Reliance's 'NIMBY' woes prove headache for India's digital push

By Aman Shah MUMBAI (Reuters) - Residents of a Mumbai suburb are taking on one of the country's biggest conglomerates in a rare grassroots protest against a 25-metre telecom mast that marks a new stumbling block in India's troubled push to get millions more online. India's e-commerce industry has boomed in recent years but its mobile and data coverage has struggled to keep up, largely because of poor infrastructure. For Reliance Industries, the company building the mast, the stand-off is an unwelcome public reminder of what it has at stake - the telecoms newcomer has spent about $13 billion on the venture since winning a nationwide 4G spectrum auction five years ago but has not yet finished building a network. Investors are loath to comment publicly on Reliance, led by Mukesh Ambani, one of India's richest men, but several contacted by Reuters expressed concern at the wait for a return on cash that Morgan Stanley analysts estimate could hit 20 percent of capital employed by the 2018 financial year.



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