Individual Assignment – Strategies for Digital Economy

Submitted to Prof. S. Batra

Submitted by Abhinava Sarkar (190301001)

Q1. How has the advent of Reliance Jio impacted the growth of internet consumption in India and what future scenario
can be depicted?

Jio has certainly impacted the growth of internet consumption in India and Jio’s future is very bright. In today’s India,
Jio ranks as the number one telecom operator.

Internet boom in India:

The number of mobile internet users in India had already overtaken desktop users by 2012, with mobile Internet
bandwidth approaching that of wired broadband. There had been a considerable increment in India's internet
consumption due to factors such as easily accessible data and affordable smartphones.

With the growth in Internet services and increasing appetite for social media, mainly, Facebook, Instagram and
WhatsApp (both of which were owned by Facebook), Internet had become an essential part of life in India. As given
in the case Facebook currently has 2.4 billion users on its Facebook platform, 1.5 billion users on WhatsApp and 1
billion users on Instagram.

Strategies followed by Jio:

 Voice, data and Internet services offered by Reliance Jio, on low prices as compared to its competitors.
 Abundance of free data to the customers, coupled with aggressive marketing.

All the above factors led the company to a great success by making it the top-ranking company in the telecom sector
of India.

Future scenario of Jio:

Reliance Jio had also invested US$40 billion to build its 5G telecom service. Jio has also been exploring several
blockchain projects for payments and other services.

Jio also had took decision to create “Jio platforms” as a subsidiary, further was aimed at making RIL a debt free
company.
Q2. Should Jio Platforms aggressively pitch for 5G adoption in India? How will it benefit the company?

5G is the next big leap in network technology, serving as the successor to the now-omnipresent 4G. This new jump
forward promises higher bandwidth and faster download speeds. Reliance Industries had informed in its latest annual
report. The government has also expressed its intentions of conducting the next round of spectrum auctions during
the fiscal year 2020-21, it said.

"Jio, with its 5G-ready network and extensive fiber assets, would play a key role in the development of the 5G
ecosystem in India, based on market dynamics," the annual report stated. Adoption of 5G and 6G will allow corporates
or companies to perform real-time interactions with customers; this will allow them with seamless video conferences
along with a more connected and efficient network.

Using the new technology would enhance all real-time analytics, which in turn will result in huge demand, particularly
for skills like business analytics, AI, ML, etc.

Jio's plans to improve its 5G technology will coincide with the recently announced Atmanirbhar Bharat (India) initiative
- an effort to rebuild the economy during the coronavirus violence. An important part of that government's plan is to
reduce access and dependence on locally made products as much as possible. Authorities have embarked on a
program to promote productivity-related communication (PLI) to boost India's appeal as a manufacturing hub. (See
India looking at sweeteners to attract telecom gear manufacturers.)

This comes amid growing international concerns over the safety of telecom gears made by Huawei and China's ZTE,
which critics have blamed for causing China's rise to power. After a recent dispute over the Indo-China border, the
Indian border, the government has asked state-owned telecoms, BSNL and MTNL, not to use Chinese equipment.
There is also a ban on the use of Chinese equipment by private sector employees. (See India can prevent government-
owned telecoms from using Chinese gears.)

Currently, Jio is the only Indian service provider that claims to have no Chinese content in its network. Its 4G network,
relies heavily on South Korea's Samsung. A few countries, including the US and Australia, have imposed restrictions
on Chinese retailers, which have barred Huawei and ZTE from participating in the 5G market. Jio's advancement in
his 5G technology will also be an indicator of balkanization behaviour that coronavirus seems to be speeding up. As
5G promises to have a game-changing impact on many key areas, including health and education, many countries are
committed to using home-grown technology.
 Q5. What do you understand by Net Neutrality? In the context of investment made by Facebook in Jio Platforms, what
is the likely impact of this duo on net Neutrality?

"Network neutrality" or simply "net neutrality", is the principle that Internet service providers (ISPs) should treat all
Internet communications equally and vary based on user, content, website, platform, application, type, No separate
discrimination or fees should be charged. Device, source address, destination address or mode of communication.

The reason behind the concept of this theory is that the Internet should be an equal opportunity as well as an equal
playing field for all telecom players. This bias phenomenon can be better explained by an example where the Internet
service provider slightly reduces connectivity to online payment platforms such as Google Pay (G Pay) and its
connectivity to any online payment competitor such as "Paytm" holds on. After a while, some failed transactions in
the former, customers will always move later.

The second Facebook initiative that has already attracted some controversy in India is the "WhatsApp Pay Initiative".
The service faced hurdles due to data localization requirements, but has since received permission from the National
Payments Corporation of India (India NPCI) to roll out its services in a phased manner. This will put "WhatsApp Pay"
in direct competition with "Google Pay", "Amazon Pay Wallet" and "Paytm" and many other online payment companies.
Reliance Jio could potentially give Facebook a wide-ranging impact on both these sectors.

A faster loading and streaming "LASSO" or improved connectivity to "WhatsApp Pay" for Reliance Jio users may result
in a change in brand loyalty that will also affect other companies' businesses. This would be a net violation of "net
neutrality laws". But Jio officials have ruled out this possibility and said that net neutrality principles will be respected.

In such a situation it would be easy to give Jio the benefit of the doubt. After all, the Net Neutrality Principles are only
inherent in the Licensing Agreement and TRAI has also not detected any Net Neutrality violations by the company in
the Indian space. In addition, TRAI has a terrific record when it comes to shutting down companies, which could
threaten net neutrality, so if Duo and Facebook do so, it could become a treatment for survival or both. There may be
a risk of heavy fines for. in India.

7. In what manner strong policies on data localization as advocated by the Government of India will impact leveraging of
collaboration between Facebook and Jio Platforms support Jio Platforms in achieving a better performance or
conversely lead to a poorer performance? Please give your reasons.

What is Data Localisation

Requirement to store a copy of all citizen data in servers located in India is termed as Data Localisation. As per Centre
for Internet and Society, data localisation can be defined as ‘any legal limitation on data moving globally and
compelling it to remain locally.’ It needs to stay within the borders of India.

How can we analyse India’s Policy

Meanwhile, India has four regulations that mandate storing data on servers within its borders:

1. Draft Disha Act wants healthcare data;

2. RBI wants all financial data;
3. The e-commerce policy wants all e-commerce data; and
4. The Draft Personal Data Protection Bill says that at least one live, serving copy of all personal data should be stored
in India and critical personal data should be stored ONLY in India.

It has raised concerns about state surveillance and is seen as a step that could disrupt technology in the areas of
blockchain technology and AI technology by limiting free data flow across borders.

Jio has been a strong supporter of data storage, as national interest and security are paramount as given the
increasing number of cyber-attacks, but Facebook and its owned WhatsApp use were influenced by three of India's
four policies. while Reliance Jio may have attacked its attack on WhatsApp, it will not return to its demand that Indian
data be kept in place. “The interests of his business are far more powerful than the investment of Facebook. Experts
believe that while there are conflicting factors, the benefits of compromise will outweigh those.” Facebook is likely to
change its position on issues such as the end of encryption with India and Jio only, as it is a global company and its
policies are world-class.