Reliance Industries owned RIL-Infotel, which is the pan-India winner of broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum, has started trials of WiMax service as per industry sources.

Mukesh Ambani’s RIL-Infotel has installed, as per the source, five WiMax base station in which three are from Alvarion and two are from Samsung. The company is checking interoperability among various BTSs and devices along with factors that hold key to a business.

Infotel won BWA spectrum in all 22 telecom circles across the country for a whopping Rs 12,847.77 crore. On the same day RIL had announced to acquire 95 per cent stake in the company.

The entry of Mukesh Ambani into telecom will create death knell for several players. The mobile industry is yet to recover from shocks following the implementation of the per second billing concept. Mukesh Ambani, when launched Reliance Infocomm, was the first to take on Vodafone and Bharti Airtel with cost effective schemes. Mahendra Nahata created history when HFCL won several mobile circles when the telecom industry was opened up for private players in mid 1990s. But Nahatas could not complete their mission. Mukesh Ambani, who settled his issues with brother Anil Ambani, can now enter telecom space and is looking for buying out operators.

The success of WiMax trials being run by Reliance-Infotel will be a big blow to Qualcomm, the evangelist of TD LTE technology, which is expected to make foray into global market by late 2012 or early 2013.

According to WiMax Forum, there are more than 300 WiMax devices of all types like datacards, Indoor CPE, WiMax Hand Sets etc, already certified by it for use in more than 540 mobile WiMax networks in 140 countries. There are more addition expected by WiMax Forum to this existing range of devices.

Source:http://news-views.in/mukesh-ambani-back-with-a-bang/

Reliance Industries remain on top of the list when it comes to being socially responsible or active. This time again they have hit it right with the United Nations naming Reliance Industries Chief Mukesh Ambani to a key advocacy group on Millennium Development Goals. As per the reports, this is an achievement for the corporate as it will increase its stature on the global front. According to the sources, Mukesh Ambani is the only Indian to be part of the MDG advocacy group along with other eminent personalities on board including Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus and philanthropist Ted Turner. The mandate of this Millennium Development Goals advocacy group includes finding various ways to fight socio-economic evils such as poverty which is a blazing issue these days. As per the sources, Mukesh Ambani will be in charge of global partnership for development which will include formulation of an open, rule bases, non discriminatory and predictable financial and trading system.

According to the United Nations representative, Mukesh Ambani, the top Indian industrialist will also look at the special needs of the least developed countries of the world as well as other landlocked developing countries along with other small islands and developing states. As per the sources, the Millennium Development Goals are eight international goals which at least 23 global organizations and 192 United Nations member states have agreed to achieve by the tear 2015. All these goals are developmental goals and will work for the benefit of the underprivileged sections of the society worldwide.

This golden opportunity will also strengthen the presence of Reliance Industries globally. Reliance Chief Mukesh Ambani feels proud to be associated with this noble cause which includes reducing poverty, reducing child mortality rates, fighting disease epidemics like AIDS and developing a global partnership for development. According to the world body, this MDG advocacy group will support the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon in mobilizing global action and building political will. To set this initiative rolling, the first task of the advocacy group is the preparation for the MDG Summit which will be held in September this year and this Summit can be seen as a turning point in the collective effort to achieve the set goals by 2015.

The elder of the two Ambani siblings, Mukesh is also the member of the Prime Minister’s Council on Trade and Industry and the Board of Governors of the National Council of Applied Economic Research. Not just on the national front, Mukesh Ambani is also active in the international scene. He also holds the position of the Vice Chairman of The World Business Council for Sustainable Development.

Source:http://news-views.in/un-names-mukesh-ambani-in-mdg-advocacy-group/

Top Industrialist Mukesh Ambani would release ‘Wildscapes’, a coffee table book on environment and wildlife protection, here on July 29.

The book is a collection of wildlife photographs by Aurangabad-based lensman Baiju Patil and is presented by Rajya Sabha member Vijay Darda, who is also Chairman of the Lokmat group of newspapers.

The images in the book are from national parks and wildlife sanctuaries. “The idea is to generate awareness about this subject among children and youth and motivate them towards wildlife conservation,” Darda’s son and Lokmat Executive Director Devendra Darda told PTI.

Governor K Sankaranarayanan would preside over the book release function, to be held at Raj Bhavan.

Vijay Darda has taken several initiatives to promote conservation of nature and wildlife. One such project, Lokmat Green Initiative, involved planting one lakh saplings in a day.

“The idea behind the book is to make readers aware about what can be lost forever if we do not act immediately to protect wildlife and environment,” Devendra said.

Mukesh Ambani is an Indian business magnate, philanthropist and the chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries, the largest private sector enterprise in India and a Fortune 500 company.
Mukesh Ambani directed and led the creation of the world’s largest grassroots petroleum refinery at Jamnagar, India, with a current capacity of 660,000 barrels per day (33 million tonnes per year) integrated with petrochemicals, power generation, port and related infrastructure. Today, he leads the largest private sector conglomerate in India.

Marks and Spencer Reliance India, a joint venture between Mukesh Ambani-run Reliance Retail and UK-retailer Marks and Spencer Plc, intends to open 15 stores in two-years, mainly in the metros, a top company official said.

“We are looking to open 10-15 stores in the next two years mainly in the metros. We’re aiming to open larger stores which will showcase a fuller range of our product catalogue,” said Marks and Spencer Reliance India, Head of Marketing, Nandini Sethuraman.

In order to display the wide range of product catalogue properly, the company desires to open spacious stores approximately 10-15.

Marks and Spencer announced plans to open 50 stores in India in the next five years when it formed the joint venture in 2008. The retailer said the target remains.

“Our plan is to open larger stores between 15,000 sq ft and 35,000 sq ft. By 2014, our aim is to have 50 stores. It all depends on momentum and right locations,” Sethuraman said.

Currently, the company has 18 stores across India in destinations such as Delhi, Amritsar, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai with an average size of about 5,000 sq ft to over 22,000 sq ft in conjunction with Reliance Retail.

Vimal, the flagship textile brand of Reliance Industries, today announced pan-India roll out of its new range of anti-microbial suiting fabrics. The in-house innovation, called DEO2, is thought to be a first for an Indian textile firm. It can arrest growth of fungi and bacteria to keep garments odourless in hot and humid conditions, the company said.

“This breakthrough innovation in textiles will give our product a cutting edge in market. It has been found safe for human use,” Reliance Industries president (Textile Business) Anand Parekh told newspersons. The company has filed an India patent for this in-house technology developed at its facility at Naroda.

“Vimal offers fabrics in the range of Rs 150 per metre to Rs 5,000 per metre, and customers will not have to pay a penny extra for addition of this technology,” Parekh claimed.

RIL manufactures more than 12,000 design-shade combinations every year in polyester wool and woollen, polyester viscose and woollen fabrics under the Vimal brand. “The size of suiting market in India is to the order of Rs 6,500 to Rs 7,000 crore only for the manmade fibre.”

“Currently, we are number two in the organized textile sector in terms of market share. With the launch of this new range our share should grow substantially,” he said. “Our new technology follows American Association of Textiles Colours and Colourist-147 Protocol, the highest protocol for any such fabric to pass, besides certifications from Indian agencies like ATIRA and BITRA,” Parekh said.

“The company is looking to introduce this technology in the shirting range of fabrics too,” he said. Vimal, which has supplies in the defence sector in India, is looking to introduce this fabric range for uniforms for armed forces, besides other government departments.

Source:http://news-views.in/reliance-industries%E2%80%99-vimal-launches-deo2-fabric/

India recorded the highest rise in natural gas output worldwide in 2009 after Reliance Industries’ eastern offshore KG-D6 field came into production, Economist Christof Ruhl said.

Mukesh Ambani-run RIL began gas production from the Krishna-Godavari basin in April, 2009, and its 60 million standard cubic metres per day output led to a 75 per cent jump in natural gas availability in the country to 140 mmscmd.

“Last year, India had the highest increase in production of natural gas worldwide. And I just checked, it also had the highest corresponding increase in consumption in natural gas worldwide,” BP Plc Group Chief Economist Christof Ruhl said. The jump in natural gas production in India was possible because the government allowed private sector firms to take a lead in exploration for hydrocarbons.

“When you look at countries where gas production is heavily government-controlled, like Russia, they had the biggest decline in gas production and consumption,” he said. “When you look at countries where new technologies have been developed like unconventional shale gas in the US… it was because they have an investment environment which is very competitive,” he said. Shale gas, trapped in sedimentary rocks, is said to hold the potential of doubling gas output in US.

Ruhl said that it was very clear who was left behind, as countries where natural resources were tightly controlled were less flexible.

Source: Economic Times

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is close to finalising its third shale gas acquisition in the US. In what is being talked about as the company’s biggest shale gas deal so far, industry sources said RIL is in active talks to acquire a 50 per cent stake in a shale gas asset in North America. The acquisition is likely to be the biggest so far by IL, sources said.

In April, RIL had picked up a 40 per cent stake in Atlas Energy’s Marcellus Shale acreage for $1.7 billion, committing a capital expenditure of $3.5 billion over 10 years. For RIL, Marcellus is a strategic investment, as it is one of the most economically attractive unconventional natural gas resource plays in North America, due to low operating costs and proximity to the north-east gas markets in the US.

RIL picked up a 45 per cent stake in Pioneer Natural Resources’ Eagle Ford shale acreage for $1.3 billion in June. The deal was done through Reliance Eagle Upstream, an arm of RIL. Pioneer owns 46 per cent, while Newpeck holds nine per cent. Reliance Industries had agreed to make an upfront payment of $266 million in cash and contribute another $879 million towards Pioneer’s share of future drilling costs in the next four to six years.

Flush with revenues from its Krishna-Godavari (KG)-D6 gasfield back home, Mukesh Ambani’s RIL, sitting on cash reserves of close to Rs 22,000 crore has been on the lookout of acquisitions in US.

Shale gas extraction involves tapping natural gas trapped between layers of shale rock, similar to the extraction of gas from between coal seams.

More such acquisitions in shale gas projects in the US will follow, sources said. An RIL spokesperson refused comments on the development.

“Shale gas extraction is gaining momentum worldwide and especially in the US. An agreement is also expected to be signed between India and the US during the visit of US President Barack Obama later this year,” said a senior petroleum ministry official.

Besides acquisitions of shale gas assets by RIL in the US, ONGC is also likely to execute some agreements with US firms during President Obama’s visit to India.

Source:http://news-views.in/mukesh-ambani%E2%80%99s-ril-eying-third-us-shale-gas-deal-in-north-america/

Reliance Industries (RIL) intends to increase the competition in the fuel retailing space by opening around 5,000 outlets.

The country’s largest private sector oil and gas operator would initially start the 750 fuel stations, which were closed due to uncompetitive fuel rates compared with the public sector fuel stations. The company plans to eventually increase the number to 5,000 outlets after diesel prices are completely deregulated.

A senior RIL official told Financial Chronicle that the company is looking at all the strategic locations across the country especially in the north and the east, where it does not have a presence. Also, it is taking a fresh look at already identified locations to find if those have now come to be served by BPCL, HPCL or IOC pumps.

Mukesh Ambani’s company, at present, has its presence in 12 states and plans to have its footprints in other states too.

The government on June 25 deregulated petrol prices, as a result of which retail price of motor spirit was increased by Rs 3.50 per litre. It also announced that the empowered group of ministers had decided to deregulate diesel prices, but had allowed the retail price to be raised by only Rs 2 per litre for now.

Mukesh Ambani’s RIL has been supplying fuel at almost the same rate as public sector companies from 650 outlets mostly in the southern and western regions of the country. The company was forced to shut around 750 fuel stations in 2008 because it was not able to match the subsidized prices of HPCL, BPCL and Indian Oil.

The company has four types of petrol pumps which includes the Avon Plazas, where it provides all sorts of facilities to customers, such as restaurants, telephone facilities and lavatories. It also plans to open pumps with garages, where trucks and other vehicles can be repaired.

Morgan Stanley in a report said, “RIL should gain from the recent price hike and the deregulation of petrol prices, as it currently has around 1,500 outlets ready to tap gasoline marketing margins.”

Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd. said in a tender document on its website that it is inviting companies to develop and carry out production work at its coal bed methane and onshore exploration blocks.

Reliance Industries controls CBM blocks located in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan and it expects to drill about 100 wells a year in the next 5 years.

India’s largest company by market capitalisation has invited expressions of interest for this work, which includes drilling, equipment, plant and machinery supplies, at these blocks. The gas blocks were offered by the federal government through auctions in 2001 and in 2003.

These wells will have a target depth of 700 to 1,700 meters, Reliance Industries added.

The company is also inviting contractors for development work at its onshore exploration blocks, which were awarded under the government’s second and fifth round of oil block auctions.

Reliance Industries said it was the operator of these blocks and its partners include Oil & Natural Gas Corp., Okland Offshore Holdings Ltd., the Indian unit of Hardy Oil & Gas PLC and Tullow India Operations Ltd.–a unit of Tullow Oil PLC.

India’s upstream regulator the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons had conducted the second round of auctions under the New Exploration Licensing Policy in 2000 and the fifth round of auctions in 2005.

Reliance Industries tender document set a deadline of July 21 for companies to submit their expressions of interest for the contracts.

Source:http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703636404575352381121607608.html

The Reliance Innovation Council was floated by Mukesh Ambani three years back, to bring the best scientists and Nobel laureates from various parts of the world to interact and co-operate with RIL’s research and development initiatives. Besides Ambani and Mashelkar, the membership comprised people such as the late C K Prahalad, George Whitesides of Harvard University, Nobel laureates Jean-Marie Lehn and Robert Grubbs, and Larry Summers, former president of Harvard University.

The association of Mashelkar and Mukesh Ambani is not new. After retiring as the director-general of CSIR, he joined RIL as an independent member of the board. RA Mashelkar is also chairman of the Reliance Innovation Council.

RIL has also invested heavily in the Reliance Innovation Leadership Centre in Pune and in Reliance Research and Technology Centre (RRTC), planned with a floor space of more than half a million square feet in Navi Mumbai. RRTC is to act as a hub for the research centres already operating at various manufacturing locations. Both initiatives are to support the business of Reliance by harnessing cutting-edge, futuristic but practical science, technology and innovation initiatives from within and outside the organisation.

Reliance Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation that handles educational, health and other corporate social responsibility activities of the group. Nita Ambani, wife of Mukesh Ambani, is chairperson. it is also planning to set up one of the largest universities in the world under the leadership of Nita Ambani.