V&D AWARD: VOICE&DATA: Telecom Man of the Year Mukesh Ambani

The VOICE&DATA Telecom Man of the Year Award (2003—04) recognizes the
vision and efforts of Mukesh Ambani that has in many ways transformed the entire
telecom landscape of India and has influenced the lives of millions of Indians.
It is a recognition of Mukesh Ambani's pioneering zeal, spirit of innovation,
and unmatched project-management skills.

Since the time Indian telecom services sector was opened up, many private
service providers have played an important role in the development and spread of
telecom services in the country. Coupled with the efforts of state-owned BSNL,
these companies have played a key role in the growth of teledensity. However,
none of the private companies had as profound an impact on as large a mass of
people as Reliance Infocomm has had in the past one year.

While many would only grudgingly accept, fact is that it is Reliance that is
leading the direction of the telecom business, be it tariffs or introduction of
new services and technologies.

Within a year of its launch, Reliance Infocomm changed the rules of the game.
Emerging as India's number one mobile operator in the first year of operations
itself, Reliance Infocomm forced other mobile operators to cut tariffs and
rework their entire strategies. Working out innovative schemes, Reliance
Infocomm lowered the entry barrier for new mobile users. Today, many more people
in the lower strata of society own mobile phones than was the case before
Reliance came in. Its Rs 501 Monsoon Hungama attracted a world-record number of
subscriptions in a few days' time

Besides all that, it was Reliance Infocomm who pioneered and popularized
mobile data access in India. Today, there are thousands of mobile users who
access Internet while on the move, thanks to Reliance India Mobile.

A lot of credit for all this goes to Mukesh Ambani, his efforts, and his
vision. Mukesh Ambani led the rolling out of one of the largest information and
communications technology initiative in the world. Covering more than 600 cities
across India, Reliance Infocomm today offers a full range of voice, data, video,
and value-added services on the strength of its 60,000 Rkm of optic fiber-based
terabit infrastructure. Reliance Infocomm has a network presence in 1,100 cities
through its points of presence in 673 cities. The company is targeting 3,800
more cities in its next leg of expansion, which is expected to be over in the
coming 15—18 months. In the second phase of its expansion, Reliance will focus
on broadband, by providing 100 Mbps Ethernet links to corporates. The service is
likely to be rolled out in 30 towns to begin with, and then to 200 towns in a
step-by-step manner.

VOICE&DATA Telecom Man of the Year 2004 selection committee panel members along with the chairperson, Prithipal Singh VOICE&DATA Telecom Man of the Year 2004 selection committee panel members discussing the nominations SELECTION COMMITTEE (from right to left): Pradeep Gupta, MD, CyberMedia (publisher of VOICE&DATA); Sanjay Kumar, CEO-founder, vCustomer (international enterprise user); Prithipal Singh, former CMD, BSNL (chairman of the panel); TV Ramachandran, DG, Cellular Operators Association of India; SC Khanna, secretary general, Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India; and PK Roy, chief editor, VOICE&DATA and SR Balasubramanian (not in picture), VP, information systems, Hero Honda Motors (national enterprise user) The VOICE&DATA Telecom Man of the Year 2004 was selected from among the names suggested by VOICE&DATA readers in a national poll conducted by the magazine over a period of two months (May and June 2004). Personalities who got the highest number of nominations from the readers were put before a panel comprising experts from various stakeholders in the telecom space. After a thought provoking and threadbare discussion, the panel members unanimously agreed on Mukesh Ambani's name for the award.

A bachelor in chemical engineering from the University of Bombay and an MBA
from Stanford University, USA; Mukesh Ambani joined Reliance in 1981 and
initiated Reliance's backward integration from textiles into polyester fiber
and further into petrochemicals. He pioneered India's first forays into
overseas capital markets with international public offerings of global
depository receipts, convertibles, and bonds. He led the creation of the world's
largest grassroots petroleum refinery at Jamnagar, with a capacity of 540,000
barrels per day integrated with petrochemicals, power generation, port, and
related infrastructure at an investment of Rs 25,000 crore. Ambani is also
steering Reliance's world-scale initiatives in offshore, deep-water oil and
gas exploration and production programs among other things. He is a member of
the Prime Minister's Advisory Council on Trade and Industry, Council of
Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), board of governors of the National
Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), and the advisory council of the
Indian Bank's Association.

Ravi Shekhar Pandey