RELIANCE

Rewrites first paragraph with shippers' comments, adds latest Iran comment in paragraph 3. First vessel transiting in paragraph 4

By Jeslyn Lerh and Nerijus Adomaitis

SINGAPORE/OSLO, April 8 (Reuters) - Shippers said on Wednesday they needed more clarity on the terms of the U.S.-Iran ceasefire before resuming transit through the Strait of Hormuz, as Iran issued fresh warnings about any vessels attempting to sail through the waterway.

The six‑week conflict had brought traffic through the strait - a chokepoint for about 20% of global oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments - close to a standstill, pushing global energy prices sharply higher.

Iran said it would offer safe passage in coordination with its armed forces, though its coastguards warned on Wednesday that any ship attempting to sail without permissions would be "targeted and destroyed".

MAJOR SHIPPING COMPANIES REMAIN CAUTIOUS

The first vessel had transited the Strait with Iran's permission following the ceasefire, its state TV said on Wednesday.

The ship's identity was not immediately clear, but MarineTraffic data showed two Greek-owned and one Chinese-owned bulk carriers passing through since early Wednesday.

Iran has previously agreed safe‑passage arrangements with several countries, including India and Iraq.

Major shipping companies remained cautious.

Denmark's Maersk MAERSKb.CO said the ceasefire may create transit opportunities for vessels but did not yet provide full maritime certainty.

German container carrier Hapag‑Lloyd said it needed to see that the ceasefire holds before starting to take orders for selected markets.

INTEREST PICKS UP AMONG ASIAN REFINERS

Restoring flows to normal could take at least six to eight weeks, its CEO Rolf Habben Jansen told a call with customers.

Lars Barstad, CEO of oil tanker group Frontline FRO.OL, said the firm was still assessing what the ceasefire meant for shipping. "I want to see the fine print," he told Reuters.

Bimco Chief Safety and Security Officer Jakob Larsen warned that vessels leaving the Gulf without prior coordination with U.S. and Iranian authorities would face heightened risk.

Some 187 laden tankers carrying 172 million barrels of crude oil and refined products were inside the Gulf as of Tuesday, according to ship tracker Kpler.

Shipping sources said interest in loading Gulf cargoes had picked up among Asian refiners, as well as trader Glencore and French oil major TotalEnergies TTEF.PA, both of which declined to comment.

Asian economies are the main buyers of oil shipped through the strait and have been hit especially hard by the disruption.

"We expect tankers and oil flowing to Iranian‑friendly countries to be the first ones to transit," said Anoop Singh, global head of shipping research at Oil Brokerage, adding more than 50 VLCCs and about 15 Suezmaxes could soon exit the Gulf.

Britain said on Wednesday it would work with the shipping, insurance and energy sectors to try to restore confidence in use of the Strait of Hormuz.

(Reporting by Jeslyn Lerh, Siyi Liu in Singapore, Bernadette Christina in Jakarta, Stine Jacobsen in Copenhagen, Nidhi Verma in New Delhi, Ahmad Ghaddar in London, Nerijus Adomaitis in Oslo and Renee Maltezou in Athens; reporting; Writing by Florence Tan; Editing by Alexander Smith and David Holmes)

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Adds details from filing, related criminal case, background, paragraphs 4-11

By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK, April 7 (Reuters) - Gautam Adani, India's second richest person, will ask a U.S. judge to dismiss the Securities and Exchange Commission's civil fraud case stemming from an alleged bribery scheme, his lawyers said on Tuesday.

Adani and his nephew Sagar Adani were charged by the SEC in November 2024 with orchestrating a scheme to pay or promise to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes to Indian government officials to benefit Adani Green Energy ADNA.NS, where both men are executives and directors.

The securities fraud case is tied to Adani Green's alleged failure to disclose the scheme in documents for a $750 million bond offering in 2021.

In a filing in the Brooklyn, New York federal court, the Adanis' lawyers said their clients disputed there was any credible evidence supporting the alleged bribery scheme.

The lawyers said the Adanis' lack of involvement in the offering, and the absence of any intent to defraud or negligence, supported a dismissal.

They also called the SEC claims "impermissibly extraterritorial," reflecting how the Adanis and all alleged misconduct were in India, and the bonds were never traded on a U.S. exchange.

The SEC had no immediate comment. Lawyers for the Adanis said they will formally seek a dismissal by April 30.

U.S. prosecutors filed a related criminal case in November 2024 against the Adanis and several other defendants. There have been no public developments in that case since December 2024. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office in Brooklyn declined to comment.

Gautam Adani, 63, founded and chairs the conglomerate Adani Group, and is chairman of Adani Green.

He is worth about $60.6 billion, ranking 30th worldwide according to Forbes magazine.

Mukesh Ambani, chairman of the conglomerate Reliance Industries RELI.NS, is India's richest person, worth about $91.4 billion and ranking 20th worldwide, Forbes said.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York
Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Bill Berkrot)

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April 6 (Reuters) - A unit of India's refiner Reliance Industries has begun loading a 2-million-barrel cargo of Venezuelan heavy crude directly bought from state-run energy company PDVSA, according to a company document and shipping data on Monday.

(Reporting by Marianna Parraga; Editing by Natalia Siniawski)

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By Munsif Vengattil

BENGALURU, April 4 (Reuters) - Welcome to the new-look movie set, where the quiet hum of a coding floor has replaced the cacophony of cameras, clapperboards and shouted directions.

The Collective Artists Network, a top talent agency for Bollywood A-listers, has long brokered the careers of real-life superstars. Now, it’s engineering digital ones. In its Bengaluru premises, filmmakers use artificial intelligence tools to create content based on Hindu mythology – a popular genre in India. One movie, based on the religious text “Ramayana,” has a scene showing the god Hanuman flying while carrying a mountain. A show based on a separate ancient epic, “Mahabharat,” features a sequence depicting the princess Gandhari, who blindfolded herself upon marrying a blind king.

India produces the most movies of any country, and stars such as Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan command cult-like followings. But shifting audience habits, including the rise of streaming, are squeezing production budgets, many industry players say. The number of moviegoers fell to 832 million in 2025 from 1.03 billion in 2019, according to consulting firm Ormax Media. While box-office sales hit a record $1.4 billion last year, revenue has been choppy since the pandemic and reliant on a handful of hits and pricier tickets.

(To view the story on Reuters.com, go to https://www.reuters.com/technology/ai-is-rewiring-worlds-most-prolific-film-industry-2026-04-04/)

Studios in India are responding by deploying AI at a scale unseen elsewhere: creating full-fledged AI-generated films; using AI dubbing to release movies in numerous languages; and recutting endings of older titles to eke out additional sales. In the process, they are reshaping the economics of filmmaking, compressing production timelines, and pitting AI-driven efficiency against a recurring problem: Audiences have often reviewed AI content harshly, even when it sells.

“AI is slashing production costs to one-fifth of what they used to be for traditional filmmaking in genres such as mythology and fantasy,” said Rahul Regulapati, who heads Collective’s AI studio, known as Galleri5. And production time? “Down to a quarter,” he said.

The approach differs from Hollywood, where union contracts and fears of job displacement have constrained studios’ use of the technology. In India, at least one major production house is reviewing its entire library for AI re-releases, and Google GOOGL.O, Microsoft MSFT.O and Nvidia NVDA.O have made early bets by partnering with local filmmakers.

Previous reporting has explored how Indian filmmakers are harnessing AI, and India’s divergence with Hollywood. But Reuters is detailing for the first time the extent to which India’s film industry is reorganizing itself around AI and the economics driving the shift. Reuters visited two AI studios and tested moviemaking tools, attended film festivals and interviewed 25 people for this story, including directors, studio heads, industry executives and startup figures.

American and British studios have experimented with AI filmmaking – producing the first full-length AI animated features in 2024 and an AI-powered immersive version of “The Wizard of Oz” last year.

But the ambitions of India’s filmmakers are on a different level, said Dominic Lees, a film and AI researcher at Britain’s University of Reading. “If they can deliver, then the shift in AI filmmaking will be to India,” he said.

The pivot to AI reflects India’s embrace of the technology broadly. Last year, Reuters detailed India’s wager that leaning in to AI will create enough opportunities to offset shorter-term disruption. AI could boost Indian media and entertainment firms’ revenue by 10% and reduce costs by 15% over the medium term, according to analysis by consulting firm EY.

Vikram Malhotra, founder of Abundantia Entertainment, told Reuters the Bollywood production house, which recently announced investment in an $11 million AI studio, is building its AI capability from scratch and expects content generated or assisted by AI to account for one-third of its revenue within three years.

NEW ENDINGS FOR OLD DRAMAS

Last year, India’s Eros Media World re-released a 2013 hit, “Raanjhanaa,” with an AI-altered twist. It replaced a tragic ending, in which the protagonist died, with a happier finale where he opens his eyes to the surprise of his lover, who smiles through tears.

The rewrite drew backlash. Dhanush, the lead actor, who goes by one name professionally, said on X that the AI remake had “stripped the film of its very soul” and set a “deeply concerning precedent for both art and artists.”

Still, the re-release of “Raanjhanaa” drew audiences. India’s largest cinema chain, PVR Inox PVRL.NS, told Reuters that 35% of available tickets to the Tamil-language version of the movie were sold during its release month, August. That was 12 percentage points higher than the average in 2025.

Now, Eros is going further: Pradeep Dwivedi, its group CEO, told Reuters the studio is reviewing its 3,000-title catalog “to identify candidates for AI-assisted adaptation.” The group’s Indian unit, Eros International, last year warned of “competition from digital platforms” as its consolidated annual revenue from operations fell 44%.

“It’s both a revenue opportunity and a creative renewal strategy,” Dwivedi said of the plans for AI rewrites.

In Hollywood, such alterations would face barriers. Under an agreement with U.S. actors’ union SAG-AFTRA, studios cannot digitally alter an actor’s performance or create a digital replica without the performer’s informed consent. The Directors Guild of America contract bars studios from using AI for creative decisions without consulting the director and prevents AI from doing the work of its members.

Indian studios, by contrast, are pushing into aggressive experiments using AI, including in Hindu mythological tales – big business in a country with millions of devout followers. Collective is planning eight AI-generated titles focused on deities such as Hanuman, Krishna, Durga and Kali.

JioStar, a media joint venture between billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance RELI.NS and Walt Disney DIS.N, has been airing an AI-generated adaptation of the ancient Hindu epic “Mahabharat” – the first episodic series to emerge from Collective's cinematic AI lab.

The AI rendition of the tale about a dynastic war between princes has recorded at least 26.5 million views since its October release on JioStar’s streaming platform, the company told Reuters. An earlier TV adaptation drew 200 million viewers between 1988 and 1990.

The show has faced a rocky reception with audiences, however. “Mahabharat” holds a rating of 1.4 out of 10 on IMDb, with some reviewers criticizing lip-sync issues and others saying some sequences felt low-quality or lacked authenticity due to unnatural styling.

Alok Jain, a senior executive at JioStar, told Reuters the response “has been a mix of appreciation and healthy debate, which is natural for any ambitious creative leap.” He said JioStar is exploring making original stories in AI format.

Some industry figures lament the rise of AI in filmmaking. Jonathan Taplin, an American writer and producer who has worked with Hollywood studios, said the use of AI to create entire feature films is “an affront to the whole history of cinema.”

“It will fill your cinemas and screens with formula slop,” he said.

DUBBING WITH AI

Dubbing may offer a smoother path to acceptance of AI in film.

India’s 22 official languages and hundreds of dialects split the country into micro-markets, making dubbing essential for any movie to become a national blockbuster. Audiences have long griped about mismatched lip movement – a problem AI is beginning to address.

During a Reuters visit to NeuralGarage, an AI startup in Bengaluru that provides dubbing for top studios like Yash Raj Films, co-founder Subhabrata Debnath demonstrated a clip of an AI-generated character speaking in English. He then superimposed a German audio track, and within minutes the character was speaking fluent German, lips and jaw in sync.

Debnath said the technology preserves “the performance, identity and the speaking style of the person” while altering the face enough to make the dubbing look natural.

NeuralGarage’s AI technology was used last year to dub Yash Raj’s Hindi movie “War 2” into the Telugu language of south India. The production house didn’t respond to Reuters questions.

TECH MAJORS MEET THE RED CARPET

Global tech majors also want a piece of the action.

Google partnered with Bollywood director Shakun Batra in August to produce a five-part cinematic series using its Veo 3 video-generation and Flow AI tools to experiment with AI-powered filmmaking. Mira Lane, Google’s vice president of technology and society, told Reuters that AI could also allow independent artists to create complex sequences that “might otherwise be out of reach due to budget or logistical constraints.”

Collective has been working with Microsoft, which told Reuters it is providing AI computing power to help “shape the next wave of global storytelling” through such collaborations.

To bypass the limitations of standard text prompts, Collective uses a hybrid of physical recording and digital animation. Actors wear sensor-equipped motion-capture suits to record body movements as 3D data, while smartphones capture facial expressions. This data is fed into the AI pipeline, allowing for nuanced control over the AI-generated characters.

The ripples are reaching beyond the studio. Globally, festivals dedicated to screening AI-generated shorts have proliferated in cities including Los Angeles, Cannes, and Barcelona. India’s first took place in November at Mumbai’s Royal Opera House, where young storytellers walked the red carpet alongside a dancing robot.

And in February, Nvidia shared the stage with aspiring AI filmmakers at the second edition of India’s AI film fest in New Delhi. Pradeep Gupta, a global vice president of Nvidia, told the audience the company is working to slash computing costs so that anyone can “create something substantial without putting a lot of money” into production.

Anurag Kashyap, a Bollywood director, told Reuters he is concerned about the growth of AI in filmmaking in India and the lack of guardrails around its use. But he grudgingly conceded the economic case for studios to deploy the technology.

“In India, cinema isn’t about art. It’s purely business, so studios are going to use it to make mythologicals,” Kashyap said of AI. “Our audience is a sucker for it.”

(Reporting by Munsif Vengattil in Bengaluru and Mumbai. Additional reporting by Hritam Mukherjee and Sunil Kataria. Editing by Aditya Kalra and David Crawshaw.)

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Repeats with no changes to text

By Trixie Yap

SINGAPORE, March 31 (Reuters) - India's diesel exports to Southeast Asia surged to the highest in more than seven years in March, shipping data showed, as traders pivoted supply to cover short positions and refiners cashed in on higher profits in Asia caused by the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.

The surge in exports could boost spot sale margins for Indian refiners who have purchased large volumes of prompt Russian crude to replace Middle East supply disrupted by the war.

About 1 million metric tons (7.45 million barrels) of diesel have been shipped on this trade route, according to data from analytics firm Kpler and three trade sources, with around half of the volumes bound for Singapore.

Around 90% of these volumes were shipped by Reliance Industries RELI.NS, Kpler data showed, operator of the world's largest refining complex.

Reliance did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

SUPPLY PIVOTS AFTER NARROW EAST-WEST PRICE SPREAD

Traders tapped India's diesel supply for Southeast Asia and Australia after the Middle East conflict disrupted crude supplies to Asia, leading refineries to cut output and countries including China to ban exports of refined products.

"Asian buyers that usually rely on Chinese and northeast Asia must seek alternative supply, with India's Reliance being one of the main candidates in the region," analysts from consultancy FGE NexantECA said.

India is known as a swing supplier in global oil markets as it can sell its refined products either to Europe or Asia, whichever is more profitable.

These shipments will help to ease supply tightness going into April, traders said. Some analysts expect the trend to last in the near term despite the Indian government reinstating export taxes for diesel.

Sparta Commodities' analyst James Noel-Beswick said its arbitrage calculations suggested that the trade flow can continue into August at least.

"India appears firmly committed to keeping its refineries at capacity, and Washington's rather permissive stance on both Russian and Iranian purchases has given it the means to do so," he added.

The U.S. has issued temporary waivers for the sale of Russian and Iranian oil cargoes at sea to ease global prices.

Front month April east-west price spreads, the difference between Singapore paper swaps on a free on board basis and ICE gasoil futures, narrowed to an average discount of $20 a ton in the week of March 27, LSEG pricing data showed, with spreads trading at premiums for some sessions. LGOAEFSMc1

Traders typically deem a discount of less than $40 a ton to be more favourable for them to pivot cargoes to east of Suez markets instead of west.

(Reporting by Trixie Yap; Editing by Florence Tan and Raju Gopalakrishnan)

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March 26 (Reuters) - Reliance Industries Ltd RELI.NS:

• REJECTS RECENT MEDIA REPORTS THAT CO HAS PURCHASED CRUDE OIL OF IRANIAN ORIGIN

Further company coverage: RELI.NS

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By Kane Wu, Aditya Kalra and Vibhuti Sharma

HONG KONG/NEW DELHI, March 25 (Reuters) - Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio Platforms has held talks with 13 marquee foreign investors to sell down 8% of individual stakes in an upcoming Mumbai listing of the telecoms-to-AI company, sources familiar with the matter said.

Ambani's ​Jio Platforms, which houses the world's second-largest telecom company by users after China Mobile 600941.SS, is set to file for approval of its IPO in Mumbai as early as this week.

Big investors on the list include Meta, with a stake of 9.99%, and Google, with 7.73%, followed by Vista Equity Partners and KKR. Three Gulf sovereign funds, the Public Investment Fund, Mubadala and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority are also investors.

The stake sale "would be around 8% for everyone," said one of the two sources involved in the IPO process, who spoke on condition of anonymity as the discussions were confidential.

Reliance and the investors did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

Reuters calculations show each investors' sale of 8% of their holdings effectively implies about 2.5% of Reliance Jio's total outstanding shares offered in the listing, as it has planned.

Meta selling 8% of its 9.99% holding would mean a 0.8% stake sale by the U.S. tech giant, for example.

While the talks have focused on each investor selling 8% of its holding, the final numbers could still change.

(Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

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By Nidhi Verma and Siyi Liu

NEW DELHI/SINGAPORE, March 24 (Reuters) - India's Reliance Industries RELI.NS, operator of the world's biggest refining complex, has purchased 5 million barrels of Iranian crude, days after the U.S. temporarily removed sanctions on the oil, three sources familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

The Indian refiner bought the oil from the National Iranian Oil Co., two of the sources said.

One of them said the crude was priced at a premium of about $7 a barrel to ICE Brent futures. It was not immediately clear when the oil would be delivered.

Iranian oil, which in recent years has mainly been bought by Chinese independent refiners, is often rebranded as originating from another country.

Reliance did not respond to emails seeking comment. NIOC could not be reached for comment.

The Trump administration on Friday issued a 30-day sanctions waiver for the purchase of Iranian oil already at sea. The waiver applies to oil loaded on any vessel, including tankers under sanctions, on or before March 20 and discharged by April 19.

The deal marks India's first purchase of Iranian oil since the world's third-biggest oil importer and consumer halted imports from Iran in May 2019, months after Washington reimposed sanctions on Tehran.

The purchase comes after Indian refiners snapped up more than 40 million barrels of Russian crude after the U.S. announced a temporary sanctions waiver this month to ease supply shortages.

Other Asian refiners including Indian state firms are making checks to see if they can purchase the oil, several sources have said. However, Asia's top refiner Sinopec 600028.SS does not intend to buy Iranian oil, a senior executive at the Chinese state giant said on Monday.

(Reporting by Nidhi Verma in New Delhi and Siyi Liu in Singapore; Editing by Kate Mayberry)

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By Praveen Paramasivam

March 23 (Reuters) - SLMG Beverages, Coca‑Cola's KO.N largest bottler in India, could raise some of its prices if rising packaging costs linked to the war in the Middle East are difficult to absorb, a senior executive at the firm said.

The war is pushing up costs for key packaging materials from plastic bottles to caps, labels and cardboard boxes — with some packaged water manufacturers already raising prices.

"If the war continues, the packaging material cost may continue to move up," Rahul Kumar, deputy CEO at SLMG said in an interview earlier this month, adding price increases would depend on factors including how competitors respond and how consumers react to higher prices.

The cost pressure comes after billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries RELI.NS revived a historic local cola brand, Campa, in 2023, tapping its vast retail network and a nationalist sentiment to ignite a price war.

There is limited room to raise prices in the highly competitive soda market, which includes several national and local players, Kumar said, adding there has not been a portfolio-wide price increase in the past 7–8 years.

He said SLMG will review prices in April.

SLMG RAMPS UP CAPACITY

Competition will boost India's soft drink market by bringing in new consumers, according to Kumar. Redseer Strategy Consultants estimates the country's non-alcoholic ready-to-drink beverages market could double to roughly $40 billion by 2030.

To tap the growth, SLMG — which accounts for more than 22% of Coca-Cola's India volumes — plans to invest between 10 billion rupees ($106.58 million) and 12 billion rupees in each of four new plants it plans to build over five years.

The bottler's sales climbed 49% to 67.73 billion rupees in fiscal year 2025, with net profit jumping 76% to 2.06 billion rupees, according to company database Tofler.

SLMG is now targeting net revenue of 100 billion rupees in 2026–27, as it expands in populous but lower‑income Indian states such as Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, counting on low starting consumption levels and rising incomes to drive greater demand for its products there.

($1 = 93.8275 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Praveen Paramasivam in Chennai; Editing by Ronojoy Mazumdar)

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By Aditi Shah

NEW DELHI, March 20 (Reuters) - Tesla TSLA.O is preparing to enter India's industrial energy storage market, according to a job ad on its website, pitting it against companies controlled by Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani as they deepen investment in the sector as the grid shifts to cleaner power.

The new business will also mark Tesla's expansion in India beyond just electric cars, which it started selling in August.

The company already operates a Megapack business in the U.S. and other markets, supplying large-scale energy storage systems for industrial and utility users.

Tesla's new plan was revealed in a job ad on its website, which said it is looking to hire a business development lead in India to "develop and execute a comprehensive market expansion strategy for industrial energy storage solutions".

The candidate will shape its entry into India for "utility-scale energy storage", it added, without elaborating.

Reuters is first to report Tesla's plan. The company did not respond to a request for comment.

Ambani's Reliance RS.N and Adani's group ADEL.NS also have ambitious plans for India's energy storage sector.

India has set a target to reach 500 gigawatts (GW) of non-fossil fuel energy capacity by 2030 from more than 262 GW at the end of 2025. It needs devices that can store energy during off-peak hours, stabilise the grid and reduce carbon emissions.

The government is encouraging companies to invest in storage systems by providing fiscal incentives and is also working on a national roadmap to enable firms to meet the targets.

(Reporting by Aditi Shah, editing by Aditya Kalra and Louise Heavens)

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Recasts with comments from oil ministry

By Nidhi Verma

March 19 (Reuters) - India, the world's fourth-largest refiner, will review its fuel exports if needed to ensure availability in the local markets, a government official said on Thursday, amid global disruption and soaring oil prices stemming from the Iran war.

"Domestic consumption is priority, and the government will review (the export plan)," Sujata Sharma, a joint secretary in the federal petroleum ministry told a news conference.

India has ordered oil and gas companies to share full details of exports, imports and inventories with a government agency, as the South Asian nation seeks to shield consumers from shortages.

India has designated the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell to compile the information and all companies must share information regardless of any confidentiality obligations.

India has been hit hard by the jump in crude prices and disruption in oil and gas supplies, but unlike China it has not moved to ban exports of refined fuels.

The data will help India in taking faster and "more targeted interventions such as imposing export restrictions or calibrating export flows to meet its own energy security", said Prashant Vashisth, vice president at Moody's affiliate ICRA.

He said India can use its excess refining capacity to prioritise fuel supply to friendly or strategically aligned countries after meeting its local demand.

"Nowadays buyers are willing to pay a higher price. The question is of availability, which is beginning to outweigh prices," Vashisth said.

Any move to curtail fuel exports by India will hit Reliance Industries RELI.NS, the operator of the world's biggest refining complex, as other refiners have largely stopped exporting fuels.

All companies involved in the oil and gas supply chain including oil producers, importers, refiners, fuel and gas retailers, liquefied natural gas importers, pipeline operators, and petrochemical plants were ordered to provide PPAC with data.

India, the world's third-biggest oil importer and consumer, meets over 90% of its oil needs through purchases from overseas.

So far the federal government has said there are adequate crude supplies and refined fuel stocks to meet local demand.

However, the world's second-largest LPG importer is facing its worst cooking gas crisis in decades with shipments from the Strait of Hormuz almost halted due to the war.

India was sourcing more than 40% of its crude imports and 90% of its liquefied petroleum gas imports from the Middle East.

Indian refiners have bought millions of barrels of Russian oil floating on the high seas after Washington granted a sanctions waiver.

The country has invoked emergency powers ordering refiners to maximise production of LPG and cut sales to industry to avoid a shortage for its 333 million homes with LPG connections.

India last week asked consumers to avoid panic buying of LPG cylinders and shift to piped natural gas where possible.

(Reporting by Akanksha Khushi in Bengaluru; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne, Deepa Babington, Kevin Buckland, Alexandra Hudson)

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MUMBAI, March 18 (Reuters) - Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio Platforms has hired 17 banks to manage its Mumbai stock listing, which will see the company raise no new funds and allow exits for some shareholders, four sources familiar with the matter said.

The IPO will be executed as a so-called "offer for sale" in India, three of the sources said, where only existing shareholders sell their shareholding to public.

Reliance did not respond to Reuters queries.

Over the past six years, Jio has diversified into artificial intelligence and raised funds from well-known investors including KKR KKR.N, General Atlantic, Silver Lake and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.

(Reporting by Vibhuti Sharma and Jayshree P Upadhyay in Mumbai and Aditya Kalra in Delhi; Editing by Sumeet Chatterjee and Joe Bavier)

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March 17 (Reuters) - India's Reliance Industries RELI.NS aims to file a draft red herring prospectus for the initial public offering of its telecom unit, Jio Platforms, as early as the end of this month, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Reuters could not immediately verify the report.

(Reporting by Rajveer Singh Pardesi in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)

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** India's Reliance Industries RELI.NS has been defensive amid heightened volatility due to escalating Middle East conflict, says Jefferies

** Middle East supply disruptions boost refining and petrochemical margins, brokerage adds, raising FY27 consolidated EBITDA estimate by 2%

** RELI is trading below its long-term average suggesting limited downside amidst earnings support - Jefferies

** Stock largely flat since start of Iran war on Feb 28 vs Nifty 50's .NSEI 6.9% drop

** Geopolitical chaos is acting as a catalyst for RELI with gasoil, gasoline and jet fuel cracks jumping sharply and lifting oil-to-chemicals business profitability, says Motilal Oswal

** Brokerage estimates ~8.5% upside to FY27 EBITDA if disruptions persist through the H1FY27, citing RELI's diversified feedstock mix and strong integration

** Avg rating of 34 analysts on RELI at "buy"; median PT is 1,702 rupees - data compiled by LSEG

** YTD, RELI down 11.2% vs Nifty's 10.3% decline

(Reporting by Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru)

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MUMBAI, March 12 (Reuters) - India's Jio Credit plans accepted bids worth 10 billion rupees ($108.81 million) for its five-year bond sale, three bankers said on Thursday.

It will pay an annual coupon of 7.66% and had invited commitment bids for the issue earlier in the day, they said.

The company did not respond to a Reuters email seeking comment.

Here is the list of deals reported so far on March 12:

*Size includes base plus greenshoe for some issues

(Reporting by Dharamraj Dhutia and Khushi Malhotra)

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The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.

By Shritama Bose

MUMBAI, March 11 (Reuters Breakingviews) - India's hunger for energy imports remains its Achilles heel. Pair that with a war roiling the petro-states of the Gulf, home to some 10 million Indian expatriates who account for 38% of the country's inward remittances, and it's easy to see why the U.S.-Israel war against Iran has put the world's fifth-largest economy on edge.

Opposition politicians jeered Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, India's foreign minister, on Monday during his speech in parliament on the conflict after crude shot up to $119 a barrel and the Indian rupee hit a fresh low of 92.35 against the U.S. dollar. It was already the worst-performing major Asian currency in 2025.

There will be limited relief from Washington's green light for Indian companies including Reliance Industries RELI.NS to buy otherwise-sanctioned Russian oil. Juicy discounts on that supply narrowed long ago, and now there will be more competition from other buyers.

And in a situation of very limited supply, India's stockpile can only meet its needs for 25 days, per a Reuters report citing refining sources. India's demand for liquefied natural gas is a problem too. It imports 80% of its needs from the Middle East. New Delhi on Tuesday curbed supply to industries, a day after extending waiting periods for cooking gas.

India has multiple levers it can pull to shield consumers from any price shock. New Delhi can ask state-backed fuel retailers like Bharat Petroleum BPCL.NS and Indian Oil IOC.NS to absorb the increased cost. At a pinch, the government could cut excise duties, albeit at the cost of a wider budget gap. Inflation in India is also low: retail prices grew 2.75% year-on-year in January.

Protecting the rupee, however, is harder. Bigger fiscal deficits in national accounts will hurt. India's central bank intervened on Monday to stem the currency's slide. Though the price of oil receded to $92 per barrel after U.S. President Donald Trump claimed the war would be over "very soon", it remains volatile. If it held at $100 per barrel for three months, India’s current account deficit could rise to 2% of GDP from the baseline assumption of 1.6%, according to Gaura Sengupta, an economist at IDFC First Bank. That would be close to the 2.3% level clocked in 2008-09, soon after the global financial crisis.

India's currency is already suffering from weak net foreign direct investment and capital outflows, in part because of worries about the threat new artificial intelligence tools pose to India's services exports. A prolonged war in the Middle East will really grease the rupee's problems.

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CONTEXT NEWS

India does not expect inflation to rise substantially from a jump in global crude oil prices triggered by the war in the ​Middle East, as domestic price levels remain near the lower end ‌of the central bank's tolerance band, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on March 9.

The Indian rupee fell to an all-time low of 92.3475 against the U.S. dollar on the same day, as surging crude prices sparked concerns over growth and ​inflation in the world's fifth-largest economy.

(Editing by Una Galani; Production by Aditya Srivastav)

((For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can click on BOSE/[email protected]))

By Nidhi Verma

NEW DELHI, March 9 (Reuters) - India's Reliance Industries Ltd RELI.NS has bought at least 6 million barrels of Russian oil for March delivery after supplies from the Middle East were hit due to the Iran war, two industry sources with knowledge of the matter said.

Indian refiners have purchased millions of barrels of prompt Russian oil cargoes stuck at sea since Washington last week granted New Delhi a 30-day waiver from sanctions for cargoes loaded on vessels as of March 5.

Reliance bought the cargoes of Russian flagship grade Urals oil at prices ranging from a discount of $1 to a premium of $1 to dated Brent, one of the sources said.

Reliance did not respond to an emailed request for comment.

India, the world's third-biggest oil importer, imports about 40% of its oil from the Middle East through the Strait of Hormuz.

India was the top buyer of Russian seaborne crude after Moscow's 2022 Ukraine invasion, but in January its refiners started to reduce purchases under pressure from Washington.

(Reporting by Nidhi Verma
Editing by Tomasz Janowski)

(([email protected]; X: @nidhi712;))

March 6 (Reuters) - Reliance Industries Ltd RELI.NS:

• RELIANCE CONSUMER PRODUCTS SIGNS MOU WITH FINNISH FOODS MAJOR FAZER

• PARTNERSHIP TO PRODUCE, MARKET, DISTRIBUTE BRANDED PREMIUM CHOCOLATES

Source text: ID:nBSE9HqwKd

Further company coverage: RELI.NS

(([email protected];;))

By Nidhi Verma and Jarrett Renshaw

NEW DELHI/WASHINGTON, March 5 (Reuters) - Indian refiners are buying millions of barrels of prompt Russian crude oil cargoes as the South Asian nation seeks to navigate an oil supply crunch triggered by the Middle East conflict, six sources familiar with the matter said.

For months, the U.S. has pressured New Delhi to avoid buying Russian barrels as Washington seeks to reduce money flowing to Moscow's war effort in Ukraine.

India is vulnerable to energy supply shocks, with crude stocks covering only about 25 days of demand. India gets about 40% of its oil imports from the Middle East through the Strait of Hormuz.

India was the top buyer of Russian seaborne crude after Moscow's 2022 Ukraine invasion, but in January, its refiners started to reduce purchases under pressure from Washington.

Cutting Russian oil purchases helped New Delhi avoid 25% tariffs and clinch an interim trade deal with the U.S.

It is unclear whether the United States has allowed India to increase Russian purchases to offset potential Middle Eastern supply losses.

A source directly invloved with the matter said India had approached U.S. President Donald Trump's administration seeking approval to buy Russian crude imports due to the Iran conflict.

India's oil and foreign ministries did not respond to Reuters emails seeking comments. The White House and the U.S. Treasury Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

State refiners Indian Oil Corp IOC.NS, Bharat Petroleum Corp BPCL.NS, Hindustan Petroleum Corp HPCL.NS and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd MRPL.NS are talking to traders for prompt delivery of Russian cargoes, according to the Reuters sources.

One of the sources said Indian state refiners have bought about 20 million barrels of Russian oil from traders so far.

HPCL and MRPL last received Russian oil in November, according to data obtained from industry sources.

The traders are selling Russian Urals to India at a premium of $4-$5 per barrel to Brent on a delivered basis for arrival at Indian ports in March and early April, three of the sources said.

This is in contrast to a discount of about $13 per barrel for cargoes traded in February, traders said.

HPCL had bought two cargoes of Russian oil at a $13 discount before the war started on February 28.

"India refiners are back in the market...nowadays more than prices, availability of molecules is the issue," said one of the traders involved in Russian oil sales to India.

This source said Reliance Industries RELI.NS also approached his company for purchase of prompt Russian oil cargoes.

Refiners in India had already started tapping Russian oil aboard vessels floating off the country's coast to make up for the loss of Middle Eastern crude, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said earlier in the day.

Indian refiners did not immediately respond to Reuters emails sent out after business hours.

(Reporting by Nidhi Verma in New Delhi and Jarrett Renshaw in Washington; Editing by David Gregorio)

(([email protected]; X: @nidhi712;))

March 3 (Reuters) - Reliance Industries Ltd RELI.NS:

• JIO PLATFORMS: NAMES DAN BAILEY AS PRESIDENT, JIO PLATFORMS TO LEAD INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS INITIATIVES

Further company coverage: RELI.NS

(([email protected];))

** Reliance Industries' RELI.NS new businesses, such as battery manufacturing, set to meaningfully contribute to FY earnings from current fiscal year, JP Morgan says

** Adds new businesses expected to become significant EBITDA driver over next 3-4 years

** Notes co's battery packs, including 5 kWh and 10 kWh systems, could see large-scale adoption once production ramps up

** Maintains "overweight", with PT of 1,675 rupees, saying manufacturing ramp-up, commissioning remain key catalysts for growth

** RELI down 0.9% at 1,394.20 rupees; Nifty 50 .NSEI trading 0.4% lower

** Stock rated "buy" on avg; median PT is 1,702 rupees, per data compiled by LSEG

** YTD, RELI down 11.3%

(Reporting by Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru)

(([email protected]))

Feb 25 (Reuters) - Reliance Industries Ltd RELI.NS:

• RELIANCE ENTERPRISE INTELLIGENCE ALLOTTS SHARES WORTH 5.97 BILLION RUPEES TO RELIANCE INTELLIGENCE

• RELIANCE ENTERPRISE INTELLIGENCE ALLOTS SHARES WORTH 2.57 BLN RUPEES TO FACEBOOK OVERSEAS

• UNIT HOLDS 70% STAKE OF RELIANCE ENTERPRISE INTELLIGENCE, 30% HELD BY FACEBOOK

Source text: ID:nBSEJDPW

Further company coverage: RELI.NS

(([email protected];;))

HOUSTON, Feb 24 (Reuters) - U.S. oil major Chevron CVX.N has sold its first cargo of Venezuelan crude oil to India's Reliance Industries RELI.NS since December 2023, according to ship tracking data and two sources.

Chevron CVX.N negotiated the Boscan crude cargo to Reliance this month, marking the first sale of the heavy oil, which is used in asphalt making, in about six years, according to the data and sources.

(Reporting by Arathy Somasekhar and Marianna Parraga in Houston)

(([email protected]; +1 832 610 7346; X: @ArathySom; https://www.linkedin.com/in/arathy-somasekhar-b7724371/))

Updates for mid-day trade

By Bharath Rajeswaran and Vivek Kumar M

Feb 20 (Reuters) - Indian share benchmarks overcame initial jitters and rose by the mid-day trading session on Friday, as heavyweight stocks clawed back some of the previous session's losses.

The Nifty 50 .NSEI added 0.54% to 25,592.6, and the BSE Sensex .BSESN rose 0.48% to 82,897.3, as of 12:11 p.m. IST. They had fallen about 0.3% at the open, extending a 1.5% decline in the previous session, their steepest single-day drop in over two weeks.

Fifteen of the 16 major sectors traded higher. The broader small-caps .NIFSMCP100 and mid-caps .NIFMDCP100 added 0.1% and 0.5%, respectively.

"What we are seeing today is more of a tactical bounce from Nifty 50's 200-day simple moving average (SMA) of around 25,300 points," said Naveen Vyas, head of family office at Anand Rathi Global Finance.

Heavyweights Reliance Industries RELI.NS and ICICI Bank ICBK.NS rose 0.9% and 0.7%, respectively, on Friday, after a 2.2% and 1.4% drop in the previous session.

Meanwhile, the volatility index - a measure of the market's expected volatility for the next 30 days - spiked this week to 14.36, just shy of an eight-month high hit in the run-up to the federal budget on February 1.

This comes after Brent crude oil prices rose to $72 per barrel amid tensions in the Middle East. Higher crude prices are a negative for India as it is the world's third-largest crude oil importer. O/R

"We are still not out of the woods. If Brent crude surpasses $75 per barrell and stays at that level for a couple of months, that could put further pressure on Indian equities," said Vyas.

The IT index .NIFTYIT was the sole loser among major sectors, down 0.5% as ongoing concerns over the impact of AI-linked disruption on earnings continued to weigh.

(Reporting by Vivek Kumar M and Bharath Rajeswaran; Editing by Rashmi Aich, Ronojoy Mazumdar and Harikrishnan Nair)

(([email protected];))