Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) on Monday approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking protection from miscreants who vandalized several of their telecom towers some days ago. The Mukesh Ambani-owned firm urged that the government safeguard their services and assets in both states. The telecom towers were allegedly destroyed by farmers who are angry over the company’s perceived role in framing the three contentious farm legislation with the government.

They snapped power supply, cut cables of telecom towers and damaged Reliance Jio’s infrastructure to vent their anger over company’s alleged involvement in passing of the three farm laws. They apparently viewed the Reliance industries as one of the major beneficiaries of the new farm laws. The government has projected the laws as a major reform in the agriculture sector that will remove the APMC mandi system and middlemen, and will allow farmers to sell their produce anywhere in the country. However, the protesting farmers have argued that the new laws will leave them at the mercy of big corporates. 

Over 1,500 of Reliance Jio’s 9,000 telecom towers in Punjab alone were destroyed in December, a company representative had told NDTV.

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Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh had said mobile towers can be repaired but farmers dying at Delhi borders can’t be brought back. He said the BJP’s false propaganda on law & order in Punjab is a diversionary tactic. He also issued a stern warning against such vandalism, asking the police to act strictly in such cases. However, no cases have been filed in this connection so far, let alone arrests being made.

Meanwhile, the RIL in a statement said it has no plans to enter corporate farming and it is committed to empowering farmers. It never bought agricultural land for corporate or contract farming and had no plans to do so either, the statement added.

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Mukesh Ambani slipped three places to the ninth rank on the world’s rich list after the share price of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) fell steeply in intraday trade on Monday. According to Forbes Real Times Billionaires List, net worth of chairman of oil-to-telecom behemoth came down at $71.5 billion as RIL stock lost over Rs 1 lakh crore in market capitalisation yesterday.

The share price of Reliance dropped 8.62 per cent to Rs 1,877 in the trade yesterday. The partly-paid shares of the company fell 10 per cent to hit the lower circuit limit and end at Rs 1,066.

On Friday, the company reported a 15 per cent decline in net profit at Rs 9,567 crore in the second quarter of fiscal year 2021. In second quarter of fiscal year 2020, the company had reported a net profit of Rs 11,262 crore. Similarly, the revenue from operations fell 24 per cent to Rs 1,16,195 crore compared to Rs 1,53,384 crore in the corresponding period of last year.

The revenue was negatively impacted on account of drop in sales due to coronavirus pandemic, RIL had said in the exchange filing.

The gross refining margin (GRM) – a key measure of profitability for an oil refining company – fell to $5.7 per barrel in the second quarter of the ongoing fiscal, from $6.3 per barrel in the first quarter of the fiscal year 2021. However, Jio reported a three-fold jump in net profit to Rs 2,844 crore.

Due to the plunge in demands of transportation fuels lately, the conglomerate has shifted its focus to technology and digital services company.

Meanwhile, shares of RIL were trading at Rs 1,875.75, down 1.70 points, or 0.091 per cent on NSE as against the previous close at the time of reporting.

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Besides Ambani, the world’s richest Jeff Bezos lost $9.5 billion on Friday, as Amazon shares sank nearly 5% at the stock exchange. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg too became $6.4billion poorer even after company reported earnings.

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