Reliance AGM 2023: RIL To Setup Megawatt Scale Sodium-Ion Battery Production By 2025 And Other Highlights Of The Event

eReliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani on Monday (28 August) addressed the shareholders on the conglomerate's performance and future plans as he took the stage for the company's 46th Annual General Meeting (AGM).

Here are the key highlights of the Reliance Industries' 2023 AGM:

Telecom

Ambani said Reliance Jio is on track to expand 5G services coverage to the entire country by December this year.

"Nearly 85 per cent of the total 5G cells operational in India are in Jio’s network. Per-user data consumption has surged, with an average consuming over 25 GB every month. We will have nearly 1 million 5G cells operational in our network by December," said Mukesh Ambani.

He added that Jio AirFiber will be launched on Ganesh Chaturthi on 19 September.

Retail

Reliance Retail Valuation has doubled to Rs 8.28 lakh crore from Rs 4.28 lakh crore in September 2020, said Isha Ambani. 

Global strategic and marquee investors have shown interest in Reliance Retail. 

Digital and new commerce sales contributed nearly Rs 50,000 crore in the financial year ending March 2023. Registered customers grew to nearly 25 crore, with over 78 crore footfalls in FY23.

 The launch of JioMart on WhatsApp has been a phenomenal success with 9 times growth of JioMart customers on WhatsApp since launch in 2022, she added.

Financial Services:

RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani announced that Jio Financial Services (JFS) will enter insurance business to offer Life, General, and Health insurance products through a seamless digital interface.

Ambani said that he is confident about JFS's success due to three reasons.

"One, the digital-first architecture will give it an unmatched head start," Ambani said.

"Two, RIL has capitalised JFS with net worth of Rs 1,20,000 crore - one of world’s highest capitalised financial service company at inception," he said. Mukesh Ambani

"Three, JFS is blessed with very strong board, led by Shri KV Kamath, a veteran and most respected banker," he added.

Ambani said that With its partner BP, RIL has revived gas production from the KG-D6 block from near zero a few years back to about 20 million cubic meters per day in the financial year 2022-23.

"We are well on our way to enhance gas production to 30 million standard cubic meters per day, which will be 30 per cent of India's gas production, and 15 per cent of its current gas demand," he said.

He also said that the company has embarked on transitioning O2C business into a sustainable and green business.

"The key pillars of this transition are – One, we are accelerating our journey to achieve Net Zero by 2035 through renewables and bioenergy," Ambani said.

Green Energy

Speaking at the Reliance AGM 2023, Mukesh Ambani said that they are focused on fast-track execution of the Dhirubhai Ambani Green Energy Giga Manufacturing Complex at Jamnagar, adding "Our first priority is to deliver a fully integrated, end-to-end solar PV manufacturing ecosystem".

Ambani said that the company targets to establish 100 Compressed Bio Gas (CBG) plants in next 5 years, consuming 5.5 million tonnes of agro-residue and organic waste.

He said that the company's concurrent priority is to set up its battery gigafactory by 2026.

"It'll manufacture battery chemicals, cells and packs leading all the way up to containerised energy storage solutions and will include a battery recycling facility to deliver a truly integrated ecosystem," he said.

"We will start with the LFP (Lithium iron phosphate) chemistry, which has been proven at scale for its safety, stability and life, targeting to produce LFP based solutions at world-beating lifecycle cost," the RIL chairman said.

He added that the company is simultaneously focussed on the "fast-track commercialisation" of its Sodium-ion battery technology.

He said that the company is targeting megawatt level production of Sodium-ion batteries by 2025 and will rapidly scale up to gigawatt-scale thereafter.

Speaking about the RIL being uniquely positioned to offer a practical solution to India's ‘Energy Trilemma’ – Energy Affordability, Sustainability and Security, Mukesh Ambani said that the RIL has golden chance to enable India to transform from a net energy importer to a net energy exporter. 

Appointment of Ambani scions to RIL board

Reliance has also put a firm succession plan in place.

The RIL Board of Directors has recommended the appointment of Mukesh Ambani's children Isha, Akash and Anant Ambani on the board of directors, while Nita Ambani will be stepping down from the board.