10 ms·

I don't see how it's not alarming for Indians that one key person/company connected to the govt is the sole beneficiary of incoming businesses into India.

pankajdoharey 6y ago
Well there are a lot of people who are not aware of the fact and then there are those who are onboard because they are onboard with the government. So the alarmist kind are a minority which media doesn't show. Also 90% of the media channels are owned by the aforementioned person.
- kburman 6y ago
  Man you're commenting full on since yesterday about Indian government. Is there something that bothered you a lot?
  - yati 6y ago
    Why does speaking up about the Indian government inevitably bring up questions like this? Ambani's relationship with this government bothers me a lot (among many other things about any government, particularly this one).
    - newyankee 6y ago
      Sonia Gandhi literally flies in Reliance jets for her Western sojourns but you are only flagging the existing Govt. dishonestly.
      - yati 6y ago
        Sorry, I cannot exhaustively list all possible issues with the country's politicians everytime I have something to say about the current government that is supposed to be accountable to Indians (because they are in power, Sonia Gandhi is not!). Again, I've seen this pattern: Question this government and immediately be branded as a Congress/AAP/$party sympathizer. At best people ask questions like yours, and at worst they come to an agreement that you should immediately leave India and go to Pakistan. This for questioning your government.
      - qazpot 6y ago
        Is Sonia Gandhi PM of India?
        intended 6y ago
        The joke is that rahul Gandhi is the PM of India and he should take responsibility for the state the country is in.
  - omk 6y ago
    The imbalance of power in India can bother a lot of people. There is merit to question someone if their comments aren't in line with facts.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
murukesh_s 6y ago
the person is connected with both the parties. so may be opposition does not dare to mention him. but i personally feel he is lesser evil, especially if you look at the penetration Chinese products and venture money have made in India.
- kranner 6y ago
  How is Chinese venture money more evil than Ambani owning everything?
  - onetimemanytime 6y ago
    >>How is Chinese venture money more evil than Ambani owning everything? Ambani can be dealt with a stroke of a pen when the goverment wants to. China on the other hand...
    - kranner 6y ago
      It's not China, it is Chinese VC money. And no, I don't see that the Government can deal with Ambani so easily, or even antagonise him with impunity. Winning elections cost money and with the new electoral bonds, Ambani can easily fund the opposition in the next elections.
      - onetimemanytime 6y ago
        >>It's not China, it is Chinese VC money. No difference in China. Do what is good for the fatherland or your fiances, you personally and your family will suffer. >>I don't see that the Government can deal with Ambani so easily, or even antagonise him with impunity. So like many he's wayyy to powerful to deal with. But at least he is a local, not jeopardizing India's geopolitics. Just as he can control politicians, they can control him, if/when they want to. They know what he did to become so powerful and can send 500 police officers to his offices to search for evidence if/when...
        6y ago
nigerian1981 6y ago
It’s part of wider assault by Mohdi’s government on the press https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/02/world/asia/modi-india-press-media.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/02/world/asia/modi-india-pre...
- IAmEveryone 6y ago
  I wonder if it's indian nationalists downvoting you for criticising Mohdi. Or US nationalists for expressing sympathies with the press.
  - nigerian1981 6y ago
    Pretty sure it’s Modi supporters. It’s pretty common these days whenever you post anything they don’t approve
ankit219 6y ago
There is a cause for alarm, and some Indians do see that as a threat. Right now, Indian society is caught in a deep web of fake news, false narratives, and the conflating of what the govt is, what the nation is, and the difference between the two. Many competitors have raised a lot of questions about how Jio did not follow the rules (there are a lot to link) the basic one being a rule about giving free plans for more than three months (which was not allowed by TRAI - Indian telecom regulatory authority - previously). but nothing happened, and people were happy with free internet. A lot of these issues are buried under loads of information on the many 24 hour news channels (two of them owned by Mukesh Ambani himself) and then the web of Whatsapp and other online social media helping to shape a narrative. Then there is an average indian feeling pride about how Jio is able to attract such investments. So, some of us may have considered it, and would have spoken about it, but a lot are not really aware. When people do speak against these, they are usually tagged as cynical or contrarian because speaking against a public figure in India is sometimes considered speaking against India. P.S. Sorry for being so vague, but this requires a lot of context to ascertain why it is this way. I dont blame whatsapp or Facebook, just that we are a vulnerable bunch and usually believe what we want to believe.
- kamaal 6y ago
  Most Indians care only about the cheapest workable plan, product, service, while making a purchase. It's not about Jio, it's about the 500 rupees free call, free SMS, free 4G plans. As long as Jio offers it they'll use it. They'll drop it as soon as something cheaper comes around. Mukesh Amabani, is mostly raising money because he had simply too much debt, and he is also getting old. It could also be a part of larger succession planning. His kids are not that much hands-on into business as much as he was with his father. It makes sense to have a Tata Sons Trust like scenario where professional managers runs the companies while the companies are owned through a holding trust owned by his children. The experiment with Anil Ambani's mismanagement and the state he has left his business is a lesson for Mukesh to not let it repeat with his own children.
  - _jgdh 6y ago
    > They'll drop it as soon as something cheaper comes around. My bet - nothing cheaper comes along. Because Reliance's biggest competitive advantage is close links with the government, regardless of the party in power. A hypothetical competitor would find it difficult to get spectrum allocated, have trouble with land usage rights, tax issues like Vodafone had. There is a reason foreign companies set up joint ventures with Reliance, Tata, Birla etc. Ostensibly it's because these companies "understand" the Indian market. In reality, it's because they have spent decades "lobbying" political parties and will continue doing so for several decades more. A company like Sky wouldn't know how to get started with political lobbying, wouldn't be comfortable with outright bribery, can't make a long term commitment to staying in India. So they set up Tata Sky - they supply the tech, Tata supplies the connections.
kumarvvr 6y ago
It's wrong to characterize it as "one person being the sole beneficiary of incoming businesses in India" The recent spate of investments in Reliance JIO, have been just stake purchases. He is selling stake in his company to get capital for expansion. Ambani has signaled that he wants investment to further grow an already rapidly growing empire of media services. A few things are very favorable to Jio a) Due to COVID and the expectation that this pandemic and its ripple effects will be felt for a few years, there is a very high likely hood that new customers will start consuming digital media services. And that is the key. Investments in JIO reflect the fact that it is the only company that has all it's cards right to capture the new user market. b) Also, JIO has been at the cusp of an already rapidly increasing user base, that includes a large portion of rural people. It has seen a massive growth in user base and actual users too (No one is simply taking a phone connection and keeping it. They are actually using their JIO connections to consume content) c) And the pandemic has come at just the right time too. Old guard companies are caught on backfoot. There is tremendous good will in people for JIO. JIO reduced costs 30X for data. It was a game changer. Peoples media consumption in India exploded. d) In addition to this, Reliance group also has its hands in the Media and Entertainment industry. Not to mention retail, FMCG, etc. So, as on date, JIO has the following services fully available to a large and every increasing base of users, this is apart from dead cheap 4G internet connectivity on phones and dongles. 1) Movies 2) TV Channels 3) Retail Shopping, they recently launched a competitor to Amazon. 4) Games 5) Educational content. and a myriad more. But here comes the best part. There are a couple of reasons India tailor made for services. 1. It has a large pre-teen, teen and young adult population, that will dominate consumer markets for at-least 5 decades. 2. It has 28 states, 122 major languages, and similar set of cultural groups. So you have ample amount of scope to localize content and have a good audience for that content. 3. Indians love to indulge in languages and cultures from other parts of India. Punjabi songs are loved all over the country. Telugu cinemas have huge markets in southern states. Tamil movies are revered all over the country. And Indians consume a lot of dubbed content. Including international ones, like Korean etc. So what this means is that media produced for one local culture / language, if received well, has a ready market all over India. This reduces risk and increases rewards. 4. Indians love to consume content. We are a noisy civilization. We consume a lot of content and want new content all the time. Movies are a huge part of the daily lives of rural villages. 5. Large number of people in rural areas have been using smartphones for the past 5 years, thanks to reducing handset costs and usage costs. They are already consuming content on the internet via Youtube, etc. They are a ready market to push content and services too. I suspect JIO is looking for large investments to create new content for its media services and setup a distribution network for it's retail services. Additionally, Reliance is highly respected in India. When the current CEOs father ran the company, millions of middle-class families in India bought houses, cars, got their children married, gathered retirement funds, etc riding on the sheer growth of Reliance as a company. My father was also one of them.
sbmthakur 6y ago
> connected to the govt May I know exactly what sort of connections are we talking about it? Big business families have always had some relationship with politicians in India but they were less evident 2-3 decades back then due to then governments' incline towards socialism.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

pankajdoharey 6y ago

Well there are a lot of people who are not aware of the fact and then there are those who are onboard because they are onboard with the government. So the alarmist kind are a minority which media doesn't show. Also 90% of the media channels are owned by the aforementioned person.

kburman 6y ago
Man you're commenting full on since yesterday about Indian government. Is there something that bothered you a lot?
- yati 6y ago
  Why does speaking up about the Indian government inevitably bring up questions like this? Ambani's relationship with this government bothers me a lot (among many other things about any government, particularly this one).
  - newyankee 6y ago
    Sonia Gandhi literally flies in Reliance jets for her Western sojourns but you are only flagging the existing Govt. dishonestly.
    - yati 6y ago
      Sorry, I cannot exhaustively list all possible issues with the country's politicians everytime I have something to say about the current government that is supposed to be accountable to Indians (because they are in power, Sonia Gandhi is not!). Again, I've seen this pattern: Question this government and immediately be branded as a Congress/AAP/$party sympathizer. At best people ask questions like yours, and at worst they come to an agreement that you should immediately leave India and go to Pakistan. This for questioning your government.
    - qazpot 6y ago
      Is Sonia Gandhi PM of India?
      - intended 6y ago
        The joke is that rahul Gandhi is the PM of India and he should take responsibility for the state the country is in.
- omk 6y ago
  The imbalance of power in India can bother a lot of people. There is merit to question someone if their comments aren't in line with facts.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]

murukesh_s 6y ago

the person is connected with both the parties. so may be opposition does not dare to mention him. but i personally feel he is lesser evil, especially if you look at the penetration Chinese products and venture money have made in India.

kranner 6y ago
How is Chinese venture money more evil than Ambani owning everything?
- onetimemanytime 6y ago
  >>How is Chinese venture money more evil than Ambani owning everything? Ambani can be dealt with a stroke of a pen when the goverment wants to. China on the other hand...
  - kranner 6y ago
    It's not China, it is Chinese VC money. And no, I don't see that the Government can deal with Ambani so easily, or even antagonise him with impunity. Winning elections cost money and with the new electoral bonds, Ambani can easily fund the opposition in the next elections.
    - onetimemanytime 6y ago
      >>It's not China, it is Chinese VC money. No difference in China. Do what is good for the fatherland or your fiances, you personally and your family will suffer. >>I don't see that the Government can deal with Ambani so easily, or even antagonise him with impunity. So like many he's wayyy to powerful to deal with. But at least he is a local, not jeopardizing India's geopolitics. Just as he can control politicians, they can control him, if/when they want to. They know what he did to become so powerful and can send 500 police officers to his offices to search for evidence if/when...
      - 6y ago

nigerian1981 6y ago

It’s part of wider assault by Mohdi’s government on the press https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/02/world/asia/modi-india-press-media.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/02/world/asia/modi-india-pre...

IAmEveryone 6y ago
I wonder if it's indian nationalists downvoting you for criticising Mohdi. Or US nationalists for expressing sympathies with the press.
- nigerian1981 6y ago
  Pretty sure it’s Modi supporters. It’s pretty common these days whenever you post anything they don’t approve

ankit219 6y ago

There is a cause for alarm, and some Indians do see that as a threat. Right now, Indian society is caught in a deep web of fake news, false narratives, and the conflating of what the govt is, what the nation is, and the difference between the two. Many competitors have raised a lot of questions about how Jio did not follow the rules (there are a lot to link) the basic one being a rule about giving free plans for more than three months (which was not allowed by TRAI - Indian telecom regulatory authority - previously). but nothing happened, and people were happy with free internet. A lot of these issues are buried under loads of information on the many 24 hour news channels (two of them owned by Mukesh Ambani himself) and then the web of Whatsapp and other online social media helping to shape a narrative. Then there is an average indian feeling pride about how Jio is able to attract such investments. So, some of us may have considered it, and would have spoken about it, but a lot are not really aware. When people do speak against these, they are usually tagged as cynical or contrarian because speaking against a public figure in India is sometimes considered speaking against India. P.S. Sorry for being so vague, but this requires a lot of context to ascertain why it is this way. I dont blame whatsapp or Facebook, just that we are a vulnerable bunch and usually believe what we want to believe.

kamaal 6y ago
Most Indians care only about the cheapest workable plan, product, service, while making a purchase. It's not about Jio, it's about the 500 rupees free call, free SMS, free 4G plans. As long as Jio offers it they'll use it. They'll drop it as soon as something cheaper comes around. Mukesh Amabani, is mostly raising money because he had simply too much debt, and he is also getting old. It could also be a part of larger succession planning. His kids are not that much hands-on into business as much as he was with his father. It makes sense to have a Tata Sons Trust like scenario where professional managers runs the companies while the companies are owned through a holding trust owned by his children. The experiment with Anil Ambani's mismanagement and the state he has left his business is a lesson for Mukesh to not let it repeat with his own children.
- _jgdh 6y ago
  > They'll drop it as soon as something cheaper comes around. My bet - nothing cheaper comes along. Because Reliance's biggest competitive advantage is close links with the government, regardless of the party in power. A hypothetical competitor would find it difficult to get spectrum allocated, have trouble with land usage rights, tax issues like Vodafone had. There is a reason foreign companies set up joint ventures with Reliance, Tata, Birla etc. Ostensibly it's because these companies "understand" the Indian market. In reality, it's because they have spent decades "lobbying" political parties and will continue doing so for several decades more. A company like Sky wouldn't know how to get started with political lobbying, wouldn't be comfortable with outright bribery, can't make a long term commitment to staying in India. So they set up Tata Sky - they supply the tech, Tata supplies the connections.

kumarvvr 6y ago

It's wrong to characterize it as "one person being the sole beneficiary of incoming businesses in India" The recent spate of investments in Reliance JIO, have been just stake purchases. He is selling stake in his company to get capital for expansion. Ambani has signaled that he wants investment to further grow an already rapidly growing empire of media services. A few things are very favorable to Jio a) Due to COVID and the expectation that this pandemic and its ripple effects will be felt for a few years, there is a very high likely hood that new customers will start consuming digital media services. And that is the key. Investments in JIO reflect the fact that it is the only company that has all it's cards right to capture the new user market. b) Also, JIO has been at the cusp of an already rapidly increasing user base, that includes a large portion of rural people. It has seen a massive growth in user base and actual users too (No one is simply taking a phone connection and keeping it. They are actually using their JIO connections to consume content) c) And the pandemic has come at just the right time too. Old guard companies are caught on backfoot. There is tremendous good will in people for JIO. JIO reduced costs 30X for data. It was a game changer. Peoples media consumption in India exploded. d) In addition to this, Reliance group also has its hands in the Media and Entertainment industry. Not to mention retail, FMCG, etc. So, as on date, JIO has the following services fully available to a large and every increasing base of users, this is apart from dead cheap 4G internet connectivity on phones and dongles. 1) Movies 2) TV Channels 3) Retail Shopping, they recently launched a competitor to Amazon. 4) Games 5) Educational content. and a myriad more. But here comes the best part. There are a couple of reasons India tailor made for services. 1. It has a large pre-teen, teen and young adult population, that will dominate consumer markets for at-least 5 decades. 2. It has 28 states, 122 major languages, and similar set of cultural groups. So you have ample amount of scope to localize content and have a good audience for that content. 3. Indians love to indulge in languages and cultures from other parts of India. Punjabi songs are loved all over the country. Telugu cinemas have huge markets in southern states. Tamil movies are revered all over the country. And Indians consume a lot of dubbed content. Including international ones, like Korean etc. So what this means is that media produced for one local culture / language, if received well, has a ready market all over India. This reduces risk and increases rewards. 4. Indians love to consume content. We are a noisy civilization. We consume a lot of content and want new content all the time. Movies are a huge part of the daily lives of rural villages. 5. Large number of people in rural areas have been using smartphones for the past 5 years, thanks to reducing handset costs and usage costs. They are already consuming content on the internet via Youtube, etc. They are a ready market to push content and services too. I suspect JIO is looking for large investments to create new content for its media services and setup a distribution network for it's retail services. Additionally, Reliance is highly respected in India. When the current CEOs father ran the company, millions of middle-class families in India bought houses, cars, got their children married, gathered retirement funds, etc riding on the sheer growth of Reliance as a company. My father was also one of them.

sbmthakur 6y ago

> connected to the govt May I know exactly what sort of connections are we talking about it? Big business families have always had some relationship with politicians in India but they were less evident 2-3 decades back then due to then governments' incline towards socialism.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]