India’s richest man sat down to talk to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg during the Fuel for India 2020 event, further strengthening their professional relationship.

 

Fuel for India 2020 is the first edition of an annual dialogue built around Facebook’s continuing commitment to India, according to the Fuel for India 2020 website. “Through meaningful exchanges and conversations, we aspire to showcase the most powerful stories of change in India and how we are bringing together our products, programs, and plans to fuel these journeys and India’s progress,” it adds.

 

In April this year, Facebook had announced an investment of $5.7 billion (Rs 43,574 crore) in Jio Platforms, the digital services arm of India’s most valuable company.

 

On being asked about India’s progress during the Covid-19 pandemic, Ambani explained all the work done by the Indian government and Reliance Industries.

 

“Mark, sometimes I wonder that if the pandemic had struck India just four or five years earlier, we would have not been in as good a shape as what we are today. With all the connectivity we have, and the credit for that must go to our Prime Minister’s Digital India vision, where he motivated the entire industry to roll out broadband in the first five years of his first term.

 

And, during the pandemic. India has attracted the largest foreign direct investment in its history, Mark. We have our own example of how Jio and Facebook concluded our partnership. Right in the middle of lockdown,” said Ambani.

 

Zuckerberg also asked about India’s advancements in the tech sector, asking where does he see the country in 10 years. Ambani replied, “I really see India accelerating as a premier digital society. I see us integrating 5G.

 

We also think that compute, and very low latency compute is real. I think that there is a great opportunity for really bringing education and healthcare with the second generation reforms that were done in the last six months, right.

 

And, I think that in a span of 10 years, we can set for ourselves an objective to really reskill India and the talent that you talked about can improve 10x. Today, you’re just seeing the creamy layer. But, that’s what technology can do to really make a better India in a better world.

 

The same thing we can do in health, and all the emerging technology and integrations where we can make sure that we deliver services and we deliver good proactive healthcare.

 

 

And, that is why I think that the next two decades are going to be historic in terms of the social and economic transformation.”