Know why Modi loves Mukesh Ambani

Guess who’s fuelling Modi’s ‘Make in India’ dream? Well, it’s none other than Mukesh Ambani. His venture Reliance Jio Infocomm has asked the handset makers to make 4G phones in India. If the manufacturers make phones in India, Reliance has agreed to buy all handsets and sell via them.

Reliance Jio, which will be providing broadband Internet in India through LTE, will enable 4G connectivity.

The telecom company is already planning to take this to the next level and is in talks with Micromax, Lava, Karbonn, Intex, and Lenovo. While some of the handset manufacturers are already setting up production base in the country, experts believe, this move will also help the manufacturers keep the phone prices reasonable as these will be manufactured locally.

Micromax, Lava, Karbonn, and Intex are planning manufacturing units in India, with production set to commence in the next six months to a year.

Jio has signed deals with Chinese handset makers Huawei, ZTE, Alcatel OneTouch (TCL Communications), CK-Telecom and Beijing Tianyu Communication Equipment-owned K-Touch for procurement of smartphones for the company's consumer electronics brand, ReConnect, which will sell 4G handsets across India.

Devices under the ReConnect brand will be priced between 4,000 and 25,000, they said. Jio has said it would ensure availability of under Rs 5,000 4G smartphones coinciding with its services launch.

The company had promised that if there was any gap between demand and supply of smartphones at a particular price level, it could bridge the gap with its own brand under Reliance Retail.

Under the partnership with Jio, companies like Huawei, ZTE, and Alcatel OneTouch will also provide dongles, routers and other broadband products aimed at homes and small office or home office customers.

Reliance Jio is expected to be launched in December this year.