Reliance Industries

In 1957, Dhirubhai Ambani returned to India and started a yarn trading business in Mumbai.⁠[1]

In 1966, Dhirubhai Ambani set up a small textile manufacturing unit, regarded as the starting point of Reliance as a manufacturing company. The textile mill at Naroda, near Ahmedabad, long remained the company’s main source of profit, still contributing about 60%–70% of profits in the early 1980s.⁠[2][3]

On May 8, 1973, the company was incorporated as a public limited company under the name Mynylon Limited with the Registrar of Companies at Bangalore, initially focusing on textiles and polyester-based business.⁠[4][4]

On March 11, 1977, the company changed its name to Reliance Textile Industries Limited. That same year, Reliance Textile Industries made its initial public offering, which was oversubscribed seven times; its shares were listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on January 23, 1978.⁠[4][1][4]

From 1980 to 1982, Reliance built its first petrochemicals and polyester filament yarn plant at Patalganga in Maharashtra, beginning to extend from textiles into upstream raw materials.⁠[1]

On June 27, 1985, the company changed its name to Reliance Industries Limited, and its registration moved to Mumbai, Maharashtra.⁠[4]

In 1991, the Hazira plant in Gujarat was commissioned, laying the foundation for Reliance to become one of the world’s largest integrated producers of polyester.⁠[1]

In 2000, a new grassroots refinery and petrochemicals complex at Jamnagar, Gujarat, was commissioned 36 months after construction began, with a refining capacity of 660,000 barrels per day (33 million tonnes a year) and integrated petrochemicals, power generation, and port facilities. The company later built another 580,000-barrels-per-day refinery next to it, bringing the two refineries’ combined capacity to about 1.4 million barrels per day.⁠[1][5][5][5]

In 2002, Reliance discovered deep-sea natural gas in the KG D6 Block of the Krishna Godavari basin, and in the same year entered the InfoComm business.⁠[1][1]

On July 6, 2002, founder-chairman Dhirubhai Ambani died, and Mukesh Ambani, who had been on the board since 1977, succeeded him as chairman.⁠[6][7]

In 2004, Reliance Industries entered the Fortune Global 500 list, the only private Indian company on the list at the time.⁠[1]

After the founder’s death, Mukesh Ambani and his younger brother Anil Ambani reached a settlement on June 17–18, 2005, deciding to separate their businesses: the newer businesses went to Anil Ambani, while Mukesh Ambani retained the older ones. Reliance Industries shareholders approved the demerger scheme on October 21, 2005, and the Bombay High Court approved it on December 9 of that year. On January 12, 2006, the company signed a set of agreements, including a gas supply agreement and a non-competition agreement, with the four demerged companies, Reliance Communication Ventures, Reliance Energy Ventures, Reliance Capital Ventures, and Reliance Natural Resources; the boards of the four companies were then reconstituted, and Anil Ambani took them over and listed each of them.⁠[8][8][8][8][8][8]

In 2006, Reliance entered the retail business with Reliance Retail. As of June 30, 2026, Reliance Retail had 20,169 stores and 396 million registered customers.⁠[1][9][9]

In 2007, Reliance Industries traded on the stock exchanges in the shares of Reliance Petroleum (RPL), then its subsidiary. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) issued a notice on December 16, 2010, and on March 24, 2017, found that the company had acted in a fraudulent manner in the trades, barred it from dealing in equity derivatives for one year, and ordered it to disgorge ₹4,473 million with interest at 12% per annum from November 29, 2007. The Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) dismissed the company’s appeal by a 2:1 majority on November 5, 2020; on December 17, 2020, the Supreme Court ordered the company to first deposit ₹2,500 million, with recovery of the remaining amount stayed. A SEBI adjudicating officer separately imposed a penalty of ₹250 million on the company on January 1, 2021, which SAT upheld on December 4, 2023.⁠[4][4][4][4][4][4][4][4][4]

On May 29, 2026, the Supreme Court disposed of the company’s two appeals, holding that fraud was not made out in the matter and setting aside SAT’s finding on fraud, while holding that the company had violated the disclosure requirements on position limits under a 2001 SEBI circular and should be penalized under that circular and a National Stock Exchange of India circular, and concurring with SAT’s observations on the penalty.⁠[4][4][4][4][4]

In 2009, the KG D6 block began producing hydrocarbons, just over two years after its discovery.⁠[1]

In 2016, Reliance launched commercial operations of its telecom service Jio. At that year’s shareholder meeting, Mukesh Ambani announced that from September 5, 2016, Jio’s data, voice, video, and full bouquet of applications would be free for all users until December 31, 2016, calling it the “Jio Welcome Offer”; after that, all Jio users would make domestic voice calls to any network free forever, and domestic roaming charges were also eliminated. Jio was India’s first mobile network that was only 4G LTE. He also said in the speech that because of insufficient interconnect capacity provided by other operators, Jio users had suffered over five crore call failures to other networks, and he called on incumbent operators to provide points of interconnect as required by their license obligations.⁠[1][5][5][5][5][5][5][5]

Jio passed 100 million 4G customers in less than 180 days after its commercial launch; in September 2017, Jio’s share of broadband customers in India reached 42.67%. Reliance said that in less than a year after Jio’s launch, India rose from 155th position to number one in the world in mobile data consumption.⁠[4][4][1]

In 2019, the digital business holding company Jio Platforms Limited was incorporated, and the telecom operator Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJIL) became its wholly owned subsidiary; in the same year, Jio and Microsoft announced a long-term alliance.⁠[4][4][1]

In 2020, Jio Platforms raised a total of ₹1.52 trillion from 13 investors, including Jaadhu Holdings of Meta (then named Facebook), Google International, Silver Lake, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, General Atlantic, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, KKR, TPG, Vista Equity Partners, Mubadala, L Catterton, Intel Capital, and Qualcomm. The first shares were allotted to Jaadhu Holdings on July 7, 2020, at ₹488.34 per share, and Google International was allotted 690.85 million shares on November 23, 2020. In the same year, Reliance became the first Indian company to exceed $200 billion in market capitalization, and Mukesh Ambani announced a target of making the company net-zero carbon by 2035.⁠[4][4][4][4][4][4][1][1]

In 2021, Reliance announced a $10 billion New Energy business and began developing the Dhirubhai Ambani Green Energy Giga Complex on 5,000 acres in Jamnagar for manufacturing renewable energy equipment.⁠[1][1]

In 2022, Reliance Jio Infocomm acquired spectrum in the 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 1800 MHz, 3300 MHz, and 26 GHz bands, covering all 22 telecom circles in India, and launched its standalone 5G service, Jio True 5G.⁠[4][4][1]

In 2023, Jio Financial Services, the finance business demerged from Reliance, was listed and formed a joint venture with BlackRock; in the same year, Mukesh Ambani’s children Isha Ambani, Akash Ambani, and Anant Ambani joined the board of Reliance Industries. The company also sought shareholder approval to re-appoint Mukesh Ambani as managing director for five years from April 19, 2024.⁠[2][1][1][7]

In March 2025, Jio Platforms signed an agreement with SpaceX to sell Starlink equipment in Jio stores, subject to SpaceX receiving authorization to sell in India. In the same year, Reliance Intelligence, a wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance, and a Meta subsidiary formed the joint venture Reliance Enterprise Intelligence, whose enterprise AI products are distributed by Jio Platforms.⁠[10][10][4]

On June 10, 2026, Reliance Industries announced a partnership with Meta to build a data center with 168 MW capacity in Jamnagar, planned for delivery within two years and to be leased by Meta; Reliance is responsible for design, construction, utilities, renewable power, network connectivity, and operational management. It is Meta’s first built-to-suit data center in India.⁠[11][11][11][11]

On June 19, 2026, the day of Reliance’s annual general meeting, Jio Platforms filed a draft red herring prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Board of India, proposing a fresh issue of up to 27.00 crore equity shares, with listing on the National Stock Exchange of India and the Bombay Stock Exchange. Before the offering, Reliance Industries held 66.43% of Jio Platforms, Meta affiliate Jaadhu Holdings held 9.98%, and Google International held 7.73%.⁠[12][12][12][4][4][4]

On July 17, 2026, Reliance Industries reported consolidated results for the quarter ended June 30, 2026: gross revenue of ₹340,257 crore (about $35.9 billion), up 24.5% year on year; profit including share of associates and joint ventures of ₹23,196 crore (about $2.5 billion), up 6.1% year on year. Consolidated gross revenue for the previous fiscal year (ended March 2026) was ₹1,175,919 crore. At the end of the quarter, Jio had over 533 million subscribers, including 285 million 5G subscribers. During the quarter, Moody’s upgraded the company’s foreign currency debt rating to Baa1.⁠[9][9][9][9][9]

As of the end of August 2026, Reliance Jio Infocomm had 538.03 million broadband subscribers, ranking first among India’s 1,101.21 million broadband subscribers, with Bharti Airtel second at 386.39 million.⁠[13][13][13]

On the evening of October 7, 2026, Elon Musk posted on X that Starlink was being blocked in India by “certain oligarchs,” and the next day posted again asking, “Is Ambani the real boss of India?” India’s communications ministry responded on October 8 that the government’s satellite communications authorization framework was fair and non-discriminatory, and that the three licensees, including Reliance’s Jio Satellite Communications, were at broadly the same regulatory stage. At the time, Jio Platforms was preparing for an initial public offering later that month that could be the largest in India’s history.⁠[14][14][14][14][14][15]

As of 2026, Reliance Industries’ businesses span hydrocarbon exploration and production, petroleum refining and fuel retailing, petrochemicals, advanced materials and composites, renewables including solar and hydrogen, retail, digital services, and media and entertainment. The company’s registered office is at Maker Chambers IV, Nariman Point, Mumbai; its shares are listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange of India, and its global depositary receipts are listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange.⁠[4][4][4][4]

The company’s promoter is Mukesh Ambani. As of March 31, 2026, the promoter and promoter group held 50.00% of the company’s shares, representing 49.11% of total voting rights, later increased to 49.62% of voting rights. On the board, the other executive directors are Anant Ambani, Nikhil Meswani, Hital Meswani, and M. S. Panda, along with two non-executive directors, Isha Ambani and Akash Ambani, and independent directors including K. V. Kamath, Arundhati Bhattacharya, and Yasir Al Rumayyan, head of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.⁠[4][4][4][4][4][4][4][4][4][4][4][4]

Reliance Industries: Official website: https://www.ril.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[1]

Jio Platforms: Official website: https://www.jio.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[4]

X: Public account: https://x.com/RIL_Updates (opens in a new window)⁠[1]

LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry: Public profile: https://www.linkedin.com/company/reliance (opens in a new window)⁠[1]

YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry: Public channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/flameoftruth2014 (opens in a new window)⁠[1]