NEW DELHI (Reuters) -Mukesh Ambani, the chairman of Reliance Industries, India’s most valuable company, said on Friday that Indian firms need to work together to shield the South Asian nation from external shocks and geopolitical risks. WHY IT’S IMPORTANT Reliance, which operates the world’s biggest refining complex in the western state of Gujarat, is also India’s top buyer of Russian oil.
As a penalty for buying Russian oil, the United States on Wednesday doubled its tariffs on Indian goods to as high as 50%, among the highest imposed by Washington and roughly on par with those on Brazilian products, in a move economists say could badly hurt sectors such as textiles, leather goods and chemicals. BY THE NUMBERS
Reliance, which has significant exposure to the U.S., has a crude oil import deal of 500,000 barrels per day with Russian oil major Rosneft, the largest oil deal between India and Russia. CONTEXT “The magnitude of the challenge is so large that all Indian businesses must work together with unity as a grand coalition – in the spirit of cooperation, mutual learning, and mutual support,” Ambani said, without referring to any specific geopolitical challenges.
“India must become self-reliant to the maximum extent in key technologies, critical industries, and other vital sectors of the global economy,” billionaire Ambani said in a speech at the company’s annual general meeting.
Ambani’s comments came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier this month urged Indians to move towards self-reliance and called on industries to manufacture everything from fertiliser and jet engines to electric vehicle batteries.
(Reporting by Nidhi Verma and Sethuraman N R; Editing by Mayank Bhardwaj, Kirsten Donovan)
