Reliance Industries has put together an aggressive plan to build its drone business which includes expanding manufacturing capacity five-fold, participating in the new drone production linked incentive scheme, and experimenting with limited logistics payloads to deliver goods. The target is to become a key player in the expected $5 billion market in India by the end of the decade. The drone business is being carried out through a Bangalore-based start up, Asteria Aerospace, in which Reliance has taken a majority stake. Asteria is a subsidiary of Jio Platforms Ltd.
Jio Platforms' quietly sustained investments in building its "non-connectivity" service business - which included a bevy of acquisitions of companies and platforms in media, entertainment, and technology startups - are slowly generating revenues. Non-connectivity revenues of Jio Platforms have now risen 36 per cent year-on-year in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2024-25 (FY25) to about Rs 3,968 crore, compared with Rs 2,912 crore in the same quarter the previous year.