RELIANCE.NSE

Reliance Industries Ltd.

Reliance Industries is offering the clearest signal yet on how the Iran war, now in its third month, is rippling through the real economy. The refining giant, India’s biggest company by market value, late last week flagged “unprecedented” supply disruptions and a sharp hit to profit ​in its March-quarter earnings. Can a hike in retail prices of fuel products bring partial relief to oil companies while allowing the economy to adjust to the new realities? And, the central bank’s digital currency, the e-rupee, is being used to make welfare payments more efficient. Scroll down for more on that. A SHORTAGE LIKE NO OTHER “Never have we ​seen this kind of shortage in the market,” said Srinivas Tuttagunta, chief operating officer for supply and trading at Reliance, on the company’s quarterly earnings call on Friday, referring to a paucity of raw material. Reliance missed ​analyst estimates of quarterly profit, which fell 12.5% on-year in the final quarter of India’s financial year. Core earnings at its refining business, a key profit driver ⁠that contributes nearly a third of group earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation, fell 3.7% in the fourth quarter from a year earlier. “The war in West Asia has led to an unprecedented dislocation in global ​supply chains,” said Chairman Mukesh Ambani in a statement accompanying the earnings, adding that the current situation has underscored the need for India to boost its energy security.