Microsoft has partnered Reliance Jio Infocomm (Jio), a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited to help accelerate the digital transformation of the Indian economy.
The strategic partnership, which will run for ten years, offers a set of solutions to enhance the adoption of leading technologies among Indian businesses to make them ready to compete and grow.
It will also enhance the technology-led GDP growth in India and driving the adoption of next-gen technology solutions at scale.
“Jio is delighted to partner with Microsoft in our efforts to further deepen the use of technology on scale to all Indians,” said Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries. “This is a unique and first-of-its-kind partnership that brings the capabilities of two large companies focused on creating significant value to Indian enterprises. By working together to develop innovative and affordable cloud-enabled digital solutions built around Jio’s world-class digital infrastructure and Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform, we will accelerate the digitisation of the Indian economy and make Indian businesses globally competitive.”
As part of this new agreement, Jio will set up data centres in locations across India, and Microsoft will deploy its Azure platform in these data centres to support Jio’s offerings. The initial two data centres are being set up in the states of Gujarat and Maharashtra. These are targeted to be fully operational in calendar year 2020.
Jio will also leverage the Microsoft Azure cloud platform to develop innovative cloud solutions focused on the needs of Indian businesses.
These will enable Indian startups to gain access to efficient and affordable cloud infrastructure and platform services. They can then develop innovative products and services faster and more cost-effectively. Small and medium businesses in India will have access to a range of cloud-based productivity, collaboration and business applications that will allow them to compete more effectively in the Indian marketplace.
In addition, Jio will work together with Microsoft to develop solutions that support major Indian languages and dialects. This will enhance the adoption of technology across all cross-sections of Indian society.
Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, said, “We have an incredible opportunity to apply advances in technology to help organizations across India innovate and grow. The combination of Jio’s leading connectivity and digital solutions with Azure, Azure AI and Office 365 will bring powerful tools and platforms for compute, storage, productivity and more to millions of businesses in the country.”