CCI Clears Google And Reliance Jio Stake Deal

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has finally cleared Google and Reliance Jio deal, which means that the former can easily invest in the latter platforms. The search engine giant wants to buy a 7.73 percent stake for Rs. 33,737 crores in the Reliance Jio platforms.

Google has announced its deal with Jio in July this year is making an investment through its international arm. After this nod, Jio will get investments from all 13 investors. So far, the company has received Rs. 118,319 crores from other investors, such as General Atlantic, KKR, Mubadala, ADIA, TPG, L Catterton, Public Investment Fund, Intel Capital, Qualcomm Ventures, Facebook, Silver Lake, and Vista Equity Partners.

However, the approval comes at that time when CCI is probing against Google for dominating its position regarding payment services.

Reliance JioTo Develop Smartphone In India

The approval also means that both Google and Reliance Jio can develop low-cost handsets, especially 4G and 5G smartphones in the country. Notably, India's largest telecom operator Jio is likely to launch 4G smartphones by the end of this year and reportedly planning to launch 200 million devices in the next three years.

Additionally, the upcoming smartphones are likely to have Jio App Store, which means that the smartphone will have Jio apps similar to Jio Phones. Currently, 70 million customers are using Jio Phones in India.

Apart from that, the company is reportedly planning to launch 5G smartphones under Rs. 5,000; however, it will reduce the prices gradually to Rs. 3,000. On the other hand, the upcoming 4G smartphones of the company are likely to be priced under Rs. 4,000. Now, this can be a deal-breaker as Chinese smartphone makers are offering 4G devices above Rs. 7,000 and captured the majority of the mobile market.