RELIANCE

Jan 16 (Reuters) - Reliance Industries Ltd RELI.NS:

• JIO PLATFORMS Q3 CONSOL PAT 76.29 BILLION RUPEES

• JIO PLATFORMS Q3 CONSOL REVENUE FROM OPERATIONS 372.62 BILLION RUPEES

Further company coverage: RELI.NS

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

By Shritama Bose

MUMBAI, Jan 15 (Reuters Breakingviews) - China-India ties are beginning to thaw. New Delhi may lift a five-year-old ban on companies from the People's Republic bidding for official contracts to revive commercial ties with its neighbour. That potentially paves the way to further lift curbs on Chinese investments too, but any easing will be capped by both sides.

India is planning to scrap restrictions, imposed after a deadly 2020 border clash, on Chinese bidders in government infrastructure and other projects, Reuters reported on January 8, citing sources. Alongside smoother visa approvals, it signals willingness to reciprocate China's gradual easing of export curbs on rare earth magnets after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to China in September.

The urgency to go further is rising. Net foreign direct investment into the country fell in the year to March 2025, though that is starting to pick up. Even so, strained bilateral ties with Washington mean the $4 trillion economy is grappling with a 50% tariff on exports to the United States, its top trading partner.

Moreover, despite border tensions, India's trade deficit with China has doubled over the last five years to $99 billion for the year ended March 2025. Under the current policy of applying extra scrutiny on Chinese-origin investments, the approval rate is just 15%, a person familiar with the matter told Breakingviews, implying a decent pipeline of investments waiting in the wings.

An easy place to start would be in manufacturing. Local smartphone operations from Apple AAPL.O to Xiaomi 1810.HK, for example, rely on mostly low-tech machinery, chips, displays, batteries and other inputs imported from China. Allowing some of those suppliers to set up factories in India makes sense. The same is true for textiles and plastics.

Yet trust issues persist. New Delhi is unlikely to open the floodgates in strategic sectors where it wants to protect its own domestic firms. In solar power, Adani Enterprises ADEL.NS has invested huge sums but remains highly dependent on Chinese panel makers. That might open a door for firms like JinkoSolar JKS.N and Longi Green Energy 601012.SS to establish a toehold in the market.

But in other areas like electric vehicles, India's appetite for Chinese investments will reach its limits. The $120 billion BYD 002594.SZ is hoping to manufacture in India but faces opposition from established groups like Mahindra & Mahindra MAHM.NS and Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles TAMO.NS.

Officials might demand BYD build its marques and batteries from scratch locally, potentially in partnership with an Indian group. That would require a degree of technology transfer that Chinese firms are unlikely to agree to: Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing sources, that Reliance Industries RELI.NS has paused plans to build lithium-ion batteries after it failed to license technology from Xiamen Hithium Energy, which the Indian group denies.

India's courting of Chinese capital only goes so far.

Follow Shritama Bose on LinkedIn and X.

CONTEXT NEWS

India's Ministry of Finance plans to scrap five-year-old restrictions on Chinese firms bidding for government contracts, Reuters reported on January 8, citing two unnamed official sources.

New Delhi is weighing a proposal to exempt offshore investments for holdings of up to 26% in local companies from additional screening requirements introduced in 2020, Mint newspaper reported on January 1, citing two unnamed people familiar with the matter. The exemption will apply as long as the foreign entity exercises no management control and holds no seat on the company’s board, the report added.

(Editing by Robyn Mak; Production by Ujjaini Dutta)

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

Updates for morning trade

By Bharath Rajeswaran

Jan 13 (Reuters) - India's stock benchmarks inched lower on Tuesday, as a drop in Reliance Industries and profit-taking in TCS and HCLTech after the IT services firms' quarterly results weighed on sentiment.

The Nifty 50 .NSEI fell 0.1% to 25,766.7, while the Sensex .BSESN shed 0.09% to 83,803.86, as of 10:24 a.m. IST.

Both benchmarks had opened about 0.4% higher.

They rose 0.4% each on Monday after declining for five consecutive sessions, as expectations grew that India-U.S. trade talks could regain momentum after a U.S. envoy said that New Delhi and Washington would discuss trade issues in a call later in the day.

While expectations of progress in trade talks spurred a rally in the last session, "U.S. President Donald Trump's weaponisation of tariffs continues to weigh on markets," said V.K. Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Investments.

Oil prices rose as unrest in Iran fanned fears for supplies, while Trump warned that any country doing business with Iran will be hit by a 25% tariff. O/R

Higher oil prices negatively impact importers of the commodity, such as India. O/R

Reliance Industries RELI.NS fell 1.1%, after rising 0.5% on Monday. The oil-to-telecom conglomerate had lost 7.4% last week after the company said it does not expect any Russian crude oil deliveries.

IT index .NIFTYIT fell 0.4%, dragged by HCLTech HCLT.NS and TCS TCS.NS, which fell 2% and 0.1%, respectively.

HCLTech posted a third-quarter revenue beat but narrowed FY26 growth guidance to 4%–4.5% from 3%–5%, indicating a fourth-quarter sequential decline on product business seasonality, CLSA said.

Nomura sees limited visibility for TCS on growth leadership and flat margins in FY27.

Ten of the 16 major sectors logged losses. The broader small-caps .NIFSMCP100 rose 0.5% and mid-caps .NIFMDCP100 lost 0.2%.

Top private lender HDFC Bank HDBK.NS rose 0.6% after CLSA reiterated its "Outperform" rating, as concerns over moderate deposit growth and the loan-to-deposit ratio are misconceived.

(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran and Vivek Kumar M in Bengaluru; Editing by Sumana Nandy and Rashmi Aich)

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By Dmitry Zhdannikov, Marianna Parraga and Shariq Khan

LONDON, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Global oil trading houses have emerged as early winners in the race to control Venezuelan crude flows, getting ahead of U.S. energy majors wary of credit and legal risks and securing a potentially lucrative business opportunity in the country with the world's largest crude reserves.

U.S. President Donald Trump said U.S. majors would invest billions of dollars in Venezuela to quickly rebuild its dilapidated oil sector following the U.S. capture of President Nicolas Maduro earlier in January. Trump met top oil executives at the White House on Friday as his administration outlines a long-term plan to raise $100 billion to boost Venezuelan oil output.

The first companies to secure any business in the wake of the U.S. military action in Caracas, however, were Dutch-based trader Vitol and Singapore-headquartered peer Trafigura, rather than U.S. majors.

The U.S. government tapped the giant merchant houses because they were better suited to quickly get Venezuelan oil exports flowing again, four industry sources familiar with the negotiations said. That is the first order of business for Washington before reconstruction can begin, so that revenue from exports under U.S. supervision can fund the government of interim President Delcy Rodriguez in Caracas.

"Securing and marketing the initial barrels of Venezuelan crude oil was done at record speed to benefit both the American and Venezuelan people," a White House official told Reuters.

Venezuela relies on oil exports for revenue, and has been starved of those proceeds for about a month under a blockade Trump imposed as he raised pressure on Maduro.

Washington and Caracas are finalizing a $2 billion deal to sell up to 50 million barrels of crude to U.S. refiners and other buyers - oil that had been stuck on ships in Venezuelan waters and in storage tanks because of the blockade.

Facilitating the initial oil sales was critical to ensure funds could flow back into Venezuela for everyday services and a process is in place to maintain the steady flow of production, sales, and refining of Venezuelan crude oil, the White House official said.

Trafigura and Vitol have secured preliminary special licenses to negotiate and export the Venezuelan crude, and Trafigura is set to load its first cargo this week, Chief Executive Richard Holtum said at the White House meeting with Trump.

GLOBAL NETWORK ADDED TO TRADERS' APPEAL

The trading houses competed with Chevron CVX.N to secure the supply deals. Chevron is the only U.S. oil major that operates in Venezuela, as a minority partner in joint ventures with Venezuelan state oil firm PDVSA. Chevron has a license from U.S. authorities, which exempts it from the sanctions the United States had imposed to choke off oil revenues to Maduro.

Trafigura is among the very few companies that can execute a deal of this size and complexity thanks to its scale, global shipping fleet and logistics network, Trafigura said.

Vitol said it has a long history of working on complex transactions requiring agile logistics, operations and finance.

The traders also won the Venezuelan oil export deals because they have a higher risk tolerance and are more nimble than major publicly traded oil companies, said three participants at the White House meetings.

Legal teams and advisors have discouraged some big U.S. oil producers from getting involved in the initial oil shipments due to the potential for Venezuelan creditors to seize the revenue, one of the sources said.

"How can it be guaranteed that creditors will not resort to legal action in the U.S. or elsewhere?," said one advisor to a U.S. oil company on Venezuelan affairs.

The U.S. government told the trading companies it would provide protection by controlling the bank accounts linked to the sales and shielding proceeds from creditors, three sources familiar with the matter said.

Trump moved quickly on Friday to do that. He issued an executive order blocking courts and creditors from impounding revenue from the sale of Venezuelan oil held in U.S. Treasury-controlled accounts, the White House said on Saturday.

Venezuela owes more than $150 billion in foreign debt. Among creditors are the same oil companies that Trump wants to help rebuild Venezuela's industry. ConocoPhillips COP.N and Exxon Mobil XOM.N are still trying to recover almost $14 billion related to asset expropriations 20 years ago.

INVEST AND REBUILD

Trump and his team have told the oil companies they need to invest and rebuild the sector first, and that any debt repayment would come later.

U.S. oil companies would also be more reluctant to take the compliance risk involved in selling oil from tankers that have been blacklisted by Washington for their involvement in sanctioned oil trade, three shipping sources said.

Many vessels in the shadow fleet that ship sanctioned oil are old and have unknown or outdated insurance arrangements and safety certifications, which are required for entry into many ports. They do not meet the stringent chartering requirements of big U.S. oil companies, two of the sources said.

Another factor that may have contributed to U.S. majors' reluctance for more involvement in short-term oil trade is their investment in China, one source said. The majors have tens of billions of dollars invested in China.

Beijing has condemned the U.S. action in Venezuela. China is among Venezuela's largest creditors, and PDVSA has been servicing that debt by paying with oil shipments.

Most of the $2 billion of oil in the deal being finalized was initially set for shipment to Chinese refiners. Chinese independent refiners have been the top buyers of Venezuelan crude since the U.S. imposed sanctions on the country's main traders in 2020.

Big U.S. oil companies want to see the U.S. lift sanctions on oil trade and for Venezuela to enact the legal framework that would make it attractive for them to work with Venezuelan entities and invest in the country.

EXXON CEO CALLS VENEZUELA 'UNINVESTABLE'

At the White House meeting with Trump, Exxon CEO Darren Woods called Venezuela "uninvestable" and said security guarantees and a reform of its hydrocarbon law were needed before Exxon could return to the country. Venezuela had twice expropriated Exxon's assets in the past, Woods said.

Trump on Sunday said he might block Exxon from investing in Venezuela. "I didn't like Exxon's response," he said.

Conoco CEO Ryan Lance said at the same meeting that his company was the largest non-sovereign creditor, with some $12 billion in pending compensation for expropriation of assets. Trump told Lance the U.S. would not look back at what had previously been lost in the country.

Under the framework of their new deals, the trading houses would also supply lighter oil to Venezuela that it needs to dilute its heavy oil for exports, two sources said. Vitol were set to load the first cargo of that fuel this past weekend, oil industry sources said on Saturday.

(Reporting by Dmitry Zhdannikov and Jonathan Saul in London, Marianna Párraga and Arathy Somasekhar in Houston, Shariq Khan in New York and Jarrett Renshaw in Washington DC; writing by Liz Hampton; editing by Simon Webb, Diane Craft and Jason Neely)

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By Nidhi Verma and Marianna Parraga

NEW DELHI/HOUSTON, Jan 9 (Reuters) - India's Reliance Industries is seeking approval from the U.S. to resume purchases of Venezuelan crude, two sources familiar with the matter said on Friday, as the private refiner looks to secure oil amid Western pressure on India to cut Russian oil purchases.

Reliance's representatives are in discussions with the U.S. State and Treasury departments to obtain the authorization, the sources said, as Washington and Caracas progress in negotiations to ship 50 million barrels of oil in the aftermath of the U.S. capture of President Nicolas Maduro.

The Indian conglomerate had received licenses from Washington in past years to import crude from U.S.-sanctioned Venezuela for its refining complex, the world's largest.

Venezuela's oil company PDVSA delivered Reliance four crude cargoes or some 63,000 barrels per day in the first four months of 2025 under those authorizations, according to PDVSA's internal records. Washington suspended most licenses to PDVSA's business partners between March and April and threatened Venezuela's oil buyers with tariffs as it increased pressure on Maduro.

Reliance's last cargo of Venezuelan oil arrived in India in May 2025.

Reliance said on Thursday that it would consider resuming purchases of Venezuelan crude if sales to non-U.S. buyers are permitted under U.S. regulations.

The company and the U.S. Treasury Department did not immediately respond to Reuters emails requesting comment on Reliance seeking approval to resume purchases.

Chevron, Vitol, Trafigura and other oil companies are vying for licenses and control over Venezuelan oil exports. U.S. President Donald Trump is meeting with oil executives at the White House later on Friday. The South American producer has millions of barrels of crude stuck in onshore tanks and vessels.

U.S. officials have said they would control Venezuelan oil exports indefinitely, and that some oil would flow to non-U.S. buyers. U.S. President Donald Trump said China, the largest buyer of Venezuelan oil, will not be deprived of barrels.

Reliance is willing to buy Venezuelan oil from U.S. companies and others with drilling rights in Venezuela if crude is offered at attractive rates, said one of the sources.

Venezuelan oil supplies could help replace some Russian supplies to India. Reliance was the biggest Indian buyer of Russian oil but has said it would not receive any cargo of Russian crude this month as India is under pressure from Trump to stop importing Russian barrels.

Reliance's two refineries in western Gujarat state, with a combined capacity of about 1.4 million bpd of crude oil, allow it to process cheaper and heavier crudes such as Venezuela's Merey.

Reliance and PDVSA have a long-standing relationship, and India was the third most important market for Venezuela's crude before the U.S. imposed sanctions on oil trade, taking some 400,000 bpd.

(Reporting by Nidhi Verma and Marianna Parraga; Editing by Nia Williams)

(([email protected]; X: @nidhi712;))

LONDON, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Urals and Caspian crude oil differentials were stable on Thursday, as traders digested a loading programme for Azeri BTC crude in February.

• Azeri BTC crude oil exports from the Turkish port of Ceyhan have been set at around 519,000 barrels per day in February, down by around 1% from January's scheduled total, a loading schedule seen by Reuters showed on Thursday.

PLATTS WINDOW

• No bids or offers were reported to Reuters from the Platts Window on Thursday for Urals, Azeri BTC and CPC Blend.

NEWS

• India's Reliance Industries Ltd, operator of the world's largest refining complex, said on Thursday it would consider buying Venezuelan oil if it is permitted for sale to non-U.S. buyers.

• A Russia-bound oil tanker suffered a drone attack in the Black Sea that prompted it to request Turkish coast guard assistance and divert from its course, according to a notice by Lloyd's List Intelligence and a separate maritime security source on Thursday.

• Iraq's cabinet has approved plans to nationalise operations at the West Qurna 2 oilfield, one of the world's largest, as the government looks to avert disruptions stemming from U.S. sanctions imposed on Russian stakeholder Lukoil LKOH.MM.

(Reporting by Robert Harvey
Editing by Alan Barona)

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LONDON, Jan 7 (Reuters) - Urals and Caspian crude oil differentials were steady on Wednesday in trade thinned by public holidays in Russia and Kazakhstan as well as loading delays for CPC Blend.

• The Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) terminal near the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk resumed crude loadings on Monday from SPM-1, with SPM-3 now expected to return from maintenance in mid-January, two sources told Reuters on Tuesday. SPM-2 remains offline after a Ukrainian drone strike in late November.

• Talks on trading CPC Blend crude have stalled because of the loading delays, three traders told Reuters this week. Loading issues could prompt some refiners to use substitute regional grades, one trader said.

PLATTS WINDOW

• No bids or offers were reported to Reuters from the Platts Window on Wednesday for Urals, Azeri BTC and CPC Blend.

NEWS

• The U.S. seized a Russian-flagged oil tanker that was being shadowed by a Russian submarine on Wednesday after pursuing it for more than two weeks across the Atlantic as part of Washington's efforts to block Venezuelan oil exports, U.S. officials said.

• The Iraqi cabinet has granted approval for state-run Basra Oil Company (BOC) to manage petroleum operations in the West Qurna 2 oilfield, in accordance with provisions of a service contract signed with Russia's Lukoil, the government said in a statement.

• The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said on Wednesday that it had received updated plans from Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kazakhstan and Oman on their plans to compensate for oversupply.

(Reporting by Robert Harvey
Editing by David Goodman)

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LONDON, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Angolan crude was heard to be in ample supply for February loading due to lacklustre demand, while traders awaited buying tenders planned by Indian refiners.

* Only half of Angola's programs for February had found buyers, a trader said, leaving a relatively large volume available for this point in the monthly trading cycle.

* Angola has around 29 crude oil cargoes in February, according to a preliminary loading schedule seen by Reuters, up around 7% from January's scheduled total.

* Angola's Hungo was offered at dated Brent minus $0.40, higher than the minus $2.20 offered in December, the trader added. Bidding levels were not known.

* Traders were also awaiting buying tenders from Mangalore Refining and Petrochemicals Ltd. and Indian Oil Corp expected for Wednesday.

* In the wider market, Nigeria's Dangote refinery has dismissed reports of a shutdown, saying production remained stable and uninterrupted despite ongoing maintenance.

* Reliance Industries <RELI.NS> said on Tuesday it was not expecting any Russian crude oil deliveries in January, which could cut India's Russian oil imports during the month to the lowest in years. That comes after U.S. President Donald Trump warned he could further raise import tariffs on India over its Russian oil purchases.

* India is a major importer of crude from the West African region, and also saw its monthly fuel consumption in December hit the highest in oil ministry data going back to April 1998.

(Reporting by Seher Dareen in London
Editing by Mark Potter)

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Jan 5 (Reuters) - Trishakti Industries Ltd TELI.BO:

• TRISHAKTI INDUSTRIES LTD - GETS CONTRACT VALUED UPWARDS OF 14 MILLION RUPEES

Source text: ID:nBSE6PgFyl

Further company coverage: TELI.BO

(Reporting by Abhirami G from Bengaluru)

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Updates for morning trade

By Bharath Rajeswaran and Vivek Kumar M

Jan 1 (Reuters) - India's equity benchmarks were muted on Thursday in the first trading session of 2026, as gains in heavyweights Reliance Industries and Mahindra & Mahindra countered a decline in ITC following the announcement of a new tax on cigarettes.

The Nifty 50 index .NSEI rose 0.03% to 26,136.8, while the BSE Sensex index .BSESN gained 0.02% to 85,239.28, as of 10:20 a.m. IST. Eight of the 16 major sectors rose.

Reliance Industries RELI.NS, the second heaviest stock on the benchmarks, added 1%, starting the New Year on a positive note. Shares of the conglomerate jumped 29% in 2025, its best year in five, on strength in retail and telecom segments and steady profitability in the oil-to-chemicals segment.

The auto index .NIFTYAUTO rose 0.4% as monthly sales data for December trickled in.

Mahindra & Mahindra MAHM.NS gained 1% after posting a rise in December auto sales. Tractor maker Escorts Kubota ESCO.NS and bus maker SML Mahindra SMLM.NS climbed 1.6% and 4.7%, respectively, on robust sales.

On the other hand, cigarette makers ITC ITC.NS and Godfrey Phillips GDFR.NS fell 5.8% and 10%, respectively, after the government imposed excise duty on cigarettes from February.

ITC dragged the fast-moving consumer goods index .NIFTYFMCG 2.2% lower.

"Benchmarks are expected to remain sideways with selective buying amid thin trading volumes due to New Year holidays across global markets," said Siddhartha Khemka, head of research of wealth management at Motilal Oswal Financial Services.

Quarterly earnings, India-U.S. trade negotiations and the union budget will decide the near-term market trajectory, Khemka said.

India's broader small-caps .NIFSMCP100 and mid-caps .NIFMDCP100 lost 0.5% and 0.2%, respectively.

Among other stocks, Piccadily Agro PICA.NS climbed 12% after the sugar company started commercial production at its Chhattisgarh unit.

Blue Dart BLDT.NS advanced 5.3% after the goods and services tax authority dropped a 4.21 billion rupees tax demand.

(Reporting by Vivek Kumar M and Bharath Rajeswaran; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu and Mrigank Dhaniwala)

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By Sarita Chaganti Singh

NEW DELHI, Dec 29 (Reuters) - India is seeking over $30 billion in compensation from Reliance Industries RELI.NS and BP BP.L in an arbitration case for gas it says the companies failed to produce from offshore fields, according to three people with knowledge of the matter.

A tribunal has been hearing the dispute in India since 2016 over gas produced from two deepwater fields, D1 and D3, in the D6 block of the Krishna Godavari basin, seven individuals with knowledge of the proceedings said. Final arguments took place on Nov. 7, they said.

The three-member tribunal is expected to deliver its verdict in mid-2026, two people aware of the hearing schedule said. The verdict can be challenged in Indian courts, several people said.

Reuters is reporting the case and India's $30 billion claim for the first time.

The D1 and D3 fields, India’s first major deepwater gas project, were seen as key to bolstering the country’s energy independence when first developed. However, the high-profile project was plagued by production difficulties related to water ingress and reservoir pressure, as well as cost-recovery disputes with the government, and failed to live up to initial production hopes, previous public statements by Reliance and the government show.

In 2012, the oil ministry told parliament in a written statement that prior to commencing the work on the D6 gas fields, Reliance had estimated the recoverable reserves from D1 and D3 at 10.3 trillion cubic feet (tcf) before revising that down to 3.1 tcf.

A Reliance spokesperson said that the arbitration is confidential and did not comment on the case. A spokesperson for London-based BP, a Reliance partner in the fields, declined to comment.

Spokespeople for India's federal oil, law and information ministries, and the prime minister's office, did not reply to multiple requests seeking comment.

The gas block, located in the Bay of Bengal off the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, was awarded by the Indian government in 2000 to Reliance, a company controlled by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, under a production sharing contract.

The $30 billion claim is the largest ever pursued by the Indian government against a corporation and centres on its allegation that mismanagement by the companies resulted in the loss of most of the reserves in D1 and D3, three people said.

In 2011, Reliance sold a 30% stake in 21 oil-and-gas production sharing contracts (PSCs) that Reliance operates in India, including the KG-D6 block, to BP for $7.2 billion.

Under the production sharing contract between Reliance and the Indian government, disputes must be settled by a mutually agreed arbitration tribunal.

Two individuals said that the government argued in the arbitration that Reliance had estimated recoverable gas reserves from D1 and D3 fields at about 10 trillion cubic feet but had produced only about 20% of that.

The government said that Reliance and BP should pay the government the value of the shortfall, two people said. In their arguments to the tribunal, Reliance and BP disputed that they owed anything to the government, the two people said.

In a public statement in February 2020 to announce it had ceased production at the D1 and D3 fields, Reliance said that overall production from the block that includes those fields had reached 3 tcf of gas equivalent. It was not clear from the statement how much of the gas came from the D1 and D3 fields.

Under the contract with the government, Reliance and its partners were allowed to recover costs from gas and oil sales before sharing profits with the government, both Reliance and the government have said in previous public statements. The government's profit share was 10% in the first year and under the contract could rise subsequently once costs were recovered, the government has said in previous public comments.

During the arbitration hearings, the government justified its demand of $30 billion in compensation by saying that it owned any gas discovered under the contract and that mismanagement had led to most of the reserves being lost, two people said.

It alleged that Reliance mismanaged the fields by pursuing what the government argued was “unduly aggressive” production methods, which involved extracting gas from fewer wells than the number initially planned, two people said.

The government says Reliance used only 18 wells, instead of 31 planned, without adequate infrastructure, which resulted in damage to the reservoir, they said.

(Reporting by Sarita Chaganti Singh; Editing by Aftab Ahmed, Tony Munroe, Neil Fullick.)

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The views expressed here are those of the author, the founder and CEO of Emmer Capital Partners Ltd

By Manishi Raychaudhuri

HONG KONG, Dec 23 (Reuters) - India's flagship equity indices, Sensex .BSESN and Nifty 50 .NSEI, are near all-time highs, despite underperforming many Asian peers. Yet this exuberance hides another reality: many stocks are trading near their 52-week lows. These beaten-down names may offer investors some attractive year-end bargains.

While Indian equities are up some 9.5% for the year as a whole, this rally is concentrated in a relatively small group of firms.

When looking at the shares of 828 Indian companies with more than $500 million in market value, stocks of 109 were within 5% of their 52‑week lows and another 139 were only slightly above this level, as of December 5. In combination, these two categories of flagging stocks are roughly double the number of large Indian stocks trading close to 52‑week highs.

It's easy to assume these stocks are cheap for a reason, but, in many cases, their fundamentals tell a different story. For many of these laggards, earnings growth forecasts are robust, their balance sheets are healthy, and their valuations remain reasonable.

In fact, 14 of the 109 beaten‑down stocks clear a high bar, with expected earnings per share growth of more than 10% through 2027, low net debt, and price‑to‑earnings ratios at or below their forecast growth, according to the FactSet consensus.

Many are well‑known, liquid stocks, including four companies worth over $1 billion: Inox Wind INWN.NS, the telecommunications firm HFCL HFCL.NS, Tata Chemicals TTCH.NS, and logistics heavyweight Blue Dart BLDT.NS. All have strong projected earnings growth, with Blue Dart's forecast coming in the lowest at a still strong 28%.

WHAT SANK THEM?

Their declines are not driven by any sector-specific issue, so why have they lagged?

Mostly because of idiosyncratic factors and investors' narrow focus on the artificial intelligence theme.

Inox Wind started the year looking expensive with a PE ratio of 29.6, and its July share issuance, priced below the market, raised concerns about dilution for minority shareholders.

Valuation was also a concern for Blue Dart at the beginning of 2025, as it was trading at a lofty 41 times earnings. Sentiment then worsened sharply after the government issued a demand for additional taxes on one of its subsidiaries in September.

Meanwhile, Tata Chemicals suffered due to a drop in the price of soda ash - its key product - and a production outage at its plant in the U.S.

Finally, HFCL has disappointed investors, as it started out the year with a high P/E ratio of 36.4 only to see revenue fall 24% in the first nine months. On top of this, its owners borrowed money using more than half of their shares as security, raising concerns that lenders might sell those shares if the price fell further.

None of these issues are insurmountable, but in a year when India fell out of favour with many foreign investors, even small concerns had a disproportionately large impact on stock prices.

YEAR-END BARGAIN-HUNTING

Another key issue weighing on many Indian equities this year has been the omnipresence of the artificial intelligence theme, which has dominated investor attention to the detriment of other themes and stocks. Markets often misprice stocks during these dramatic single‑theme phases, enabling “weaker” shares to eventually outperform, if the underlying fundamentals are strong.

This recently occurred in India as many solid companies that were heavily sold off in 2024 came to be stellar performers in 2025.

At the end of 2024, 98 stocks were trading at or near their 52‑week lows. Of these, 18 were "quality" companies, with strong earnings growth forecasts, solid balance sheets and reasonable growth‑adjusted valuations. Fifteen – nine of which had market capitalisations above $5 billion – have gone on to beat the Indian market’s 9.5% return this year through December 22.

Again, these companies had strong earnings forecasts, and their P/E ratios, with the exception of Reliance Industries’ RELI.NS, were at or below their expected growth rates. In hindsight, therefore, their impressive performance in 2025 was unsurprising.

Of course, this pattern may not play out again this year, especially given India’s still-elevated trade tensions with the U.S. Moreover, good investment options do become harder to come by in markets that have rallied sharply.

But, in reality, even in a strong market, one can often identify high‑quality stocks whose prices have been left behind. It’s just a matter of searching hard, and in the right places.

(The views expressed here are those of Manishi Raychaudhuri, the founder and CEO of Emmer Capital Partners Ltd and the former head of Asia-Pacific Equity Research at BNP Paribas Securities.)

Enjoying this column? Check out Reuters Open Interest (ROI), your essential new source for global financial commentary. ROI delivers thought-provoking, data-driven analysis of everything from swap rates to soybeans. Markets are moving faster than ever. ROI can help you keep up. Follow ROI on LinkedIn, and X.

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(Writing by Manishi Raychaudhuri
Editing by Marguerita Choy)

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** Shares of Reliance Industries RLCH.NS rise 1.8% to 1,572 rupees, their highest level since December 1

** Stock hits its biggest intraday percentage gain since November 26

** Reliance Consumer Products, FMCG arm of Reliance Industries, acquires a majority stake in Udhaiyams Agro Foods, owner of Tamil Nadu's heritage nutrition brand Udhaiyam

** RELI rated "buy" by 34 analysts on average; median target price is 1,685 rupees, according to data compiled by LSEG

** Stock up 29.3% YTD

(Reporting by Rudra Pratap Singh in Bengaluru)

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Dec 18 (Reuters) - Reliance Industries Ltd RELI.NS:

• RELIANCE CONSUMER PRODUCTS ACQUIRES TAMIL NADU’S HERITAGE NUTRITION BRAND ‘UDHAIYAM’

Source text: [ID:]

Further company coverage: RELI.NS

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

By Shritama Bose

MUMBAI, Dec 9 (Reuters Breakingviews) - India’s trade frictions with Washington are rippling through the rupee INR=IN. Its sharp 3% decline against the U.S. dollar USD= since late October, when the United States slapped fresh sanctions on two Russian oil producers, equals the currency's entire loss of value in 2024. Overall it has fallen more than 5% against the greenback this year, making it Asia’s worst performer. It's a sobering reality check for New Delhi.

A steady rupee was one of the defining features of India’s moment on the global stage in recent years. It underpinned macro stability, and lured fund managers to redirect capital to the world’s fifth-largest economy as sentiment toward China cooled. That's all changed after U.S. President Donald Trump pushed tariffs on U.S. imports from India up to 50% - including an additional 25% levy to pressure New Delhi to cut oil purchases from Russia.

Now the South Asian country's goods exports are shrinking and it logged a record trade deficit of $41.7 billion in October. Indian refiners, including Reliance Industries RELI.NS, are also weaning themselves off cheap crude from Moscow, and the higher cost of energy imports will eventually show up on the country’s external balance of payments.

True, India’s economy is stronger than in 2013, when fears of the U.S. Federal Reserve's winding down of asset purchases triggered an exodus of foreign money. Both its current account deficit and the central government's fiscal deficit have narrowed, and the Reserve Bank of India now sits on $686 billion of foreign exchange reserves - enough to cover more than 11 months of imports, up from about six months in 2013. But India's fortunes are a sharp contrast to China's, whose trade surplus just topped $1 trillion for the first time despite punitive U.S. tariffs.

U.S. trade representatives are set to visit India this week, but until a favourable deal materialises and the rupee stabilises, global investors accustomed to the currency's steady moves will hesitate to deploy fresh capital.

For now, India is serving more as a fundraising hub: foreign institutional investors have offloaded nearly $30 billion of Indian equities since September 2024 -- the second-largest absolute outflow in two decades, according to Goldman Sachs. For a country eager to attract inflows, the stakes in its standoff with Washington are rising fast.

Follow Shritama Bose on LinkedIn and X.

CONTEXT NEWS

The Indian rupee closed at 89.98 per U.S. dollar on December 5 after hitting an all-time low of 90.42 the prior week. The Reserve Bank of India will tolerate a weaker rupee as the country's external sector confronts a wider trade gap and stalling of dollar inflows, Reuters reported on December 4, citing three sources familiar with the central bank's thinking.

(Editing by Una Galani; Production by Aditya Srivastav)

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

By Munsif Vengattil and Aditya Kalra

BENGALURU, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Amnesty International has said India's review of a telecom industry proposal to mandate always-on satellite location tracking on phones for better lawful surveillance was "deeply concerning" and puts data of human rights defenders at risk.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has long pushed telecoms companies to give more precise locations of individuals under investigation.

The telecoms operators say the best way to achieve this would be for the government to order smartphone manufacturers to permanently enable location tracking on phones. Reuters reported on Friday that the government is reviewing that proposal.

The discussions are being privately opposed by big smartphone firms Apple AAPL.O, Google GOOGL.O and Samsung 005930.KS, due to privacy and security concerns.

In a statement to Reuters, Amnesty International said location data can be "incredibly revealing" and can expose personal and professional connections, such as the confidential sources who meet journalists or human rights groups.

"This is deeply concerning. At a time where surveillance scandals are a mushrooming global threat, states should be working on improving their practices and safeguards, not forcing people to reveal yet more sensitive data," Amnesty said.

India's IT and home ministries, which are reviewing the plan, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Monday about the backlash.

Amnesty has in the past denounced India's surveillance practices including alleged use of Pegasus spyware to target journalists and activists -- allegations Modi's government has repeatedly denied.

A fierce privacy debate erupted in India last week after Reuters first reported another confidential directive from the government to preload a state-run cyber safety app on all smartphones. India was forced to revoke the order following outcry from activists and politicians over fears of snooping.

"Why are we out to convert India into a 'Surveillance State'?" Senior Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala said on X, criticising the proposal to track phone locations.

A large number of Indian users on X joined Surjewala and other privacy activists to condemn the plan, with one user framing it as turning phones into "digital ankle monitors".

(Reporting by Munsif Vengattil and Aditya Kalra
Editing by Peter Graff)

(([email protected];))

** Reliance Industries RELI.NS gains 5.2% in November and is on track for a jump of about a 16% in three months

** RELI shares rise as much as 1.1% on the day to a 16-month high; last trading 0.5 higher%

** Multiple brokerages including J.P. Morgan, Investec and Jefferies reiterate a positive view on RELI this week, citing improving earnings and double-digit growth in retail, consumer and oil-to-chemicals businesses

** Jefferies maintains "buy" and raises PT to 1,785 rupees from 1,780 rupees

** Expects gains in consumer business in 2026 due to deepening distribution in staples, beverages, beauty segments

** Notes stronger festive demand is boosting retail profitability, with elevated refining margins also a positive

** Likely telecom tariff hikes and a planned IPO of Jio Platforms in the first half of 2026 to also support earnings - Jefferies

** YTD, RELI is up ~29%, surpassing Nifty 50's .NSEI 11% rise

(Reporting by Urvi Dugar in Bengaluru)

(([email protected];))

Adds details, background from paragraph 2 onwards

Nov 26 (Reuters) - A Reliance Industries RELI.NS joint venture will invest $11 billion over five years to develop 1 gigawatt of AI data capacity in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, the companies and the state's government said on Wednesday.

Canadian multinational company Brookfield Corporation BN.TO and U.S.-based real estate investment trust Digital Realty DLR.N are the other partners involved in the joint venture, called Digital Connexion.

The project aims to establish an AI-native data centre campus across 400 acres of land in Andhra Pradesh's Visakhapatnam city.

In October, Google GOOG.NS disclosed it will build AI data centre capacity in Visakhapatnam over five years, set to be the tech major's largest-ever AI hub outside of the U.S.

The recent boom in AI, which requires vast amounts of computing data, has fuelled a corporate rush to pour money into the technology globally and has led to an unprecedented growth in data centres across the world.

India's data centre capacity is expected to more than triple to 4.5 gigawatt by 2030 from current levels, according to real estate consultant Colliers.

Last week, Indian IT firm TCS TCS.NS also unveiled a partnership with private equity firm TPG TPG.O to invest $2 billion in equity to form a joint venture aimed at developing AI data centres.

(Reporting by Abhirami G and Hritam Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala and Janane Venkatraman)

(([email protected];))

Nov 25 (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co Ltd 005930.KS:

• SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS: CHAIRMAN JAY Y. LEE DISCUSSES EXPANDING COOPERATION WITH RELIANCE INDUSTRIES CHIEF MUKESH AMBANI IN SEOUL

Source text: [ID:]

Further company coverage: 005930.KS

MUMBAI, Nov 14 (Reuters) - India's Jio Credit plans to raise 5 billion rupees ($56.89 million) through sale of bonds maturing in five years, three bankers said on Friday.

The company invited bids from bankers and investors on Monday, they said.

Jio Credit, formerly know known as Jio Finance, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Jio Financial Services.

Jio Credit did not reply to a Reuters email for comment.

Here is the list of deals reported so far on November 14:

*Size includes base plus greenshoe for some issues

($1 = 88.6950 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Dharamraj Dhutia; Editing by Harikrishnan Nair)

(([email protected]))

Nov 13 (Reuters) - Reliance Industries Ltd RELI.NS:

• RELIANCE INDUSTRIES-CENTRAL GOODS AND SERVICES TAX, APPEAL COMMISSIONERATE - AHMEDABAD IMPOSING ON COMPANY A PENALTY OF 570.7 MILLION RUPEES

Source text: ID:nBSETzNgT

Further company coverage: RELI.NS

(([email protected];))

** Investec says Reliance Industries' RELI.NS $100 mln JV with Meta Platforms META.O a major step in India's AI-driven digital growth

** RELI announced the JV at its AGM on August 29

** Adds, JV a "strategic collaboration" that combines RELI's strong infra, digital network with META's AI expertise and will deliver affordable, secure and scalable AI services

** Avg rating from 34 analysts on RELI at "buy"; median PT is 1,680 rupees - data compiled by LSEG

** On the day, RELI climbs 2% to 1,480 rupees

** Benchmark Nifty 50 .NSEI up 0.5%

** YTD, stock up nearly 22% vs Nifty's 9.6% climb

(Reporting by Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru)

(([email protected]))

By Lewis Jackson and Aditi Shah

BEIJING/NEW DELHI, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries RELI.NS is rushing to get its orders of battery components out of China ahead of new export curbs, two people briefed on the matter said, as concerns mount worldwide about how Beijing intends to enforce its widening export control regime.

A team from Reliance has travelled to China to speed up the work, one of the sources said.

Reliance and China's Ministry of Commerce did not respond to a request for comment. The people declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the situation.

Chinese companies are world leaders in electric battery technology and to maintain that competitive edge Beijing introduced new rules this month requiring companies to seek permission before exporting battery supply chain equipment. The new curbs take effect on Nov. 8.

At least a dozen other foreign customers of the Chinese battery sector are in a similar situation to Reliance, said the second source, who said some were foregoing quality assurance or other final stages of manufacturing to get goods shipped more quickly.

"Who cares if it hasn't been painted yet or the screws haven't been checked," the second source said. "They are saying we'll do the testing once it lands, just get it out the door."

CHINA HAS MAJOR ROLE IN BATTERY SUPPLY CHAIN

Without the Chinese gear, Reliance cannot fulfill its plan to locally assemble or produce batteries to store energy from its mega solar power project being championed by the Indian government to cut dependence on fossil fuels, the person added.

China's battery makers account for six out of the top ten players globally, according to consultancy SNE Research. The people did not say which Chinese companies supplied Reliance.

CATL, China's largest battery maker, said in a statement to Reuters it was confident exports to its factories overseas would proceed smoothly under the new export regime.

"The export of equipment and materials needed for our plants in Europe is progressing as planned," it said.

China exported $48 billion worth of batteries in the first eight months of this year, up 26% compared to the same period last year, according to Chinese customs data.

China's battery export action adds to concerns about the risk of being dependent on Beijing for key technologies that can become caught up in trade conflicts.

China's export controls on rare earths have highlighted the risks of being dependent on one supplier. The curbs, introduced in April, led to shortages that threatened to cripple car production around the world.

Chinese battery makers are reassuring foreign customers that nothing so drastic is likely to happen for batteries and export licences should be granted quickly and widely within a few months of the new regime starting, the second source said.

But in the meantime foreign companies have to play a waiting game.

"It is a very tense situation," said the first source.

(Reporting by Lewis Jackson in Beijing and Aditi Shah in Delhi; additional reporting by Zhang Yan in Beijing; Editing by Brenda Goh and Jane Merriman)

(([email protected]; [email protected]))

NEW DELHI, Oct 23 (Reuters) - Reliance Industries Ltd RELI.NS, the top Indian buyer of Russian oil, plans to adjust crude imports from Moscow to align with guidelines from the Indian government, a company spokesman said, after the U.S. and Europe ramped up sanctions against Russia.

"Recalibration of Russian oil imports is ongoing and Reliance will be fully aligned to GOI (Government of India) guidelines on the extent of recalibration," Reliance said in response to a Reuters query on whether the company plans to cut its crude imports from Russia.

(Reporting by Nidhi Verma; Writing by Florence Tan; Editing by Sonali Paul)

(([email protected];))

** Shares of India's largest co by market cap Reliance Industries RELI.NS rise as much as 3% to 1460 rupees

** Stock top gainer on benchmark Nifty 50 index .NSEI, which is up 0.7%

** Co's Q2 profit rises nearly 10% yoy

RETAIL SEGMENT BEATS EXPECTATIONS, O2C IN LINE

** Morgan Stanley ("overweight", PT at 1,701 rupees) says earnings quality strong across divisions

** Jefferies ("buy", cuts PT to 1,780 rupees from 1,785 rupees) says oil-to-chemical business in line with expectations, retail segment delivered above estimates

** Bobcaps ("buy", PT at 1,655 rupees) says retail growth momentum to continue in Q3 on festive demand, supported by GST rationalisation

** Emkay ("buy", raises PT to 1,680) says healthy quarter for RELI, driven by better than expected growth in retail segment

(Reporting by Komal Salecha)

(([email protected];))

Updates for morning trade

By Bharath Rajeswaran

Oct 17 (Reuters) - India's equity benchmarks reversed early losses on Friday, pushing Nifty 50 to a one-year high, as gains in Reliance Industries ahead of its results outweighed losses in Infosys and Wipro, which fell on margin concerns despite robust earnings.

The Nifty 50 .NSEI rose 0.42% to 25,693.3, highest since October 1, 2024 while the BSE Sensex .BSESN added 0.50% to 83,887.58 as of 10:36 a.m. IST. Both the indexes fell about 0.2% at open.

The benchmarks ended Thursday at three-month highs and now sit less than 3% below their record peaks reached in September 2024.

Markets are witnessing a bullish consolidation following a recent rally, and ahead of the results of ICICI Bank ICBK.NS, HDFC Bank HDBK.NS on Saturday and Reliance RELI.NS post market on Friday, said two analysts.

Reliance and ICICI Bank rose 0.9% and 0.6% respectively, while HDFC Bank gained 0.4%.

"Good results from HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank can support the market and if Reliance also joins the rally, after its results, the market can sustain the momentum further," said VK Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Investments.

Ten of the 16 major sectors logged gains. The broader small-caps .NIFSMCP100 advanced 0.2%, while mid-caps .NIFMDCP100 shed 0.1%.

The IT sub-index .NIFTYIT dropped 1.3%, with Wipro WIPR.NS slipping 4.5% despite beating second-quarter revenue estimates, as analysts raised concerns about margin pressures stemming from deal ramp-ups and recent acquisitions.

Infosys INFY.NS also lost 1.8% after reporting strong September-quarter results.

However, the company's profit margins missed estimates, and its fiscal 2026 revenue outlook of 2%-3% was seen as overly conservative, according to CLSA.

Among individual stocks, Asian Paints ASPN.NS rose 5% to emerge as the top percentage gainer on Nifty 50, helped by a drop in oil prices - a key input cost for paintmakers. O/R

Nestle India NEST.NS climbed 1.2%, after gaining 4.5% on Thursday on reporting a rise in sales and volume growth in the September quarter.

Zee Entertainment ZEE.NS fell 3% after reporting a sharp drop in second-quarter profit.

(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Sumana Nandy)

(([email protected]; +91 9769003463;))

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own. Refiles to add conversion of Indian rupee into US dollar in the second paragraph.

By Shritama Bose

MUMBAI, Oct 16 (Reuters Breakingviews) - All that glitters isn't gold when it comes to India's richest man. When Mukesh Ambani lists his telecom business in Mumbai next year, it will be a blockbuster event for the country's capital markets but it also will crystallise underwhelming returns for the world's biggest tech companies, private equity firms and sovereign wealth funds who backed his consumer unit in 2020. It heralds a reset of how foreigners view tycoons and competition in the country.

Five years ago when the Covid pandemic was shaking the world, Ambani's conglomerate Reliance Industries RELI.NS sold 1.5 trillion rupees ($16.99 billion) of stock in Jio Platforms to investors led by Meta Platforms META.O, KKR KKR.N and Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund; the flood of funds into India at the time was so large it caused a spike in foreign direct investment.

At 5.16 trillion rupees including debt, or $59 billion at current exchange rates, the landmark fundraising valued Jio's enterprise at 23 times its EBITDA, a multiple twice its nearest rival Sunil Bharti Mittal's Bharti Airtel and one reminiscent of a fast-growing technology startup.

Part of the hype was justified. The telecom unit Ambani founded in 2016 rose quickly by launching a bruising price war and was given a wide berth by India's competition authorities. Jio became the country's top provider of mobile services and helped to push down data tariffs to the lowest in the world. It even accelerated the bankruptcy of Reliance Communications RLCM.NS, led by Ambani's brother Anil. By the time Ambani welcomed outside investors, India's telecoms market had shrunk to a quasi-duopoly with a joint venture between Britain's Vodafone VOD.L and Kumar Mangalam Birla as a weak third player.

Fast forward and Jio had 498 million voice and data customers as of June 30 . Yet while this consumer business within Ambani's oil-to-retail conglomerate has continued to grow, it also has failed to live up to expectations in some striking ways.

Five years on from its fundraising, Jio's enterprise, including net debt, is valued at 10.6 trillion rupees, based on an average estimate of six brokers. That is nearly twice the value investors assigned it in 2020 or equivalent to an annualised return of nearly about 15%, one percentage point more than the annualised gross return of the MSCI India Index over a five year period. Private equity investors typically target returns of 20% and much higher in India.

Measured a different way, Jio's potential return could be even lower. The enterprise is worth just 8.7 trillion rupees if it is valued on 10 times its EBITDA, the same multiple Bharti Airtel commands. At that valuation, Jio would hand its backers including KKR, Silver Lake and TPG, an annualised return of just over 10%.

One problem is that Jio does not look like a "next generation technology platform". In 2020, Jio talked up a dazzling list of investments across its "digital ecosystem" including in "smart devices, cloud and edge computing, big data analytics, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, augmented and mixed reality and blockchain". Although Jio doesn't have legacy 3G infrastructure to manage like its rivals, it still makes 87% of its revenue and 94% of its EBITDA from its basic communications unit Reliance Jio Infocomm RELJ.NS rather than from digital services, per CLSA analysts.

What's more, Jio's customers spend less than Airtel's. Average revenue per user has grown 60% over the last five years to 209 rupees ($2.37) but that lags the 250 rupees Airtel's India users churn out. Airtel's EBITDA margin for India and South Asia is also higher than Jio's by a staggering 770 basis points and its current offerings in cloud and artificial intelligence services closely mirror its challenger's.

Nor does Jio appear to have delivered on its strategic ambitions. Meta's Facebook pumped $6 billion in for a 10% stake but Ambani - whose Reliance conglomerate is also the owner of India's biggest retailer - did not lure millions of small grocers to transact on the payments system on WhatsApp, the U.S. company's social messaging platform - as was widely expected.

The rise of quick-commerce operations by Prosus-backed Swiggy SWIG.NS and Zomato-owner Eternal ETEA.NS killed Reliance Retail's 2022 attempt to enable grocery shopping through the messaging app. Similarly, Alphabet's Google GOOGL.O invested $4.5 billion in Jio but demand for the low-cost smartphone the duo launched in 2021 was weak; the telecom operator's wide reach didn't guarantee it a market.

Ambani's backers underestimated the strength of competition in India. They would have been better off if they had backed Bharti Airtel. Its shares have returned roughly 40% annually, including dividends, since 2020, significantly more than Jio looks set to deliver. Google enjoyed some of those spoils by hedging its bets: In 2022 it invested up to $1 billion in Jio's rival.

If Jio's returns are underwhelming, crystallizing them will be tough too. Ambani will need to launch one of India's largest initial public offerings. If 5% of the company's outstanding shares swap hands at a $120 billion valuation, Jio's bankers would need to find new owners for $6 billion of stock. That would be far too much for India's capital markets to swallow: Hyundai Motor India's HYUN.NS 279 billion rupee offering in 2024 remains the country's largest IPO, followed by Life Insurance Corporation's LIFI.NS 210 billion rupee deal in 2022.

Ambani could offer half the amount of stock or roughly $3 billion, using new rules from the Securities and Exchange Board of India but that would leave financial investors with billions of dollars of investments in Jio waiting for an exit; strategic investors, who may be willing to sit on their positions, bought about half of the $17 billion Jio initially raised.

Some of Jio's backers may still conclude that the investment was worth it. The dominance of family-led businesses in India often means that striking partnerships is increasingly seen as a matter of survival rather than choice for global companies and a way to protect themselves in the market. Global asset manager BlackRock BLK.N and China-founded online fast-fashion Shein are among others who are partnering with Ambani.

Yet an underwhelming payoff from Jio will strengthen the case for more scrutiny when foreign investors choose their local alliances in the future.

Follow Shritama Bose on LinkedIn and X.

CONTEXT NEWS

Reliance Industries will list its telecommunications unit by mid-2026, Chair Mukesh Ambani said at the conglomerate's annual shareholder meeting on August 29. "We are aiming to list Jio by the first-half of 2026, subject to all necessary approvals," he said.

Jio Platforms is targeting India's largest-ever initial public offering, IFR reported on September 5, citing unnamed bankers.

(Editing by Una Galani; Production by Aditya Srivastav)

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

Repeats story published during Asian hours; no changes to text

By Munsif Vengattil and Aditya Kalra

BENGALURU, Oct 15 (Reuters) - At a startup office in this Indian city, developers are fine-tuning artificial-intelligence chatbots that talk and message like humans.

The company, LimeChat, has an audacious goal: to make customer-service jobs almost obsolete. It says its generative AI agents enable clients to slash by 80% the number of workers needed to handle 10,000 monthly queries.

"Once you hire a LimeChat agent, you never have to hire again," Nikhil Gupta, its 28-year-old co-founder, told Reuters.

Cheap labor and English proficiency helped make India the world's back office — sometimes at the expense of workers elsewhere. Now, AI-powered systems are subsuming jobs done by headset-wearing graduates in technical support, customer care and data management, sparking a scramble to adapt, a Reuters examination found.

That's driving business for AI startups that help companies slash staffing costs and scale operations — even though many consumers still prefer to deal with a person.

This account of the disruptive changes transforming India's $283 billion IT sector is based on interviews with 30 people, including industry executives, recruiters, workers and current and former government officials. Reuters also visited two AI startups and tested voice and text chatbots that handle increasingly sophisticated customer interactions in human-like ways.

Rather than pump the brakes as the technology threatens jobs built on routine tasks, the country is accelerating, wagering that a let-it-rip approach will create enough new opportunities to absorb those displaced, Reuters found. The outcome of India's gamble carries weight far beyond its borders — a test case for whether embracing AI-driven disruption can elevate a developing economy or render it a cautionary tale.

The global conversational AI market is growing 24% a year and should reach $41 billion by 2030, consultancy Grand View Research estimates.

India — which relies on IT for 7.5% of its GDP — is leaning in. In a February speech, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said "work does not disappear due to technology. Its nature changes and new types of jobs are created."

Not everyone shares Modi's confidence in India's preparedness. Santosh Mehrotra, a former Indian official and visiting professor at the University of Bath's Centre for Development Studies, criticized the government for a lack of urgency in assessing AI's effects on India's young workforce. "There's no gameplan," he said.

Business process management employs 1.65 million workers in call centers, payroll, and data handling in India. Hiring has plummeted due to increased automation and digitalization, despite rising demand for AI coordinators and process analysts, said Neeti Sharma, CEO of staffing firm TeamLease Digital.

Net headcount in the segment, which represents one-fifth of IT output, grew by fewer than 17,000 workers in each of the past two years, down from 130,000 in 2022-2023 and 177,000 in 2021-2022, TeamLease Digital figures show.

Reuters spoke to three current and five former customer-service workers, who described increasing job insecurity and integration of AI, including tools that suggest responses and bots that handle nearly all routine queries autonomously.

Megha S., 32, was earning $10,000 a year at a Bengaluru-based software solutions provider. She said she was laid off last month, just before India's festive season, as the company moved to implement AI tools to review the quality of sales calls.

"I was told I am the first one who has been replaced by AI," said Megha, who spoke on the condition that her full name and former employer not be identified. "I've not told my parents."

Sumita Dawra, a former labor ministry secretary who oversaw an Indian government taskforce on AI's impact on the workforce before retiring in March, said while the technology offered productivity gains that would lead to new jobs, India could consider stronger social security measures, such as unemployment benefits, to help those displaced during the transition.

However, a senior Indian official told Reuters the government believed AI would ultimately have little impact on overall employment. India's IT and labor ministries, and Modi's office, didn't respond to requests for comment.

AUTOMATION GOLD RUSH

Besides AI, factors clouding the outlook for India's IT sector include U.S. tariffs; a proposal by a U.S. lawmaker for a 25% tax on firms using foreign outsourcing services; and President Trump's $100,000 fee on new H-1B visas, which are widely used by tech firms to sponsor Indian workers.

Investment bank Jefferies predicted in September that India's call centers would face a revenue hit of 50% — and around 35% for other back-office functions — from AI adoption over the next five years.

That would spell near-term job losses in India, which accounts for 52% of the global outsourcing market.

"The biggest impact is going to be on young students coming out of college," said Pramod Bhasin, who in the 1990s established India's first call center with 18 employees for GE Capital, where workstations were partitioned by saris strung from the ceiling.

In the longer run, India could transition from "back office" to the world's "AI factory" by capitalizing on demand for AI engineers and automation deployment, said Bhasin, who went on to found IT services firm Genpact.

One beneficiary of that demand is LimeChat, which Reuters visited in August. Gupta, the co-founder, said his developers and engineers have helped automate 5,000 jobs across India. The company's bots handle 70% of customer complaints for its clients, and it plans to achieve 90-95% within a year, he said.

"If you're giving us 100,000 rupees per month, you are automating the job of at least 15 agents," said Gupta. At that price — about $1,130 — the service costs roughly the same as three customer-care staff, he said.

LimeChat's sales soared to $1.5 million in 2024 from $79,000 two years earlier, regulatory disclosures show. Last year, the firm began integrating Microsoft's Azure language models and algorithms in a partnership to launch a new e-commerce chatbot.

Among Gupta's clients is Indian ayurvedic products firm Kapiva, which has deployed a LimeChat bot for customer interactions over WhatsApp.

Keying in a prompt — "What kind of diet should I have to reduce weight?" — yielded an AI meal-plan creator. A follow-up query in English and Hindi about how a slimming juice differs from another item was also answered, with the chatbot eventually sharing links to Kapiva products with a smiling emoji. Kapiva didn't respond to Reuters questions.

LimeChat's rivals include Reliance RELI.NS, the conglomerate chaired by Mukesh Ambani, which acquired Indian startup Haptik in 2019.

Haptik says it offers "AI agents that deliver human-like customer experiences" that cost $120 and can cut support costs by 30%. Revenue skyrocketed to almost $18 million last year from less than $1 million in 2020, disclosures show.

Haptik promoted a webinar in September by posing the question: "What if you had a full-time employee who never sleeps and costs just 10,000 rupees?"

"We are seeing a huge shift," Haptik product manager Suji Ravi said in the webinar, which Reuters reporters attended. "Brands are not investing in human agents and they want to deploy AI agents."

For LimeChat client Mamaearth, an Indian personal-care brand, the main attraction of AI chatbots is scalability, said Vipul Maheshwari, head of product and analytics at parent firm Honasa Consumer HONA.NS.

"Providing good customer support is make or break for us," he said. "But can we infinitely scale my customer support team? Absolutely not."

The chatbot used by Mamaearth could go beyond simple assistance like order tracking, and help users with queries such as recommending the right products during pregnancy or, in some cases, handle an agitated customer, Maheshwari said.

COFFEE WITH NEHA

The promise and perils of AI are evident at The Media Ant. The Bengaluru-based advertising agency cut 40% of its workforce to about 100 over the past year and vacated space in another building to save on rent, said founder Samir Chaudhary.

The firm eliminated 15 salespeople, replacing them with AI bots that identify leads and send emails to prospective customers, Chaudhary said. A six-member call center was replaced with a voice agent called Neha that speaks in near-flawless, Indian-accented English.

When a Reuters reporter asked Neha about advertising on YouTube, she sought details about the budget and target markets, noted the requirements, and ended the conversation cheerfully: "I will email you the details ... have a great day."

"Ask her out for a coffee and she will laugh it off," Chaudhary said.

Yet the race to embrace AI isn't always smooth for companies.

Take Sweden's Klarna. Chatbots helped the fintech firm cut thousands of jobs last year, but its CEO told Reuters in September the company is now "trying to course correct" and use the technology to improve products rather than reduce costs.

Chatbots have limitations. While most generic e-commerce-related queries posed by a Reuters reporter were handled well by LimeChat bots, some stumped them.

When LimeChat client Knya's bot was asked for proof of its claim that a million medical professionals trust its products, such as its stethoscopes, it replied: "I am sorry, I don't have enough information to answer your question." Knya didn't respond to a request for comment.

Customer surveys show chatbots are still disliked by many.

An August 2024 EY survey of 1,000 Indian consumers found 62% made purchases influenced by AI recommendations, compared with 30% globally. Yet, "the desire for a human connection remains strong," EY noted, with 78% preferring online platforms that provide human support.

LimeChat's Gupta, though, said well-trained AI agents could resolve queries faster than humans. He said many standard bots pass conversations to a human agent when they encounter angry customers: "You need a very small number of people to just handle negative experiences."

FROM JAVA TO AI

In the 1990s and 2000s, India's tech boom fueled rural-to-urban migration. Cities like Bengaluru became outsourcing hubs as domestic firms, including Tata Consultancy Services TCS.NS, Infosys INFY.NS and Wipro WIPR.NS, grew into global juggernauts.

That expansion trickled through to Ameerpet, a Hyderabad neighborhood where university graduates fill classrooms to learn IT skills and earn certifications for tech jobs.

Ameerpet's training centers traditionally offered courses in Microsoft Office and programming languages like Java. Visiting in April, Reuters found these centers are increasingly focused on AI training.

Outside one, Quality Thought, a banner featured a robot overlooking a globe with the letters "AI."

The center was offering a nine-month course in AI data science and prompt engineering for about $1,360, more than double the price of a traditional web-development program.

"Recruiters are asking for students with basic AI skills," staffer Priyanka Kandulapati said. "We are going to streamline our courses even further to suit the demand."

In a discussion with startup founders last month about the pace of change, venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, who co-founded Sun Microsystems, offered a stark view of the future for India.

"All IT services will be replaced in the next five years," he said. "It's going to be pretty chaotic."

(Reporting by Munsif Vengattil in Bengaluru and Aditya Kalra in New Delhi. Additional reporting by Haripriya Suresh and Rishika Sadam in Hyderabad, Jatindra Dash in Bhubaneswar, Saurabh Sharma in Lucknow, Sai Ishwarbharath B in Bengaluru, and Praveen Paramasivam in Chennai. Editing by David Crawshaw.)

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