Reliance Industries Limited is India's largest private sector conglomeratecompany by market value, with an annual turnover of US$ 45.09 billion and profit of US$ 3.6 billion for the fiscal year ending in March 2010 making it one of the largest India's private sector companies, being ranked at 264th position in the Fortune Global 500 (2009^[3]) and at the 126th position in the Forbes Global 2000 list (2010).^[4]

Reliance was founded by the Indian industrialist Dhirubhai Ambani in 1966. Ambani has been a pioneer in introducing financial instruments like fully convertible debentures to the Indian stock markets. Ambani was one of the first entrepreneurs to draw retail investors to the stock markets. Critics allege that the rise of Reliance Industries to the top slot in terms of market capitalization is largely due to Dhirubhai's ability to manipulate the levers of a controlled economy to his advantage.

Though the company's oil-related operations form the core of its business, it has diversified its operations in recent years. After severe differences between the founder's two sons, Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani, the group was divided between them in 2006. In September 2008, Reliance Industries was the only Indian firm featured in the Forbes's list of "world's 100 most respected companies.

Stock

According to the company website "1 out of every 4 investors in India is a Reliance shareholder.". Reliance has more than 3 million shareholders, making it one of the world's most widely held stocks. Reliance Industries Ltd, subsequent to its split in January 2006 has continued to grow. Reliance companies have been among the best performing in the Indian stock market.

Products

Reliance Industries Limited has a wide range of products from petroleum products, petrochemicals, to garments (under the brand name of Vimal), Reliance Retail has entered into the fresh foods market as Reliance Fresh and launched a non-veg chain called Delight Reliance Retail and NOVA Chemicals have signed a letter of intent to make energy-efficient structures.

The primary business of the company is petroleum refining and petrochemicals. It operates a 33 million tonne refinery at Jamnagar in the Indian state of Gujarat. Reliance has also completed a second refinery of 29 million tons at the same site which started operations in December 2008. The company is also involved in oil & gas exploration and production. In 2002, it struck a major find on India's eastern coast in the Krishna Godavari basin. Gas production from this find was started on 2 April 2009. As of the end of 3rd quarter of 2009-2010, gas production from the KG D6 ramped up to 60 MMSCMD.

Oil and gas discovery

In 2002, Reliance found natural gas in the Krishna Godavari basin off the coast of Andhra Pradesh near Vishakapatnam.^[15] It was the largest discovery of natural gas in world in financial year 2002-2003.^[16] On 2 April 2009, Reliance Industries (RIL) commenced natural gas production from its D-6 block in the Krishna-Godavari (KG) basin.^[17]

The gas reserve is 7 trillion cubic feet in size. Equivalent to 1.2 billion barrels (165 million tonnes) of crude oil, but only 5 trillion cubic feet are extractable.^[18]

On 2008 Oct 8, Anil Ambani's Reliance Natural Resources took Reliance Industries to the Bombay High Court to uphold a memorandum of understanding that said RIL will supply the natural gas at $2.34 per million British thermal units to Anil Ambani

Awards and recognition

• International Refiner of the Year in 2005 at the 23rd Annual Hart's World Refining and Fuels Conference
• According to survey conducted by Brand Finance and The Economic Times in 2010, Reliance is the second most valuable brand in India