Mumbai, March 13 (PTI): After mentoring 11 start-ups, the venture investment arm of Reliance Industries is now looking forward to investing in new companies which will be crucial to its growth, a top official said today.

Eleven start-ups completed a mentoring programme, launched by RIL's arm Gennext Ventures and Microsoft Ventures recently. Both the partners today announced that they had started inviting applications for the second batch, where around a dozen start-ups will be mentored.

Reliance Industries Ltd , which operates the world's biggest refining complex, will shut half of its 660,000 barrels per day (bpd) refinery in India for a four-week planned maintenance from Sunday, a source familiar with the matter said.

Reliance, controlled by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, has two advanced refineries at Jamanagar in western Gujarat state which can jointly process 1.2 million bpd of oil, or about 28 percent of India's overall capacity.

Reliance Industries has restored the supply of gas in Sadasivapet, Telangana after the damage of a trunk pipeline and subsequent fire.

The company is now in the process of assessing the damage.

The shares of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) shot up by 4.39 per cent on Tuesday following a global brokerage firm CLSA’s prediction that the company’s refining margins might rise to six-year high in the current quarter. The report, however, has warned about the rising expenditure in the telecom, which is pulling down the company’s valuation.

Driven by improvement in naphtha crackers, petcoke spreads, higher light-heavy crude differentials and shrinkage in internal loss due to the lower Brent price, RIL’s March quarter’s refining margin could rise $3 a barrel on a quarter-to-quarter basis to a six-year high of $10.3 a barrel.

The shares of Reliance Industries shot up by 4.31% on Tuesday following a global brokerage firm CLSA’s prediction that the company’s refining margins may rise to six year high. The report, however, has warned about the rising expenditure in telecom which is pulling down the company's valuation.

Driven by improvement in naphtha crackers, petcoke spreads, higher light-heavy crude differentials and shrinkage in internal loss due to the lower Brent price, RIL's March quarter’s refining margin could rise $3 per barrel on quarter to quarter basis to a six-year high of $10.3 a barrel.

Stocks of Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group companies, Essar Oil and Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd witnessed huge selling pressure today as investors booked profit amid concerns relating to the “corporate espionage” scandal.

Shares of Essar Oil fell by 3.79 per cent to Rs 107.90 on the BSE, while those of Cairn India fell by 1.60 per cent to Rs 249.10.

The Union government on Thursday cracked down on illegal information leaks from the petroleum and natural gas ministry. Delhi Police detained two employees of the ministry and three other persons for allegedly leaking confidential information. One of them is an employee of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), the country's largest private sector oil company.

A clerical staff and a peon in the ministry were apprehended by the police. "We have been looking into this case for a long time. One of the persons is a driver and the other is a former multi-tasking staff. They were leaking official documents to certain unofficial persons for money," Delhi Police chief B S Bassi told journalists.

Mumbai: India’s Reliance Industries Ltd and seven other firms including top mobile phone operator Bharti Airtel Ltd have applied to participate in next month’s auction for mobile phone airwaves, several people directly involved in the process said.

Others firms which have submitted applications for the auction that will start on 4 March include the local unit of Vodafone Group Plc, Reliance Communications Ltd, Idea Cellular Ltd, and Tata Teleservice Ltd, the people said.

Though its exploration and production business contributes just 1.51% to its turnover (Rs 6068 crore out of Rs 4.01 lakh crore in FY14) and less than 10% to its sum-of-the-parts valuation of R941 per share, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is serious about taking the government to task over what it perceives to be a series of arbitrary actions on the latter’s part. Last month, RIL filed its fifth arbitration suit against the government, and the first since the NDA came to power (see box, Furious Five).

The petroleum ministry is planning to ask Reliance Industries (RIL) to withdraw its latest notice of arbitration, served on January 14, challenging the ministry’s decision to take away 81 per cent of the area of the Andhra offshore KG-D6 block.

The ministry is likely to take the stand that its October 2013 order of relinquishment is in line with provisions of the Production Sharing Contract (PSC), and there is no merit in the notice of arbitration, according to sources.

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