Reliance Jio Managing Director Sandip Das has decided to step down and will become a mentor to the Jio Division of Reliance Retail that will develop a LTE ecosystem for 4G devices, said an IANS report.

Sandip Das became the MD in April 2013 after working with Maxis of Malaysia and Hutchison Essar in India. Sandip Das has played a major role in bagging 3G and 4G (BWA) spectrum for Aircel, a telecom operator in India.

Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries, in a letter to the Reliance Retail team, said: “Reliance Retail is pioneering this LTE device ecosystem, building sales and distribution channels including retail stores.”

“Sandip Das will drive this initiative. To facilitate, Sandip Das will move from his role as managing director for Reliance Jio and join the board of Reliance Retail to mentor the Jio Division of Reliance Retail.”

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Mukesh Ambani is trying to utilize the expertise of Sandip Das in creating personal devices for the telecom market. Maxis, the leading telecom operator in Malaysia, has pioneered and led the Malaysian market in providing innovative and meaningful mobile products and services.

Maxis was the first telecom service provider to bring the BlackBerry and Apple iPhone smart phones to Malaysia.

Recently, two of Ambani’s children, Yale-educated Isha and Brown University graduate Akash, joined the board of directors of Relince Jio Infocomm.

Das said he had personally sought a shift in his role to mentor the Jio initiative of Reliance Industries.

“It will take the resources, deep conviction and substantial expertise of Reliance to build an LTE device ecosystem to a level similar to the availability of 3G devices. As Reliance Retail is building electronic goods sales stores and channels to pioneer and dominate this ecosystem, it will be a wonderful challenge for me to mentor this,” said Das.

At Maxis, Sandip Das, who joined the group in January 2007 and left in April 2013 to join Reliance Jio Infocomm, is also credited with the successful IPO raising RM11.2 billion.

Baburajan K
[email protected]