Free-mobile schemes in election states: Jio gets customers, govts get data

In the run-up to the Assembly polls, the Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan govts are distributing free smartphones to connect with over three-fourths of their populations and Jio has emerged as a key player

Ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, the incumbent state governments have launched schemes to distribute free smartphones and internet connections to about 15 million families in the two states. The schemes would cover more than three-fourths of the population in both these states and help telecom companies sell phones, connections and data to millions of first-time users in rural parts, and they will get paid by the state governments for doing so.

In Chhattisgarh, where Reliance Jio has bagged the contract through an open tender to provide network to about five million families, the state government