oppn parties Jio Platforms Shows The Way

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  • Uttar Pradesh voter rolls show a 2.4-crore discrepancy. A difference of approximately 2.4 crore names has been reported between the state's panchayat and rural Assembly voter lists. The Election Commission has ordered the two sets of rolls to be matched
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  • India beat Pakistan 3-2 in SAFF Championship. India defeated Pakistan in a closely contested match, having led 3-0 before conceding two late goals. The victory was reported as a significant result for India's second-string side
  • India beat Japan 4-1 to win a record sixth Asian Champions Trophy. India recovered from an early deficit to defeat Japan in the final at Mohali, extending its record as the tournament's most successful men's team
  • The Supreme Court issued notice to the Centre and the Election Commission on a petition challenging Section 16 of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023, which grants the CEC and Election Commissioners protection from legal proceedings for acts performed in their official duties. The petition argues that such blanket immunity could leave citizens without an effective remedy for alleged wrongdoing by the Commission
  • The Supreme Court told voters whose names were deleted from Delhi's draft electoral rolls not to be apprehensive about seeking re-enrolment through Form 6, after the Election Commission assured it that such applicants would not be prosecuted merely because their names had appeared in earlier rolls
  • Congress leader Rahul Gandhi opened the party's campaign for the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections with an Insaaf rally in Sangrur, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann's home district, accusing the AAP government of failing to control drugs, gangster violence and corruption. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge outlined six commitments, including a drug-free Punjab, protection of farmers, employment for young people and action against corruption
  • Rahul Gandhi accused the AAP government of running Punjab through a remote control from Delhi and questioned Bhagwant Mann's ability to tackle drug abuse, making personal allegations about the Chief Minister's conduct during their time together in Parliament
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oppn parties
Jio Platforms Shows The Way

By Ashwini Agarwal
First publised on 2020-07-16 13:16:16

Google CEO Sundar Pichai committed to investing Rs 75,000 crore in India after his recent talk with Prime Minister Modi. Out of this, Google is investing Rs 33,737 crore in Jio Platforms. Although this was reported in the media a day before, the exact amount of investment was confirmed by Mukesh Ambani at the AGM of the Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) yesterday. This gives Google a 7.7% stake in the RIL subsidiary and a seat on the board. It puts the value of Jio Platforms at Rs 4.36 lakh crore.

In a period of extraordinary consolidation, Mukesh Ambani has kept his word and is on track to make RIL completely debt-free. In Jio Platforms alone, investors have committed Rs 152,056 crore, making it the largest investment by investors in a startup. It also gives the company the strength to take up all its projects with a renewed zeal.

Google is also going to help Jio with the design and manufacture of low-cost entry-level smartphones to help the vision of "a smartphone for every Indian" and help in further increasing the penetration of the internet in India. The two will also develop and optimize the Android operating system. The deal is a win-win situation for both as Google can leverage Jio's enormous content bank while Jio can ride on Google's technology.

By getting big names to commit enormous amounts as an equity investment in Jio, RIL has shown that an Indian startup need not depend on Chinese funds to scale up. If the idea is scalable and the product is viable, it is possible to attract the top technical giants to invest. Of course, every startup founder is not Mukesh Ambani, but he has shown that it can be done. Obviously the valuation and the quantum of investment will be much smaller in other startups, but if they have the idea and the product, they too can now hope to attract the US tech giants directly.