Oil-to-telecom conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd will invest Rs 75,000 crore in North Eastern states in setting up 350 biogas plants, expanding its telecom services, retail footprint, and clean energy projects, chairman Mukesh Ambani said on Friday.
Photograph: Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters
Speaking at the Rising NorthEast Investors Summit here, Reliance Industries Ltd chairman and managing director said his group will invest in factories for high-quality FMCG products in the region and setting up a 150-bed cancer hospital in Manipur.
“Reliance has invested around Rs 30,000 crore in the region in the past 40 years. In the next five years, we will more than double our investments, with our target at Rs 75,000 crore,” he said.
This will create over 2.5 million direct and indirect employment opportunities as the conglomerate aspires to touch the lives of most of the 45 million population in the North-East.
Ambani said he is making six commitments to the Chief Ministers of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura.
The group’s telecom unit Jio has already covered 90 per cent of the population with over 5 million 5G subscribers.
“We will double this number this year,” he said. “Jio’s priority will be to bring the revolutionary power of Artificial Intelligence to all schools, hospitals, enterprises and homes.”
When talent meets technology and competence meets connectivity, our North-East will surge ahead, he said.
Ambani said Reliance Retail will vastly increase its procurement of staples, fruits, and vegetables to boost the income of farmers.
“We will also invest in factories for high-quality FMCG products in the region and promote the region’s fabulous artisan economy,” he said.
In clean energy, Reliance will look to “greatly” enhance generation of solar power in the region, he said without giving details.
In line with the vision of converting waste to wealth, Reliance will convert the region’s vast ‘wasteland into wealth-land’, by setting up 350 integrated compressed biogas plants which will turn organic waste into gas which could be used as CNG for transportation as well as fuel in industries and cooking in kitchens, he said.
Ambani said Reliance Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the group, will bring the best of cancer care to the North-East.
“To begin with, we have established a 150-bed comprehensive cancer hospital in Manipur.
“We are collaborating with Mizoram University on the care of breast cancer using genomic data.
“In Guwahati, we have built an Advanced Molecular Diagnostics and Research Lab.
“It will be among the largest Genome Sequencing Capacities in India,” he said.
“We will help transform the North-East into a healthcare hub and a research powerhouse.”
Stating that the North-East is a treasure-house of world-class talent in multiple sports, he said Reliance Foundation will work with all eight states to set up Olympic Training Centres, which will prepare our youth to be tomorrow’s medal-winners in Olympics.
“For Reliance, it is a matter of privilege to fulfil the dreams of a region that has the fastest rate of economic growth with the youngest population in India,” he said.
To Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said, “You have achieved something unbelievable and unimaginable.
“You have brought the North-East from the periphery to the centre of India’s developmental map, from the margins to the mainstream of the India Story!”
“Under your guidance, we in industry will work with all the chief ministers to make the North-East an inspiring model to demonstrate to the rest of the world… how we can make progress, how development can take care of Dharti Maa, how Laxmi Mata can reach every home, and how Bharat Mata indeed embraces all her children with her boundless love.”
