PM beams poem to switch on Reliance services
business-standard.com
Our Corporate Bureau in Mumbai
Published : December 28, 2002
India’s prime minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, today formally kicked off Reliance Infocomm’s operations, when he spoke from his residence in New Delhi to the Union minister for communication, Pramod Mahajan, present in Mumbai, in a video conferenced call.
The prime minister also used Reliance’s CDMA mobile service to send one of his poems as a text message, the first sent through the Reliance Infocomm network.
Lauding Reliance’s achievement in indigenously developing the massive telecom infrastructure and the Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City (DAKC), Vajpayee congratulated the Indian technicians and scientists behind the effort.
Speaking to Mukesh Ambani, chairman, Reliance Infocomm, the prime minister said, “Connectivity is no longer a luxury, it has become a necessity. We miss Dhirubhai Ambani on this occasion, but am happy that his able sons are there to realise his vision.”
But among the dignitaries, politicians, corporate leaders and people from the entertainment world, the one person conspicuous by his absence was Anil Ambani, the younger of the Ambani scions.
Mahajan said the DAKC was technologically “superior” to even the NASA of US, and requested the prime minister to visit the place on his next visit to Mumbai.
Mahajan then switched on Reliance’s services in 17 states across India, in addition to the national long distance (NLD) services.
In his address, which was adequately peppered with humour, Mahajan termed Reliance’s services as “world class”.
“I have never before in my life seen an inauguration on such a large scale. Nowhere in the world has a new service provider given access to streaming videos on mobile sets, overnight,” Mahajan said.
Mahajan, commending the spirit of the late Dhirubhai Ambani, said had he been around, Ambani would also have committed to find a technology that could make communication with those dead possible!
Deepak Parekh of HDFC, KV Kamath of ICICI Bank, Uday Kotak of Kotak Mahindra, Nimesh Kampani of JM Morgan Stanley, Anand Mahindra of Mahindra & Mahindra, Vallabh Bhansali of ENAM Securities, politicians Vinod Khanna and Murli Deora, film director Yash Chopra and top executives from the Reliance group and other Ambani family members were present at the launch.
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I know there's a lot of repitition among these many articles on India and CDMA WLL. They each seem to have something to say that's a little different. Comments on whether the flood of articles is too much are appreciated.
It does seem to indicate that this is taken as a very big deal over there. I certainly think it is. |
