On Thursday, September 25th, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the “Make in India” campaign. Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) described the launch of this campaign as a historic day for Indian industry. In addition, he pledged that his company will create 1.25 lakh new jobs over the next 12 to 15 months to support this movement.
Mr. Ambani said, “PM Modi dreams and does, working 14 hours a day and motivates a billion Indians to dream and do.” He also believes that the program will help make our country globally competitive and put it on a fast-growth trajectory. “I firmly believe 8-10 per cent for a long period of time is the right potential for India,” he added.
According to him, the outlook of international investors has significantly changed since Narendra Modi came into power. He also thanked the Prime Minister for his leadership and inspiration to India Inc. He added that the Prime Minister’s vision of a digital India will also go hand-in-hand with the “Make in India” campaign.
Further, Mr. Ambani pointed out how the success of India’s mission to Mars on 24th September has exhibited what our country can achieve. The Mars mission cost less than INR7 per kilometer, which is less than the cost of travel by auto rickshaw in many large Indian cities.
Other business leaders such as Cyrus Mistry, Chairman of Tata Group; and Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman of Aditya Birla Group, also expressed their support towards this campaign.The former remains fully committed to investing in India while the latter believes that the campaign is a clarion call that can take the Indian economy to great heights.
Mukesh Ambani’s Visit to the US
Pressing prior engagements did not allow Mr. Ambani to be part of the business delegation that accompanied Narendra Modi on this visit to Japan last month. However, he is currently part of the business delegation in New York City and Washington D.C. and is attending some of the events that have been organized in honor of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 5-day visit to the United States.
Sources revealed that Mr. Ambani was scheduled to attend a dinner reception hosted by S Jaishankar, Indian Ambassador to the US, at The Pierre, a Taj Hotels-owned luxurious heritage hotel, on September 28th.On 30th September, he is scheduled to attend a reception hosted by the US-India Business Council (USIBC) at the Andrew Mellon Auditorium in Washington, DC.
RIL is known to have significant dealings with the United States. In addition to selling fuel, the company also has 3 shale assets in the country in which it plans to invest an addition of $2 billion. This investment will be made towards the extraction of natural gas and oil from the sedimentary rock formations. RIL has already invested $7.3 billion since its entry into the US shale market in 2010.