Not in India's DNA to be deterred by crisis, every crisis an opportunity: Ambani

New Delhi: Mukesh Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) on Tuesday lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his leadership, saying the "fiscally prudent" PM has led the country to roll out one of the largest vaccine programmes, in the first half of 2021.

"Prime Minister Modi has led India from the front, and while we are not as rich a country as some of our western counterparts, being fiscally prudent, he (PM Modi) has taken steps to take care of our vulnerable...And now we are ready and pretty much at par with the world, to roll out one of the largest vaccine programs in the first half of 2021, under Prime Minister's leadership," Ambani said during "Facebook Fuel for India 2020" event with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Regarding India's COVID-19 response, Mukesh Ambani told Zuckerberg "...if the pandemic had struck India just four or five years earlier, we would not have been in as good a shape as what we are today, with all the connectivity we have. 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."

On the country's digital prospect, Reliance Chairman said he really foresees India accelerating as a premier digital society.

"I see us integrating both 5G...and just yesterday, our Prime Minister has said that, he wants every village and every gram panchayat...India has 680,000 villages, and we have a population of 1.3 billion people, and he wants everybody to be empowered on the information highway with high speed fix broadband, and which is happening," he said.

Talking about the recent deal concluded between Jio and Facebook, he said, "I have no hesitation in going on record, that it is your investment that set the ball rolling. Not only for Jio, but for the Indian FDI which has been the largest-ever in its history. And our partnership between Jio and Facebook, will actually demonstrate that it is great for India, Indians, and small Indian businesses."

In April this year, Reliance Industries Ltd had signed a mega Rs 43,574 crore deal with Facebook giving the US-based social media giant a 9.99 per cent equity stake in homegrown mobile network Jio.