Reliance Industries

Reliance Industries Limited is an Indian conglomerate, based in Mumbai, with businesses in oil refining and petrochemicals, retail, and digital services. The company describes itself as a Fortune 500 company and the largest private sector corporation in India. For fiscal 2026, which ended in March 2026, it reported consolidated revenues of 11,75,919 crore rupees, or $124.0 billion, according to its chairman’s statement.

History of Reliance Industries

The company’s official history begins in 1957, when Dhirubhai Ambani returned to India and started a yarn trading business in Mumbai. In 1977 Reliance Textile Industries made an initial public offering that was oversubscribed seven times, which the company says ushered in the equity cult in India. Between 1980 and 1982 it set up its first petrochemicals and polyester filament yarn plant at Patalganga, and in 1991 it commissioned the Hazira plant to deepen its polyester business.

The company moved into energy in 2000, when it commissioned the Jamnagar refinery in Gujarat in 36 months, which it describes as the world’s largest grassroots refinery. In 2002 it announced a deep-sea gas discovery in the Krishna Godavari basin, the KG D6 block, and in 2009 it began producing hydrocarbons there. In 2004, under the leadership of Mukesh D. Ambani as chairman and managing director, the company says it became the first and only private Indian organization listed in the Fortune Global 500.

Telecommunications and retail followed. Reliance entered the information and communications business in 2002, and its commercial services under the Jio brand began in 2016. It opened its first Reliance Fresh store in Hyderabad in November 2006, crossed 1,000 stores within five years, and, according to the chairman, passed 20,000 stores in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026. Reliance Foundation, its philanthropic arm, was established in 2010.

Products and services of Reliance Industries

Reliance’s home page lists petroleum refining and marketing, retail, telecom, petrochemicals, hydrocarbon exploration and production, and new energy among its businesses. The Jamnagar complex is described on the company website as the world’s largest integrated, single-location refining complex, and the company says it has helped turn India from a net importer of petroleum products into a net exporter. It also says it is the largest producer of petrochemicals in the country and among the first companies to adopt an oil-to-chemicals strategy, which produces chemical building blocks and links them to downstream materials. Its upstream work includes natural gas production.

Jio is the digital services business. The chairman said in June 2026 that the Jio user base had crossed 524 million and that its 5G subscriber base had crossed 268 million, which he called the largest for any single-country operator outside China. The 5G figure rose by 77 million during the year. For homes, the company announced a multi-gigabit service offering up to 5 gigabits per second download and 1 gigabit per second upload, delivered through a wireless device called JioAirFiber. For more on the technology, see 5G.

Retail is the third large pillar. Reliance Retail sells groceries and other consumer goods through stores and online channels, and the chairman said it became India’s largest retailer within eight years of its first store. Media is another business: Network18 says it reaches 250 million people every month through television, and it has more than 450 million subscribers and followers on digital platforms.

Corporate structure and operations

Reliance is a listed company with a chairman and managing director, Mukesh D. Ambani, who gave the 49th annual general meeting address on June 19, 2026. The founder, Dhirubhai Ambani, is remembered as the founder chairman. On its website the company says it is the largest private sector corporation in India, and it presents its businesses under energy, retail, digital services, petrochemicals and new energy.

The chairman’s statement gives detailed figures for fiscal 2026. Consolidated EBITDA, which is earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, was 2,07,911 crore rupees, or $21.9 billion, compared with 97,580 crore rupees in fiscal 2021. Retail and digital businesses contributed nearly half of the fiscal 2026 figure. Net profit was 95,754 crore rupees, or $10.1 billion, up 17.8 percent. One crore is ten million, so these figures run into the trillions of rupees.

Capital spending was 1,44,271 crore rupees, or $15.2 billion, and over five years it totaled 6,48,428 crore rupees, which the company says was more than any company in India. Exports were 2,78,808 crore rupees, or $29.4 billion, about 6.7 percent of India’s total merchandise exports, according to the chairman. The company also said its credit rating improved to A- at S&P and Baa1 at Moody’s. In October 2026 its website also carried a notice about the filing for an initial public offer of Jio Platforms Limited.

Impact of Reliance Industries

Reliance’s scale means it affects several parts of the Indian economy at once. The company says it paid 2,16,472 crore rupees, or $22.8 billion, to the national exchequer in fiscal 2026, and that its cumulative contribution over five years passed 9.78 lakh crore rupees. These are company figures, and a lakh crore is one trillion.

In telecommunications, the company says that India rose from 155th place to first in the world for mobile data consumption in less than a year after Jio began. In energy, its Jamnagar refinery re-engineered its process during the pandemic to make over 1,000 metric tons of medical-grade oxygen per day, which the company says met the needs of about one in ten COVID-19 patients across India. Both claims come from the company’s own history page.

Reliance has also set climate targets. In 2020 its chairman announced a target of making the company net-zero carbon by 2035, and in 2021 it announced a $10 billion New Energy business. It began work on a green energy giga complex named after its founder. How far these plans deliver depends on future capital spending and technology, and the company’s own annual report is the place to check progress on renewable energy.

Reliance Industries in context

Reliance is one of several large Indian business groups. Its approach has been to integrate backward into raw materials and forward into consumer markets, and its history shows the steps: yarn trading, polyester, petrochemicals, refining, telecom and retail. That pattern also explains why one company can appear in sections of the economy that are normally separate.

The company’s own reports are the main source for its financial and operating data. Readers should note that most figures in this entry come from the company’s website and chairman’s statement, and should check the current annual report for updates and for independent audit information.

Editorially reviewed by Specialty Digest Editorial TeamLast reviewed November 4, 2026Researched and drafted with AI assistanceReport an issue