Mukesh bhai is back….

Recent announcement by RIL about its IPO plans, its retail foray and SEZ plans reminds us of the good old days…days before the brothers started fighting…

I love Reliance for its green field projects – mammoth, revolutionary and visionary and going by the indications given by Mukesh Ambani we will see many of them soon….

In one of my previous blogs I mentioned that more than anything else it’s the drive and fire within Mukesh to take up new projects will define Reliance future and now we know where it is heading….you cant keep Reliance down for long…
Let’s try to comprehend size of his dream:
Jamnagar Refinery expansion – Rs. 30000 crores
SEZs – Rs. 100000 crores
Retail – Rs. 22000 crores
Oil and gas exploration – Rs. 15000 crores
Biotechnology, agriculture etc. etc.

Meanwhile Anil is still in news for his closeness with that joker Amar Singh, phone tapping issue, buying stakes in any company he can lay his hand on. But still we have not heared anything about his plans for Infocomm. Anil bhai please do something – tell us about Infocomm strategic moves and not only about impending IPO.

VOIP – Voice over Internet Protocol

This appears to be the next big thing to hit the telecom circuit and it may take many things (not exactly telecom now) by storm. As Sunil Mittal says Telecom is like the Pacman who keep growing eating other business. Well IP (Internet Protocol) is the thing that will help telecom eat few big-ticket businesses. One of this will be Cable TV business that may soon shift totally to telecom operators. Already IPTVs are in advanced stages of development & testing.
VOIP can kill the difference between local call & STD/ISD calls. It would again lead to ‘Talk Unlimited’ scenario. Currently Indian regulations donot facilitate VOIP but soon regulations will have to change. Indian telecom players are already betting on it. Tata’s latest acquisition – Teleglobe is interesting because Teleglobe has recently merged with itself ITXC – the world’s biggest carrier of VOIP minutes. Reliance is working closely with Microsoft on IPTV technology. Bandwidth (international undersea optic fiber cables) is already there. If policy changes in time India might lead the VOIP onslaught. I am on a look -out for an IP expert who can teach me fine points about the technology. Anybody??