Data is not only new oil, but also new soil: Mukesh Ambani

Key Highlights

• Mukesh Ambani sees the need for a 'digital green revolution' in India.
• Ambani was speaking at the HT Leadership Summit 2017 in Delhi.
• He said 58,000 colleges, over 700 universities and 19 lakh schools in India will be digitally connected.

Richest man in India and leader of the youngest telecom operator, Mukesh Ambani at the HT Leadership Summit in New Delhi on Friday said ‘data is the new soil.’
 
Adding to his earlier statement of ‘data is the new oil’ Ambani said, “Data is not only the new oil. Data can also be the new soil.”
 
He was speaking at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit 2017 amongst world leaders like PM Modi and former US President Barack Obama.
 
Ambani comparing data to ‘soil’ was in context to his view on ‘digital green revolution.’ “There is both a pressing need, and a golden opportunity to create a digital green revolution, an evergreen revolution.”
 
Ambani defined digital green revolution as:
 
1. Digitally enabled mechanical services to benefit all farmers irrespective of their landholdings
2. Digitally enabled fertilisers/ pesticides to rejuvenate soil
3. Digitally enabled ‘seed to crop’ processes to get the best yields and double and treble every farmer’s income
4. Digitally enabled water management to achieve more crop per drop
5. Digitally enabled supply chain from the kisan to the consumer with full traceability, to ensure quality at every stage and remove wastage at every stage.
 
"58,000 colleges, over 700 universities and 19 lakh schools in India will be digitally connected, with Jio playing a leadership role," Ambani added.

Speaking at the national capital on the first day of the India Mobile Congress in September, Ambani had said, “Mobile connectivity and cloud computing are the foundational technologies of the fourth industrial revolution. Data is the new oil. India doesn’t need to import it. We have it in super abundance.”
 
Ambani-led Reliance Jio launched its services in September 2016. The company put up a tough competition with free data and calling offers. Ambani reiterated data consumption was increased in India because of Jio.
 
“Just one year back, India was ranked 150th in the world for mobile broadband. Now it is number 1, after the launch of Jio.”
 
Commenting on earnings by Jio, Ambani said it was worth taking some losses if consumers and the country were benefiting.
 
“Jio's results are announced every quarter. I don’t want to predict but we are ahead of our schedule,” Ambani said in an interview with CNBC.