Submitted by:Sheryl Susan (94)

Smitha Vivekanandan (97)Subasree S (104)

Upasana Dwarakanath (112)

24/11/2009

ABSTRACTContemporary issues in business environment examine the external factors that affect the strategy and operations of business. It enables delegates to develop a critical awareness of the implications of these factors and facilitates their development of an academic and practical understanding of the strategic and operational implications for business organisations. It also provides delegates with the opportunity to develop skills of analysis and problem solving for use within their own organisation.

In this paper, we’ll examine the various contemporary issues using Reliance Industries as a case study.

CONTENTS

Sl. No. Topic Pg. No.

I Introduction 1II Legendary Dhirubhai H Ambani 2III Mukesh Ambani’s Group Of Businesses 4IV Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group 9V The Battle Continues 14VI Reliance in the News 15VII Bibliography 16

INTRODUCTION

The Reliance Group, founded by Dhirubhai H. Ambani (1932-2002), is India's largest business house. The Group's activities span exploration and production of oil and gas, refining and marketing, petrochemicals, textiles, financial services and insurance, power, telecom and infocom initiatives. The Group exports its products to more than 100 countries the world over. Reliance Group revenue is equivalent to about 3.5% of India's GDP. The Group contributes nearly 10% of the country's indirect tax revenues and over 6% of India's exports.

The Reliance Group Companies, acknowledged as one of the best-run companies in the world, include: Reliance Industries Limited, Reliance Capital Limited, Reliance Industrial Infrastructure Limited, Reliance Telecom Limited, Reliance Infocomm Limited, Reliance General Insurance Company Limited, Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Ltd. and Reliance Energy Limited. The company’s refinery at Jamnagar accounts for over 25% of India's total refining capacity and their plant at Hazira is the biggest chemical complex in India.

The Reliance Group was founded by the legendary Dhirubhai H. Ambani. He has been one among the select Forbes billionaires and has also figured in the Sunday Times list of top 50 businessmen in Asia. In 1975, the company expanded into textiles. Dhirubhai Ambani introduced equity cult in India when Reliance went public with IPO in 1977. Since the launch of its IPO RIL has expanded rapidly and integrated backwards into other industry sectors, most notably the production of petrochemicals and the refining of crude oil. Dhirubhai led the evolution as a global leader in the materials and energy value chain businesses. Today, Reliance Group's activities range from exploration and production of oil and gas, petroleum refining and marketing, petrochemicals (polyester, fibre intermediates, plastics and chemicals) to textiles and retail. Reliance enjoys global leadership in its businesses. It is the largest polyester yarn and fibre producer in the world and among the top five to ten producers in the world in major petrochemical products. Presently, Reliance Group has more than 25,000 employees on its rolls and exports products in excess of US$ 15 billion to more than 100 countries in the world.

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THE LEGENDARY DHIRUBHAI .H. AMBANI

Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani, also known as Dhirubhai (28 December 1932, - 6 July 2002) was an Indian rags-to-riches business tycoon who founded Reliance Industries in Mumbai. Ambani took his company (Reliance) public in 1977, and by 2007 the combined fortune of the family (sons Anil& Mukesh and daughters Dipti & Nina) was 60 billion dollars, making the Ambanis the richest family in the world.He moved to Aden, Yemen, when he was 16 to work with A. Besse & Co. and eventually returned to India and started "Majin", which was to import polyester yarn and export spices, in partnership with his cousin, Champak Lal Damani.

Dhirubhai was a known risk taker and he believed in building inventories, anticipating a price rise, and making profits. Ambani's net worth was estimated at about Rs. 10 lakh by late 1970s. He is credited with starting the equity cult in India. More than 58,000 investors from various parts of India subscribed to Reliance's IPO in 1977. In 1986 The Annual General Meeting of Reliance Industries was held in Cross Maidan, Mumbai and was attended by more than 350,000 shareholders and the Reliance family.

In 1982, Reliance Industries came up against a rights issue regarding partly convertible debentures. It was rumoured that company was making all efforts to ensure that their stock prices did not slide an inch. Sensing an opportunity, a bear cartel which was a group of stock brokers from Calcutta started to short sell the shares of Reliance. To counter this, a group of stock brokers till recently referred to as "Friends of Reliance" started to buy the short sold shares of Reliance Industries on the Bombay Stock Exchange. After this incident, many questions were raised by his detractors and the press. In response, the then finance minister, Pranab Mukherjee informed the house that a Non-Resident Indian had invested up to Rs. 22 Crores in Reliance during 1982-83. The interesting factor was that all the promoters or owners of these companies had a common surname Shah. An investigation by the Reserve Bank of India in the incident did not find any unethical or illegal acts or transactions committed by Reliance or its promotersOver time, Dhirubhai diversified his business with the core specialisation being in petrochemicals and additional interests in telecommunications, information technology, energy, power, retail, textiles, infrastructure services, capital markets, and logistics.

He has been accused of acting unethically; having manipulated government policies to suit his own needs, and has been known to be a king-maker in government elections. Although most media sources tend to speak out about business-politics nexus, the Ambani house has always enjoyed more protection and shelter from the media storms that sweep across the country. A film, Guru (2007) directed by Mani Ratnam, alleged to be inspired by the life of Dhirubhai Ambani was released on 12 January 2007.

Reliance after Dhirubhai

The Reliance Empire was split between the Ambani brothers, Mukesh Ambani getting RIL and IPCL & his younger sibling Anil Ambani heading Reliance Capital, Reliance Energy and Reliance Infocomm. The entity headed by Mukesh Ambani is referred to as the Reliance Industries Limited whereas Anil's Group has been renamed Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group

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(ADAG).His daughter Nina Kothri along with her husband B H Kothari started ‘Javagreen’ in 2004, a coffee retail chain along with Reliance’s WebWorld stores.

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MUKESH AMBANI’S GROUP OF BUSINESSES

Mukesh Ambani owns two main industries namely: Reliance Industries Limited Indian Petrochemical Corporation Limited

The following are the categories of businesses that are being dealt with: Exploration and Production Petroleum refining and marketing Petroleum Textiles Retail

The major associates and subsidiaries of Reliance Industries Limited are: Reliance Petroleum Limited Reliance Retail Limited Reliance Global Management Services (P) Ltd Reliance Biopharmaceuticals Ranger Farms Ltd Reliance Engineering Associates (P) Ltd Reliance Oil & Gas Find (Petrochemicals Business)

Reliance Petroleum Limited (RPL)Reliance Petroleum Reliance Petroleum Limited was set up by Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), one of India's largest private sector companies. RPL benefits from a strategic alliance with Chevron India Holdings Pte Limited, Singapore, a wholly owned subsidiary of Chevron Corporation USA (Chevron), which currently holds a 5% equity stake in the Company. Refining activities of Reliance Industries Limited are carried out at the Jamnagar refinery complex with refining capacity of 27 million tonnes per annum (540,000 barrels per day).

The Jamnagar Refinery is a private sector crude oil refinery owned by Reliance Industries Limited in Jamnagar, India. The refinery was commissioned on 14 July 1999 with an installed capacity of 661,000 barrels per day. It is the largest Greenfield refinery in the world. Jamnagar has emerged as the ‘Refining Hub of the World’ with the largest refining complex with an aggregate refining capacity of 1.24 million barrels of oil per day in any single location in the world.

The refinery can process a wide variety of crudes- from very light to very heavy (from 18 to 45 degree API) and from sweet to very heavy (with sulphur content from 0 to 4.5%). With an annual crude processing capacity of 580,000 barrels per stream day (BPSD), RPL will be the sixth largest refinery in the world. The polypropylene plant will have a capacity to produce 0.9 million metric tonnes per annum. RPL was awarded the ‘International Refiner of the Year’ award in the year 2008 and it runs a nearly zero-emission refinery.

Reliance Retail Limited

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Reliance is gearing up to revolutionize the retailing industry in India. Towards this end, Reliance is aggressively working on introducing a pan-India network of retail outlets in multiple formats.

A world class shopping environment, state of art technology, a seamless supply chain infrastructure, a host of unique value-added services and above all, unmatched customer experience, is what this initiative is all about. Ensuring better returns to Indian farmers and manufacturers and greater value for the Indian consumer, both in quality and quantity, will be an integral feature of this project. By creating value at all levels, the project boasts of a seamless supply chain infrastructure, unprecedented even by world standards. Through multiple formats and a wide range of categories, Reliance is aiming to touch almost every Indian customer and supplier.

RIL's Retail Project will be through the following companies:Reliance Fresh Reliance Trendz Reliance i-storeReliance Footprint Reliance Autozone Reliance Home KitchensReliance Time-Out Reliance Super Reliance JewelReliance Digital Reliance MartReliance Wellness Reliance i-store

Reliance Retail continues to consolidate its presence and operations with more than 900 stores in over cities where it is operational today. E-Office Planet Private Limited, Reliance’s joint venture with Office Depot has expanded its footprint across India for serving its customers in a better way.

Reliance Global Management Services (P) Limited

Reliance Global Services (P) Ltd is one of the fast growing IT solutions and services provider with offices in USA, Hyderabad-India, delivering best-in-class services to help clients reduce costs, enhance organizational flexibility, and improve business and IT performance. They have proven capabilities across various industry verticals. Their wide spectrum of solutions and services encompass ERP specialized in SAP Custom application development, Application maintenance and support, Management-consulting services through Contract staffing enabled with in-house competency development. Reliance Global management team comprises of ace professionals, each with years of managerial experience, rich industry knowledge and multidimensional skills. They form a formidable think tank with their industry knowledge, understanding of client requirements, processes and key client backgrounds.

Reliance Biopharmaceuticals

Reliance Life Sciences (Rabale, India), a Reliance Industries subsidiary, is building a protein manufacturing facility at the Dhirubhai Ambani Life Sciences Centre at Rabale, near Mumbai. The company will invest more than Rs. 9 billion ($200 million) to build the complex, which will be Reliance's first such facility. It will use mammalian cell and microbial fermentation technology to produce proteins. Completion is due at year-end, and FDA validation is expected

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to follow eight months later. The protein plant will have initial capacity for 10,000 litres of mammalian cell culture and 1,000 litres of microbial cell culture.

Ranger Farms

Reliance Industries is likely to turn their consumer retail project Reliance Fresh into a separate entity. It could be added to the Ranger Farm brand name. This particular division of the company deals in food, fruits and vegetables and consumer products.

Reliance Engineering Associates Private Limited (REAL)

Reliance Engineering Associates Private Limited (REAL) is a Reliance Group Company dedicated to Engineering procurement and construction of various projects in both reliance group companies and other industries. Their services include part design for moulding, mould design, prototype and production tooling, pre-production prototyping, and full-scale manufacturing of precision thermoplastic and thermo set plastic parts. These parts are used in a wide range of demanding and critical end-use applications. Building on this core expertise, Reliance Engineering provides contract manufacturing services for original equipment manufacturers. This service includes procurement to rigid specifications and build-to-print assembly of low to moderate volume products.

Reliance Petrochemicals

Polymer (PP, PE and PVC) production volumes decreased by 9% to 3,076 KT. Production was lower primarily on account of planned shutdown of Polypropylene (PP) plant at Jamnagar in October 2008 to improve product swing capability and yield. RIL produced 1,755 KT of ethylene and 696 KT of propylene, a decrease of 7% each over the previous year primarily due to lower Propane cracking. Polyester (PFY, PSF and PET) production volume decreased by 2% to 1,534 KT. RIL has maintained its focus on specialty products which account for 55% of PSF and 38% of PFY production. RIL’s fibre intermediates (PX, PTA and MEG) production decreased by 3% to 4,583 KT during the year. Revenue for the petrochemicals segment for the year decreased marginally from Rs 53,000 crores to Rs. 52,767 crores (US$ 10.4 billion).

Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Limited (IPCL)

RIL had acquired erstwhile public sector petrochemical company in 2002 by successfully bidding for government equity and become a strategic partner in IPCL after which Reliance’s controlling share was 47.3%. Reliance Industries formally assumed control of Indian Petrochemical Corporation Ltd (IPCL) with Mukesh Ambani as the chairman of the company in June 5, 2002. IPCL, the pioneering petrochemical company in India, was managed by a board nominated by Government of India till June 4, 2002. Later, the government divested 26 per cent of the company’s equity shares in favour of Reliance Petro investments Ltd through an open, transparent and competitive bidding process. Effective April 1, 2005, the six polyester companies namely Apollo Fibres Limited (AFL), Central India Polyesters Limited (CIPL), India Polyfibres Limited (IPL), Orissa Polyfibres Limited (OPL), Recron Synthetics Limited (RSL) and Silvassa Industries Private Limited (SIPL) have been amalgamated with IPCL.

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The two brothers were engaged in a battle over control of the, then, Rs 90,000- crores Reliance Empire after their father’s demise and by Jan 2005, RIL Chairman Anil Ambani quit as director and Vice-Chairman of the Reliance Group Company IPCL Ltd .Anil resigned on the ground that he was unwilling to work on the same board where Anand Jain, a close confidante of Mukesh, was present. Anil is also believed to have complained that Jain was running a “personal vilification” campaign against him, the sources said.

RIPCL to RIL:The boards of Reliance Industries and IPCL on March 11, 2007 approved the merger between the two companies at a swap ratio of 1:5. This means IPCL shareholders will get one share of RIL for every five held by them. The appointed date of merger of IPCL with RIL is April 1, 2007, subject to approvals from the courts and other regulatory authorities. The name IPCL will disappear when the two merge

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Textiles

RIL continues to operate one of the most modern textile complexes in Asia with new investments in design, modern weaving, and state-of-the-art finishing equipmentsMajor growth drivers for VIMAL continued to be retail presence across India, constant innovation in products, cost efficiency and improved customer service. The division continued adding clients in auto textiles and is now a significant supplier to major automobile manufacturers in India.The new product initiatives are:

Fresca anti-microbial and anti-bacterial work-wear apparel fabrics Home furnishing and auto-textiles Silk-Amino suiting fabrics Fire-retardant and water-repellent tent fabrics for defence/ police services Insect & mosquito repellent nets, as per WHO standards, which will find usage in several

areas of the world affected by mosquitoes / insects

Reliance Oil and Gas Finds

In 2002, Reliance found natural gas in the Krishna Godavari basin off the coast of Andhra Pradesh near Vishakhapatnam. It was the largest discovery of natural gas in world in financial year 2002-2003. On 01 April 2009, Reliance Industries (RIL) commenced natural gas production from its D-6 block in the Krishna-Godavari (KG) basin. The gas reserve is 7 trillion cubic feet in size. Equivalent to 1.2 billion barrels (165 million tonnes) of crude oil, but only 5 trillion cubic feet are extractable. On 2008 Oct 8, Anil Ambani's Reliance Natural Resources took Reliance Industries to the Bombay High Court to uphold a memorandum of understanding that said RIL will supply the natural gas at $2.34 per million British thermal units to Anil Ambani. Reliance's Oil & Gas Find.

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ANIL DHIRUBHAI AMBANI GROUP

Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (Reliance ADAG) ranks among India's top three private sector business houses. Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group has a customer base of over 50 million, the largest in India, and a shareholder base of over 8 million, among the largest in the world. R-ADAG has a business presence that is spread over 4,500 towns and 300,000 villages in India, and 5 continents across the world.

Reliance Natural Resources Limited (RNRL)

Reliance Natural Resources Limited (the "Gas Based Energy Resulting Company") was originally incorporated on the March 24, 2000, under the Companies Act, 1956 as Reliance Platforms Communications.Com Private Limited. The status of the Company changed from private limited to public limited on July 25, 2005. The name has since been changed to its present name, viz. Reliance Natural Resources Limited under Fresh Certificate of Incorporation consequent on change of name dated January 9, 2006.

It is engaged in the business of sourcing, supply and transportation of gas, coal and liquid fuels. The company is concentrating on building a strong foundation for the business of fuel management and has already established itself as a contending player in the Indian market.

RNRL has been awarded four CBM blocks, with an acreage of about 3,251 sq. kms, for the exploration and production of coal bed methane (CBM), making it the second largest CBM player in India in terms of acreage. The Company has applied for Petroleum Exploration License (PEL) for all four blocks to the Governments of the concerned States. The company has received the PEL for two blocks (Barmer 4&5) located in Rajasthan for which operations have commenced. RNRL is actively pursuing business opportunities in the supply management of coal and natural gas.

Reliance Communications

Formerly known as Reliance Infocomm, it is the flagship company of the Reliance-Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group. It is an Indian telecommunications company. According to National Stock Exchange data, Anil Ambani controls 66.77 per cent of the company, which accounts for more than 1.36 billion shares.

It provides both CDMA and GSM services and has earned the distinction in the country of being the first telecom company in India to operate in both CDMA as well as GSM technologies. Also, on the 30th December 2008, Reliance Communications became the first telecom operator in the history of Indian telecommunications to simultaneously launch its GSM services in 17 circles ranging from Jammu and Kashmir to Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

RelCom is also into Wireline Business throughout India and has the largest optical fibre communication (OFC) backbone architecture [roughly 110,000 km] in the country. Reliance Communications has launched its Direct To Home (DTH) TV also, known as "Big TV". RelCom has its presence across all B2C communications channel in one of the fastest growing markets in the world.

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Reliance Globalcom, a division of Reliance Communications, spearheads the Global Telecom operations of India’s largest Integrated Telecom Service Provider. The company serves over 50 countries across 5 continents. Reliance Globalcom owns the worlds largest private undersea cable system spanning 65,000 kms seamlessly integrated with Reliance Communications’ over 110,000 kms of domestic optic fibre providing a robust Global Service Delivery Platform connecting 40 key business markets in India, the Middle East, Asia, Europe, and the U.S.

Reliance Infrastructure

Earlier called Reliance Energy, Reliance Infrastructure Ltd is not only India’s largest private sector enterprise in power utility but also the largest private sector player in many other infrastructure sectors of India.  In the power sector the company is involved in generation, transmission, distribution and trading of electricity and constructing power plants as EPC partners. In the infrastructure space the it is focused on roads, urban infrastructure which includes MRTS, Sealink and Airports, Specialty Real Estate which includes business districts, trade towers, convention centre and SEZ which includes IT & ITES SEZ and non IT SEZ as well as free trade zones.

Reliance is the largest private sector metro rail project developer in the country with 12 km VAG corridor in Mumbai and 22.7 km airport link in Delhi. It is the largest concessionaire for NHAI and building over 400 kms of road highway projects. Apart from the above REL is constructing the country’s tallest 100 storey corporate park in Hyderabad. They are also developing over 180 mn sq ft of SEZ for IT/ITES, retail hospitality in Mumbai and Noida.

Reliance Power

The company is the sole distributor of electricity to consumers in the suburbs of Mumbai. It also runs power generation, transmission and distribution businesses in other parts of Maharashtra, Goa and Andhra Pradesh. Reliance Infrastructure distributes more than 28 billion units of electricity to cover 25 million consumers across different parts of the country including Mumbai and Delhi. It operates power projects both domestically and internationally. The Company on its own and through subsidiaries is currently developing 16 large and medium sized power projects with a combined planned installed capacity of 33,780 MW, one of the largest portfolios of power generation assets under development in India. The Sasan project (Madhya Pradesh) is a 6 * 660 MW coal fired generator and is currently under construction and is planned to be completed in a span of less than five years. The first phase of the project is scheduled to be completed by December 2011 and the second by March 2013. It is expected to generate as much as 70000 MW of power.

The 3500 MW Power Plant, Dadri in UP was set up in 2004 in the Ghaziabad District. The most interesting feature of this power generation plant was that it aimed to be the biggest gas based power plant in the world. The singularity of the project lay in the fact that it aimed to generate power by making use of eco-friendly resources. The plant was set up with the target of generating power supply to meet the needs of approximately 70 million users in North India. The power necessary natural gas required for power generation was to be obtained from Dhirubhai

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Gas fields located within the KG basin. The ADAG group is in a bitter fight with Mukesh Ambani controlled Reliance Industries as the Gas for this project is not yet tied up.

Krishnapatnam Power Project was bagged by Reliance Power Limited in 2007 within the Nellore District. The project involves the building, operating and maintenance of this 4000 MW power generation plant designed to generate power from imported coal. The project was intended to be user friendly. The states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka are supposed to off take power from this project.

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Reliance Entertainment

Reliance Big Entertainment evolved out of the group’s vision of meeting young India's aspirations and assuming a leadership position in communications, media and entertainment. Reliance Big Entertainment is geared to create a significant presence in businesses across various vectors of content, internet, broadcast and retail services and platforms for distribution. Key content initiatives include production and strategic collaboration in areas such as gaming, movies, animation, music, broadcast, DTH and user-generated content, amongst others.

The most popular one under this umbrella is the Big 92.7 FM which has established itself in India, and recently was launched in Singapore. The other names under this umbrella include Reliance Big Entertainment, Big Pictures, Big Music and Home Entertainment, Bigflix.com, and Bigadda.com. Reliance Communications has launched its Direct To Home (DTH) TV also, known as "Big TV".

So big are the plans for this group that Anil Ambani has even invested in Hollywood. Big Pictures has invested approximately $1 billion for producing 10 mainstream Hollywood films by 2010. It has signed agreements with firms owned by Nicolas Cage, Jim Carrey, George Clooney, Tom Hanks and Brad Pitt, among others. It also has interests in Hindi and regional language films.

Reliance Health

Reliance Health is the outcome of the late visionary Dhirubhai Ambani's dream to herald a health revolution in India by leveraging technology and delivering the healthcare to the doorsteps of India's vast population Reliance Health is set to transform the Healthcare Landscape of India by venturing into: Managed Care Administration, Healthcare Delivery and Integrated Health, Health Informatics and KPO, Consumer Health.

Reliance Health services over 6 million lives pan-India through Medi Assist, among India's largest Third Party Insurance Administrators. Medi Assist, a Third Party Administrator (TPA) for health insurance, provides a platform for cashless access to a pan-India network of hospitals, clinics, diagnostic centres, laboratories and nursing homes, enabling speedy settlement of medical claims. Reliance Health plans to act as a ‘national distributor’ for local and foreign drug manufacturing companies, and source drugs, medical devices, OTC medicines and other lifestyle products directly from these manufacturers and supply the same to hospital pharmacies, retail chemists and other wellness stores.

Reliance Capital

Reliance Capital, a constituent of S&P CNX Nifty and MSCI India, is one of India's leading, most valuable and fastest growing private sector financial services companies. It has interests in asset management and mutual funds; life and general insurance; private equity and proprietary investments; stock broking; depository services; distribution of financial products; consumer finance; and other activities in financial services.

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Reliance Mutual Fund is India's biggest Mutual Fund. Reliance Life Insurance is one of India's fastest growing life insurance company and among the top four private sector insurers. Reliance General Insurance is one of India's fastest growing general insurance company and among the top three private sector insurers. Reliance Money is one of the leading retail brokerage houses and distributors of financial products in India with over 3 million customers.

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THE BATTLE CONTINUES

The origins of the brothers’ disagreement can be traced to July 2002, when Ambani senior died intestate. Soon, disagreements emerged over the controlling roles of the two brothers, and relations eventually broke down. A truce was brokered in the summer of 2005 by senior banker K V Kamath; Mrs Ambani also played a key role in getting her sons to come to an agreement and sign a “family pact”.

In November 2004, Mukesh Ambani in an interview, admitted to having differences with his brother Anil over 'ownership issues.' He also said that the differences "are in the private domain." He was of the opinion that this will not have any bearing on the functioning of the company saying Reliance is one of the strongest professionally-managed companies. Considering the importance of Reliance Industries to the Indian economy, this issue got an extensive coverage in the media.

The brothers had entrusted their mother, Kokilaben Ambani, to resolve the issue. On June 18, 2005, Kokilaben Ambani announced the settlement through a press release. The split became formal in 2006, with Mukesh taking control of flagship Reliance Industries, with interests in petrochemicals, oil and gas exploration, refining and textiles. He has since launched a retail venture. The Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group got telecom, power, entertainment and financial services. The Group includes Reliance Communications Ltd, Reliance Infrastructure Ltd, Reliance Capital Ltd, Reliance Natural Resources Ltd (RNRL) and Reliance Power Ltd.

The Gas Row

Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani are battling over the delivery of gas from the Krishna Basin. Mukesh wants to revise the price of gas at which Anil can buy from him. The price agreed upon is below market rates, and was arrived at through a 2005 contract which gave Mukesh the rights to India’s gas supply and handed his brother the power plants, which need the gas to generate the country’s energy. The deal was vetoed last year by the Petroleum Minister Murli Deora who said neither company had the right to trade the government’s gas at discounted rates.

The family pact said RIL would supply 28 mscmd of D-6 gas to RNRL for 17 years at $2.34 per mBtu, which is 44 per cent lower than the later government-approved price of $4.2 per mBtu. The government is opposed to the portion of the Ambani family pact that divides the entire gas from D-6 Block between RIL and RNRL.

The legal battle over the terms of this contract is estimated to have already soaked up £20 million in legal fees, but the cost to the country is being measured in much more than just money. Such is the brothers’ wealth and influence in India and across the world that the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, has urged them to put the nation’s interests before their own personal differences.

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RELIANCE IN THE NEWS

Nov:

Reliance Industries is all set to make the country’s biggest global acquisition if it emerges as the successful bidder for bankrupt LyondellBasell - one of the world’s largest polymers, petrochemicals and fuels company. Reliance and LyondellBasell have issued statements confirming a “preliminary non-binding offer” to acquire “a controlling interest” in the world’s third largest independent chemical maker. The bid for LyondellBasell is estimated to be over USD 12 billion, making it the largest ever acquisition by an Indian firm. The biggest-ever deal involving an Indian company is Tata Steel’s takeover of European Corus for USD 12 billion, followed by British telecom giant Vodafone’s purchase of a controlling stake in Indian mobile services provider Hutch Essar for about USD 10 billion.

Nov:

Anil Ambani’s Big Entertainment in collaboration with Plan B (Hollywood actor Brad Pitt’s production house) has joined forces with gaming leader Capcom to develop a feature film based on a game - “Dark Void”.

Nov 24, 2009:

Reliance Industries has reopened 900 gas stations, which were shut down when state firms were selling heavily subsidised fuel

Nov 17, 2009:

Mukesh Ambani is planning to launch a private university in line with the Ivy League institution

Oct 10, 2009:

The bid for the privatisation of five airports was won by the Anil Ambani group's Reliance Airport Developers Ltd (RADL) for 95 years and for a consideration of Rs. 63 crores. The five airports under the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC)

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

http://www.whatisindia.com/issues/reliance/index.html http://www.iloveindia.com/economy-of-india/top-50-companies/reliance-group.html http://inhome.rediff.com/money/2005/jun/21sld5.htm- Key Players http://www.rediff.com/money/2004/dec/21bspec.htm-conflict http://www.diffen.com/difference/Anil_Ambani_vs_Mukesh_Ambani-Anil Vs Mukesh http://www.thecelebritycafe.com/features/36274.html-Current news http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/ambani-sister-brews-huge-javagreen-chain-plan/

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