RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani began the 44th AGM of the company with affirmations to transform the global energy landscape through its New Energy business.
RIL’s overall initial investment from its own internal resources in the New Energy business will be Rs. 75,000 crore (over $10 billion) in 3 years, Mr. Ambani announced. The fourfold plan includes the construction of Four “Giga Factories” to manufacture and fully integrate all the critical components of a New Energy ecosystem.
These factories would be used to produce solar energy, have battery factories for storage of intermittent energy, production of green hydrogen and a fuel cell factory for converting it to stationary power.
The $15 billion oil deal with Aramco will be completed this year, as Mr. Amabni also announced the induction of Yasir Al Rumayyan, chairman of Saudi Aramco and Governor of the Kingdom’s wealth fund, Public Investment Fund, into the board of Reliance Industries as an independent director. Reliance Industries will sell 20 per cent stake in its oil-to-chemicals business, comprising oil refineries at Jamnagar in Gujarat and petrochemical assets, to the world’s largest oil exporter.
Reliance also announced the launch of the ‘JioPhone Next’, it affordable smartphone jointly developed by Jio and Google, especially for the Indian market, in September. Jio will also collaborate with the search giant to use Google Cloud’s cutting-edge technologies to power its 5G Solutions.
Reliance Retail expanded its network buy adding 1,500 new stores, which is amongst the largest retail expansion undertaken in the Indian market, according to the Chairman. He added the company will continue acquiring businesses to sharpen their omni-channel capabilities, citing recent acquisitions including digital commerce platforms like Netmeds, Urban Ladder and Zivame.
Mr. Ambani capped off his address saying ‘the best is yet to come’ for the conglomerate and for India.