Mukesh Ambani, the RIL chairman and the richest man in India, announced bigger plans to use the blockchain technology, a distributed ledger technology (DLT) which is the underlying system for Bitcoin. “Over the next 12 months, Jio [Reliance Jio Infocomm] will install across India one of the largest blockchain networks in the world with tens of thousands of nodes operational on day one,” Ambani said to the shareholders present at RIL’s 42nd annual general meeting.

Blockchain solutions records a growing list of ordered data called blocks and is very transparent in nature, hence all the involved parties (or here, stakeholders) can view the transactions in real-time. DLT enables recording, transferring and the sharing of data without a need of an intermediary, unlike the traditional ledger. These records cannot be reversed or edited.

An inter-ministerial committee powered by Subhash Chandra Garg, the Finance Secretary, supported that the DLTs have the potential to advance the inclusiveness and transparency in government services for citizens as well as the efficiency of the financial institutes.

“The DLT-based systems can be used by banks and other financial firms for processes such as loan-issuance tracking, collateral management, fraud detection, and claims management in insurance and reconciliation systems in the securities market,” the committee stated in its report. They also stressed on the regulatory risks and challenges involved with DLT like scalability, cyber-security, data protection, and transaction speed.

“On the back of Jio’s[engineering] talent we are now investing in scaling-up advanced technologies in our country even ahead of the rest of the world,” Ambani said.

He seems to be convinced that leveraging blockchain will help the company deliver unprecedented trust, efficiency, security and trust to many kinds of transactions. This will prove to be an important capability for India, especially for advancing the country’s supply chain industries for agricultural produce and various other services. “And using blockchain, we also have an opportunity to invent a brand-new model for data privacy where Indian data especially customer data is owned and controlled through technology by the Indian people and not by corporates, especially global corporations,” he added, stating that “data is wealth” and India’s wealth should stay within India.

Moreover, Ambani discussed with the shareholders about a new collaboration between Microsoft and Reliance that will enable tech-in-business across the nation. “Jio and Microsoft have entered into a long-term alliance to accelerate the digital transformation of India to launch new cloud data centers, ensuring more organizations can access the tools and platforms they need to build their own digital capability,” he said. He also added that Microsoft will also use the Azure cloud platform to help the initiative.

“In combining efforts, Jio and Microsoft aim to enhance the adoption of leading technologies like data analytics, AI, cognitive services, blockchain, Internet of Things, and edge computing among small and medium enterprises to make them ready to compete and grow, while helping accelerate technology-led GDP growth in India and driving adoption of next-gen technology solutions at scale,” the companies stated in a statement on Monday.

At the annual general meeting, Ambani furthermore discussed the $700 billion New Commerce business opportunity which intends to “completely transform the unorganized retail market, which accounts for 90 percent of India’s retail industry”. He said that the enterprise wishes to employ IoT, blockchain, AI and other new technologies on a pan-India basis to the end of this year.”By removing inefficiencies and value destruction in today’s market ecosystem, New Commerce will transfer significant new value to consumers, producers, and merchants,” Ambani added.