Weekend Bites: Mukesh Ambani's ides of July, and the threat of Threads

In which we munch over the week's platter of news and views

Reliance Jio Infocomm, the corporate mammoth’s second coming in telecommunications, this time under Mukesh Ambani (brother Anil had led the group’s telecom business in the 1990s), created a splash with its Monsoon Hungama Offer in July 2003. It offered a mobile phone for Rs 501 upfront and Rs 200 a month thereafter for three years. There was free talk time worth Rs 100 and incoming calls were free.
 
(Yes, dear member of the Gen X, Y, Z and whatever letter there is right now, there was a time we paid good money for the mobile calls we made as well as for the ones we received.)

 
Announcing the Monsoon Hungama, Ambani said he wanted to usher in a digital revolution in India.
 

In July 2017, Reliance Jio, the group’s third coming in telecom, launched Jio Phone, which, Ambani said, was effectively free (the Rs 1,500 security deposit was refundable) and would reinvent the feature phone.
 
This month – again, a July – Reliance Jio announced its intent to reinvent the smart phone.


Story of the week
 
On Monday, Reliance Jio announced the Jio Bharat V2 phone, priced at Rs 999.
 
Stressing that India’s 250 million feature phone users represented a wide digital divide, the company said its new phone provided high-quality, affordable data to the economically weaker segments.

 
Jio also announced a bundled monthly plan of Rs 123 – against the minimum Rs 179 monthly plans offered by other service providers. It includes 14 GB data, seven times more than what Jio’s competitors give. Jio’s annual plan is for Rs 1,234. Both plans include unlimited calling.
 
Attacking its rivals, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, for raising entry-level tariffs, Jio said feature phone users faced increased digital disempowerment and disparity. Basic voice services for a 30-day period, which used to cost Rs 99 previously, were now priced at Rs 199, it said.
 
Reliance Jio is targeting a 40 per cent share of the country’s 2G subscribers in the next few years. The phone comes with apps like Jio Saavn, Jio Cinema, UPI, camera, and FM radio.  

 
In a nutshell, July is unlikely to be the favourite month for Jio’s rivals.
 
In other news…
 
An inter-departmental group of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), set up to examine internationalising of the rupee, recommended steps for transactions in the domestic currency popular in other countries, thereby reducing the dependence on the dollar.
 
Google, in its latest appeal to the Supreme Court, said the Competition Commission of India was protecting Amazon’s interests.
 
India appears poised to sustain its growth in a more durable way than before, said the Annual Economic Review for 2022-23 released by the finance ministry on Thursday.

 
Fifty to 60 organisations – primarily co-operative banks, nidhi companies, forex dealers, and sub-registrars dealing in immovable properties – have come under the income-tax department’s scanner.
 
The Gujarat High Court on Friday dismissed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's plea seeking a stay on his conviction in a criminal defamation case over his "Modi surname" remark.
 
Tomato prices are soaring, triggering a wave of social media memes comparing them with anything from petrol to political influence.


Tech that: Word from the world of technology and start-ups
 
The government has retained the major provisions of the draft Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022, including penalties for data breaches, parental consent for children’s data, and deemed consent. The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the draft.

 
Watch it: From The Morning Show
 
Will the surging tomato prices sour the taste of the RBI’s recent success against inflation? Watch the finger-licking-good story here.
 
What is Suveen obsessing over?
 
Did you, by any chance, stumble upon this newsletter on Twitter? It does get eyeballs there, as well as on other social platforms. Now, one more is likely to get added to the list.
 
Business Standard is now on Threads, proving once again our digital team’s nimble and ultra-modern approach. (Let me hasten to deny the widespread rumour that the last sentence has been written under coercive threat from the digital editor, who is also very handsome.)

 
More seriously, Twitter faces its most credible challenge in ages in the shape of Meta-owned Instagram’s highly anticipated rival to the blue bird. Threads will function similarly to Twitter, with text-based posts that can be liked, commented on, and shared. People will be able to follow the accounts they follow on Instagram and keep their same user names. 
 
Interest among users, including celebrities such as Sachin Tendulkar, was evident from the sign-ups. According to Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Threads had 30 million sign-ups globally on the first day of the launch.
 
Here is everything you need to know about Threads.

 
This is Suveen signing off. Please send comments, news, or views about anything — be it cheap smartphones or handsome digital editors — to suveen.sinha@bsmail.in.
 
(Suveen Sinha is Chief Content Editor at Business Standard)