| | NOVEMBER 20238Jio Financial Services (JFS), owned by Reliance Group, is developing a startup business strategy with artificial intelligence (AI) and a digital focus under the direction of seasoned banker KV Kamath in an effort to effectively compete on prices despite entering the market later than its competitors.Jio plans to leverage technology and data, using current Reliance and Jio World centers as touch points, to reach a large portion of middle-class and lower-middle-class consumers in urban areas and the hinterlands.The financial entity is banking on Kamath's huge past experience in setting up ICICI and will work on a blueprint similar to that of Jio's telecom business. "Kamath has been given an empty canvas to make his own plan backed by talent, technology and capital. And the only difference between setting up a financial services business years back and doing that today is that we have a wealth of data with us backed by technology to make informed decisions".Jio previously revealed a partnership with BlackRock, one of the largest financial firms, to establish an asset management business, a market that Bajaj is still relatively new to. There will be distinct business sectors at Jio Financial Services, each led by a CEO. The concept was reportedly discussed by BlackRock CEO Larry Fink with Kamath and Mukesh Ambani during his most recent trip to India a few weeks ago. With 22 years of expertise in corporate banking, both domestically and internationally, Hitesh Sethia, the CEO of Jio Financial Services, was previously a talented employee of ICICI Bank. Indian telecom providers have finished rolling out their 5G networks nationwide, but according to a senior corporate executive, Nokia anticipates a significant increase in equipment demand in 2024­2025. Fixed wireless access network proliferation will bring the Indian telecom industry into the second phase of 5G network implementation, Nokia India head of mobile networks business Tarun Chhabra said at the India Mobile Congress."India's requirement is still going to be substantial in 2024-25, then our factories will be fully loaded with India plus some exports", Chhabra said. Nokia has recorded multi-fold growth in its telecom gear business in India on account of rapid 5G network deployment.In the third quarter financial report, Nokia CEO Pekka Lundmark said the company benefited greatly from 5G rollouts in India, where net sales more than doubled annually. However, when the deployment pace began to normalise, sales volume considerably decreased sequentially. Although Chhabra anticipates that the country's growing momentum will continue, he stated that Nokia will increase its exports from India if demand declines.Fixed wireless Access (FWA) is one big thing that can actually require a lot of data thrusting and then operators will have to actually deploy more networks. I would say this is Phase one. Once there is a new use case coming up, more subscribers being added, then there's going to be more demand for network capacity, which will also impact the second phase of 5G deployment, Chhabra said. RELIANCE TO POWER CONSUMER FINANCING VIA AI, SAYS KV KAMATHNOKIA SPECULATING TELECOM EQUIPMENT DEMAND TO RISE IN 2024-2025IN FOCUSIN FOCUS
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