Mumbai, June 18
Reliance Industries (RIL) today unveiled a Rs 1.8 lakh-crore investment plan across businesses aimed at catapulting it into the top 50 companies of the world. This was announced by RIL’s chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani today.

Addressing the 40th AGM of the company, Ambani, the world's richest energy billionaire, unveiled his vision to achieve in the next three years what the firm had done in 37 years of its listed history.

RIL will invest Rs 1.8 lakh crore in margin-enhancing petrochem units, expansion of the energy business, opening more retail stores and the rollout of the telecom venture.

The firm plans to use 4G technology called long-term evolution, or LTE, to offer wireless broadband services. This, Ambani said, will help India become a leader in the digital era.

With his mother Kokila Ambani, wife Nita Ambani and children watching, he said RIL, which is currently ranked 135 on the Fortune 500 list of global companies, is looking at breaking into the top 50.

At the AGM, Nita Ambani was inducted into the company Board as the first woman director, thereby meeting a new law requiring listed companies to have at least one woman in the boardroom to boost gender diversity.

Ambani said the company, which became the biggest retailer in the country by revenue in 2013-14, is aiming at doubling its retail business every 3-4 years.

While it looks to increasing output from its eastern offshore gas fields, RIL will begin extracting gas from coal seams (coal-bed methane or CBM) in Madhya Pradesh in 2015-16.

To shareholders queries, he said the company will raise Rs 60,000 crore in debt over the next two years but will be debt-free on an overall basis by 2017 with a large cash pile.

"In the past 37 years, we invested Rs 2,40,000 crore and in this current three years' investment cycle, we will be investing over Rs 1,80,000 crore," Ambani said.

He said RIL was at the mid-point of the investment cycle and projects in petrochemicals, refining, retail and telecom will come on stream over the next two financial years. — PTI

To cover over 90% of urban India RJio holds pan-India broadband wireless access spectrum that can be used for 4G services The 4G services will cover all states, around 5,000 towns and cities, accounting for over 90% of urban India and over 2,15,000 villages Field trials of the company's network for broadband services are underway

New Delhi, June 18
Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd will launch 4G services in 2015, entailing an investment of Rs 70,000 crore. This was announced by Reliance Industries’ chairman-cum-managing directorMukesh Ambani today.

"The year 2015 will see the phased launch of Reliance Jio across India... The fruits of the tremendous value created by this Rs 70,000 crore initiative would start to flow," Ambani said in his address to shareholders at the company’s 40th annual general body meeting.

“At the outset, our confidence in delivering this technology-based infrastructure and services is very high, Reliance is set to make this vision a reality very soon,” Ambani said.

He said limited field trials with initial set of services for the broadband services were already underway and expanded field trials would commence in August across multiple cities.

“These trials would continue through the end of 2014 and early part of 2015 and the year 2015 will see the phased launch of Reliance Jio across India,” Ambani said while adding that the objective is to ensure that everything that we offer is future-proof and world-class.

RJio holds pan-India broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum that can be used for 4G services. The company had acquired it through auction for Rs 12,847.77 crore.

The network and broadband services will be ubiquitous - initially covering all states, all 5,000 towns and cities accounting for over 90% of urban India and over 2,15,000 villages.

“Eventually, the network will encompass each of our over 600,000 villages.”

All these efforts would help India become a leader in the digital era. They would ensure that every Indian has an access to the state-of-the-art digital connectivity and services that are on par with or better than anywhere else in the world.

As per the licence guidelines, 2015 is last year for all companies who won BWA spectrum to roll out the services in at least 90% of the service areas failing which the DoT will have the right to withdraw the radiowaves.

RJIL also acquired spectrum in 1,800 Mhz band, widely known as 2G spectrum, for Rs 11,054.41 crore in February across 14 out of 22 service areas in country. The company has said it will use these radiowaves also for 4G services.

Mumbai, June 18
The entry of Air Asia into Indian air space has sharply brought down fares on major routes across the country. All major airlines, including Indigo, Spicejet, Go Air and Jet, have announced reduced fares for those booking well in advance.

For instance, seats are available on the Delhi-Mumbai flights for July 21 for fares as low as Rs 2,999. One can fly between Chandigarh and Delhi for just Rs 1,999 on July 21 if a passenger books a flight today.

A ticket on the Bangalore-Goa sector aboard GoAir would come to just Rs 1,699.

On Tuesday, SpiceJet announced a special monsoon offer with a starting ticket price of Rs 1,999 to its pan-India operations. The offer is applicable to all domestic destinations to which SpiceJet flies, including Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai, the airline said.

Though promotional offers like Rs 500 per seat announced by Air Asia were lapped up quickly, passengers booking closer to the travel date may still get lucky.

"The monsoons are usually the slow season for the travel trade and the entry of Air Asia has intensified competition," says Ajay Patil, a travel agent from suburban Mumbai.

Airlines are promising rock-bottom fares for passengers booking months ahead of the travel date. "Blue is the new vibe this summer with our all-time low fares starting @1,724 all inclusive. Book between June 17-19 for travel between July 19 and September 30," IndiGo announced on Twitter.

However, travel agents warn that passengers may get minimum refund in case they cancel their tickets later.

New Delhi, June 18
Flipkart today said it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Federation of Indian Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (FISME) and NCDPD (National Center for Design and Product Development) to help SMEs scale their business.

Through this exclusive agreement, Flipkart will provide micro, small and medium entrepreneurs in India infrastructural support in data analysis, marketing and customer acquisition to help them scale their business.

Ankit Nagori, vice-president, Marketplace, Flipkart, said, “We are excited to partner with FISME and NCDPD and create a powerful affiliation that will enable 50,000 SMEs and artisans to become self-reliant, improve their living standards and scale their business manifold”.

The partners believe this move will benefit a lot of businesses, including first-time entrepreneurs and a large number of women entrepreneurs.

Anil Bharadwaj, secretary-general, FISME, said, “This kind of a tripartite coordinated effort has been planned and executed for the first time in this country. We are delighted to be able to work closely with Flipkart to help the MSMEs sell their products directly to buyers across the nation. This will create huge employment opportunities even in the ancillary industries and reduce the migration of rural population to the urban areas.”