MUMBAI: Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries, which will soon launch its pan-India 4G datacom services under the brandname ‘Jio’, has assigned the mandate to develop the market for compatible devices and drive its growth to its retail arm - Reliance Retail.

As per an IANS report, Ambani in a letter to the Reliance Retail team wrote, “Devices are cornerstone in bringing broadband to the masses. The long-term evolution (LTE) ecosystem for devices in India is nascent.”

Ambani also announced that Reliance Jio MD Sandip Das will step down from his current role and drive the initiative by joining the board of Reliance Retail to mentor the Jio division.

The report quotes sources as saying that Ambani is attaching much importance to the 4G data telecom space and sees it as one of the major drivers of growth within the $75-billion group.

The next-gen of the company, Isha and Akash Ambani, recently, secured approvals to join Reliance Jio Infocomm’s board of directors.

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

"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," said Das, who has been associated with a host of Indian and global telecom firms in the past, in the report.

And added, “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."