharing was not a part of the agreement. There will be areas where we potentially not agree with each other. Facebook, on the other hand, conserved its stance an ecosystem for data to flow across boundaries.