When Ambani gambled own money to connect Bharat

Dhirubhai Ambani, the late father of Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani, built one of India’s biggest conglomerates from scratch. His biggest achievement was setting up the world’s largest petroleum refinery at Jamnagar in 1999. But that wasn’t all. He had another ambitious goal for Reliance. Decades ago, Dhirubhai used to say if you made a phone call cheaper than a postcard, you would revolutionise the lives of millions of Indians. His son, Mukesh, made his dream a reality. His Reliance Jio not only made a phone call totally free, it made even the handset cheaper than a postcard because it came free against a refundable deposit fee. The launch of Reliance Jio in 2016 brought 4G and 5G connectivity to all of India and became the country’s leading digital services company with nearly 500 million subscribers.