The deal would also restore the Tata Group to its traditional place as India's biggest conglomerate by revenues, ousting the more abrasive Reliance Industries from the top spot a side-effect that Mr Tata and his colleagues are no doubt quietly relishing.
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Certainly the reliance on primary industries has gone, to the point where ranchers and farmers feel they are constantly on the defensive.
In July a bid by Reliance Communications, run by Anil Ambani, to buy a South African mobile-phone company was thwarted by Mukesh Ambani, the boss of Reliance Industries.
Last month, in a significant ruling, the Bombay High Court upheld the sanctity of the family agreement, directing Reliance Industries to supply 28 million cubic metres of gas per day to Anil's company at the agreed price. (see " Indian Billionaire Battle Heats Up").
Despite having many more companies listed on the Indian stock exchange in 2010, Tata ranked behind Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries, which held the top slot.
Reliance Jio Infocomm is the telecom venture of billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries, India's third-largest company by market capitalization.
This hinders what should be its main policy aim: diversifying the economy away from reliance on extractive industries.
One such firm, Reliance Industries, is on the prowl, though its proprietor, Mukesh Ambani, is thought to be impressively stingy about deals.
Mukesh Ambani is chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries, one of the largest conglomerates in the world, and also owns the Indian Premier League team, the Mumbai Indians.
Reliance Industries, which lost the Chesapeake deal to CNOOC, also appears to have chosen to do business with the U.S. instead of Iran, reportedly ceasing its sales of refined petroleum to Iran in June 2009.
That would put it at odds with most countries, where mixing business and banking is considered toxic, but would mean new entrants with financial muscle (although the butchest conglomerate of them all, Reliance Industries, said on June 3rd that it would not seek a licence).
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Thus alongside stars born in the 1990s, such as Bharti Airtel, a mobile-phone firm, older conglomerates such as Reliance Industries, Aditya Birla and Tata Sons still loom large in the Indian mind, their extraordinarily diverse output driven, eaten, worn and watched, their hereditary bosses as famous as film stars.
Maybe Chesapeake can interest Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani, whose Reliance Industries already made two deals in the Marcellus this year.
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They have the confidence of global financiers, who now rate Reliance Industries and Tata Steel as more creditworthy than Ford or General Motors.
Leading the charge of India corporates holding onto cash are Reliance Industries , Infosys (INFY), Coal India and Wipro (WIT).
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Reliance Industries, which promptly appealed against the judgment in the Supreme Court, argues that it cannot produce the gas at the lower price because of increased costs.
Its failure to drill new wells, and lower production from those it already has, caused shares of India's Reliance Industries to plunge 15% over the past year.
Their respective companies, Reliance Industries and IMG, formed a joint venture together in India, IMG Reliance, in March, the goal of which is to create and operate major sports and entertainment assets in the country.
Immigrants seek new ways of doing things, creating a broadly diversified economy that reduces the vulnerabilities that can come through reliance upon only a few established industries.
Still the spat continues with one of Anil's companies recently taking Mukesh's Reliance Industries to court over a gas supply agreement.
For the telecom outfit, which pulled back the Singapore listing of its tower arm last year, a deal with cash-rich Reliance Industries would be a major reprieve.
Former finance minister Lindsay Tanner has warned in the past that Australia needs to reduce its reliance on mining and focus its efforts on other export industries.
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