Jio propels Mukesh Ambani to 13th spot in Forbes’ billionaire list

The phenomenal growth of Reliance Jio, backed by its ultra-cheap data plans that has transformed the telecom scenario in India, has helped Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani move six places up to rank 13th in US magazine Forbes’ “World’s Billionaire list 2019”.

Mukesh Ambani is now worth $50 billion — up from $40.1 billion in 2018 when he was at the 19th spot on the billionaires’ list.

“Mukesh Ambani chairs and runs $60 billion (revenue) oil and gas giant Reliance Industries, among India’s most valuable companies,” Forbes said.

“In 2016, Reliance sparked a price war in India’s hyper-competitive telecom market with the launch of 4G phone service Jio. Jio has signed on 280 million customers by offering free domestic voice calls, dirt-cheap data services and virtually free smartphones,” the magazine added.