Punjab to be first state with 4G network: Mukesh Ambani

Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani on Wednesday announced making Punjab the only state in the country with all villages and schools linked through the 4G broadband network.

This would enable linking of all 1,617 agricultural produce marketing centres that handle Asia's biggest procurement process twice a year, he said.

Ambani was here to participate in the two-day Progressive Punjab Investors Summit 2015 that began on Wednesday.

Lauding the contribution of Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal for creating an ideal industrial atmosphere, Ambani said: "The deputy chief minister has not only taken our suggestions but implemented them also."

Founder and managing director of Next Wealth Entrepreneurs, Sridhar Mitta, said Punjab with its highly skilled computer-literate human resource has the potential to generate 200,000 jobs in the information technology (IT) sector alone in the next two years.

He said 4G penetration to the Punjab rural areas would be a game-changer for industrial growth as every village home would become an IT module within two years.

He said Punjabis have always accepted new technology, fiddled with it and they would surely create new IT platforms.

Cyber Media Group chief managing director Pradeep Gupta said Punjab was an emerging IT hub in the country.

"The existing ecosystem with large-scale IT companies, including Infosys, WIPRO and Tech Mahindra, makes it an ideal destination for investments in technology sector," he added.