Amid record high prices, are industrial metals the new oil in India?

Data providers such as Reliance Jio, Airtel and large tech startups such as Flipkart, Paytm have yet to earn big profits, while metal giants are becoming important in an emerging low-carbon world

In a world increasingly dominated by technology, countries typically move away from their historically heavy dependence on commodities such as oil and gas and industrial metals, and advance towards software and algorithms to drive economic growth. The catchphrase for this new emerging economy is that “data” is the new oil.

While the quote is originally attributed to British mathematician Clive Humby, who first used it in 2006, in India it has been popularised by Mukesh Ambani — India’s richest businessman and promoter of the country’s most valuable company, Reliance Industries (RIL), and the largest telecom operator, Reliance Jio.

“In this