AFTER taking the lead in the telecom services segment on the ground, IPO-bound Jio is now looking to step up its game in connectivity from the skies with indigenous communications satellites, Jio Platforms managing director Akash Ambani said on Friday. At present, the satellite communications segment is dominated by foreign companies like Elon Musk-led Starlink and French service provider Eutelsat. “Jio connected India on the ground. Now, we must connect India from the skies. There are still remotest villages, island communities, and border outposts where the Jio network cannot reach. For them, satellite connectivity will be the bridge to the rest of India. Jio is evaluating the development of a sovereign Low Earth Orbit satellite constellation for India,” Ambani said.

 

While speaking at the 49th Annual General Meeting of Reliance Industries Limited, he said Jio is also partnering with a global constellation for leasing satellite capacity. “We are also partnering with the leading global constellation providers by leasing satellite capacity, so that we can accelerate service availability while building our own long-term sovereign capability. This dual approach will enable Jio to meet India’s connectivity needs faster, while laying the foundation for the Indian satellite broadband platform of global scale,” Ambani said. He said Jio is also building its own ground station infrastructure in India that will support the company’s partner constellations, as well as its own future satellites, creating an end-to-end satellite broadband ecosystem from space to ground. Build AI for India: Ambani to engineers: RELIANCE Industries’ Chairman Mukesh Ambani placed the country’s engineering talent at the centre of Jio’s massive Artificial Intelligence push, calling on them to join forces to “build for India” as the Reliance Intelligence enters the next phase, of execution.

 

Asserting that India should not remain a mere consumer of AI built elsewhere, Ambani outlined Jio’s next growth chapter that pivots heavily toward artificial intelligence. “I firmly believe that India should not be a mere consumer of AI created elsewhere. It must become a creator, adopter, and global leader in AI,” Ambani said while speaking at Reliance Industries’ 49th AGM. He noted that Reliance Intelligence announced last year aimed to build a profitable AI infrastructure, platform, and services business serving consumers, enterprises, and governments at scale. “We set out with a clear vision, identified the focus areas, and began building the right partnerships with Google, Meta, and NVIDIA. Now, we are entering the next phase -- Execution,” he said. Jio delivered on its promise made a decade ago of providing broadband connectivity to everyone, everywhere, and Reliance Intelligence is now promising AI to everyone, everywhere, he said. “And we shall deliver on this promise too,” he added.

 

Ambani attributed the success of the Jio revolution to courage, creativity, and commitment of thousands of young Indian engineers who helped Jio in shattering the myth that the country could only import foreign technology. “Before Jio, many believed that India could only import technology from the world. Our engineers proved otherwise. They built, tested, deployed, and operated technologies at an unprecedented scale,” Ambani said. Today, Jio is not just integrating technology, it is creating original technology. Reliance Intelligence offers an even bigger opportunity to young, promising engineers. “They will get to work on problems of national scale and impact. They will build and deploy technology for 1.5 billion Indians.

 

They will create India-born innovation that the world can adopt,” Ambani said. Inviting them to “come, build with us, and build for India,” Ambani promised the scale, resources, and freedom to develop powerful, language-fluent, and affordable AI that empowers everyone from farmers to creators while actively driving productivity and job creation. “...Come, build with us. And build for India. Build AI that serves humanity; AI that is powerful, trusted, yet affordable; AI that is fluent in every Indian language; AI that empowers farmers, students, doctors, shopkeepers, workers, creators, and families... We will give you the scale, the resources, the freedom, and the responsibility to solve some of the most important challenges of our age,” Ambani added.