When Rivals Fuel Together

DECODE THE NEWS

Regulation, Real Estate, Demand: What Fuelled The RIL-Adani Pact?

What?

In April, Reliance Industries (RIL’s) finance chief told analysts that with the growth in the fuel-retailing business, expanding that network makes great business sense. However, not many expected that two months later the Adani Group and Reliance Industries, conglomerates promoted by India’s two richest men, would announce a new partnership, which they said would redefine India’s auto-fuel retail experience.

This is only the second time the two conglomerates have joined forces in a particular business. The first was in 2024, when RIL entered into an investment agreement with Mahan Energen, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Adani Power, for 50 million equity shares valued at Rs 50 crore.

What Gives?

First, margins from the fuel-retailing business for RIL have been attractive. Enough for V Srikanth, chief financial officer for RIL, to note in their April call with analysts that India’s demand was helping offset the weakness in the overall oil-to-chemicals business, also prompting RIL to place more of its production through Jio-bp.

RIL’s auto-fuel entity, branded as Jio-bp came out of a merger with global energy major BP. It is the same entity which has now signed an agreement with Adani Total Gas (ATGL).

In June, ATGL and Jio-bp in a joint statement said that under this partnership, select ATGL fuel outlets will offer Jio-bp’s liquid fuels (petrol and diesel), while select Jio-bp fuel outlets will integrate ATGL’s compressed natural gas (CNG) dispensing units within ATGL’s authorised Geographical Areas (GA).

Analysts at Morgan Stanley, in a June 26 report, noted that India’s fuel retail market offers returns of 15-17% on capital employed, compared to 10% in RIL’s consolidated performance. “RIL (vis Jio-bp fuel JV) to share fuelling infrastructure with ADANI Total Gas (ATGL) plays to each company's strengths and upside surprises for RIL energy NAV,” the analysts noted.

BUILD ON BLOCKCHAIN

Why Stock Brokers Are Going To Be Upset With Blockchain’s Next Move

What?

Investing in foreign companies can be a tedious task involving paperwork and numerous types of forms.

But imagine if the process became easier with you being able to buy not only listed US shares, but also unlisted shares like SpaceX, OpenAI, or Stripe from your phone. All you need is a few thousand rupees and a crypto wallet.

This is the pitch that global blockchain platforms are making and some of them have already started. The idea is simple in theory, but massive in ambition:

Take real-world shares of companies, represent them as tokens on a blockchain, and let anyone trade them like crypto.

These aren’t fake assets or fantasy coins; they’re backed by actual shares, held by a custodian. Or at least, that’s the claim.

What Does This Mean?

For Indian investors who are still warming up to the idea of investing in global equities and curious about digital assets despite regulatory hurdles, this could be a real game-changer.

Around the world, there’s a quiet attempt to shift the plumbing of the stock market onto the blockchain.

Platforms like Coinbase, Kraken, and Robinhood are rolling out tokenised stock offerings — digital versions of equities like Apple or Tesla that can be traded 24/7, across borders, without traditional brokers or exchanges.

In the US, the concept is still in sandbox mode, and regulators aren’t fully onboard, but there’s movement. Elsewhere, like Bermuda or parts of Europe, new rules are giving crypto-native platforms room to experiment.

Could tokenisation break the barriers of cross-order investing for Indians too?

This series is brought to you in partnership with Algorand. 

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CORE NUMBER

Rs 27.1

That’s the cost of a home-cooked vegetarian thali in June 2025, according to Crisil’s Roti Rice Rate index. This is an increase from Rs 26.2 in May.

📌 The details:

However, compared year on year (YoY), the veg thali cost dropped 8%, thanks to falling vegetable prices:

Tomato: –24%

Potato: –20%

Onion: –27%

Prices rose 3% month on month (MoM) due to:

Tomato prices spiking 36%

Potato rising 4%

Higher cooking gas and edible oil costs also contributed to this.

The non-veg thali was priced at Rs 54.8 up from Rs 52.6 in May, a 4% MoM increase driven by rising broiler prices. The price was a 6% YoY.

🧾 Why it matters:

The vegetable thali is a benchmark of daily food inflation for the common household. A lower YoY cost eases food budgets, but the recent monthly rise signals renewed pressure from volatile supply and input costs.

💬 Crisil Intelligence director Pushan Sharma’s insight: “In coming months, however, we expect thali costs to inch up sequentially as seasonal changes push up vegetable prices. Onion prices are expected to rise moderately due to the absence of fresh arrivals and controlled release of stored rabi stock. For tomato, weak summer sowing is expected to lead to a sequential increase in prices, adding to the upward pressure on thali costs.”

Air Safety Under Scrutiny: India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has submitted a preliminary report on the AI-171 crash that killed over 250 people in Ahmedabad. Both black boxes were decoded in-house for the first time using a “golden chassis” at AAIB’s Delhi lab.

Critical Moment: At a July 8 meeting, a Parliamentary panel chaired by KC Venugopal pressed the Civil Aviation Ministry for a timeline on the final crash report. Members also flagged surging airfares to Srinagar after the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack and called for a full audit of the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) amid rising safety and fare concerns.

Implications: Lawmakers’ scrutiny signals intensifying pressure on aviation authorities to boost transparency, tighten safety oversight, and regulate pricing in crisis scenarios.

Jane Street Will Contest Ban. Jane Street emailed its employees over the weekend saying that the company is "beyond disappointed" by SEBI’s "extremely inflammatory" accusations and that it will contest SEBI’s ban, which forbids the company from trading in Indian markets, according to a Reuters report. 

Setup: On July 3rd, SEBI released a 105-page report accusing Jane Street of manipulating the market; the organisation seized Jane Street’s funds worth Rs 4,843 crore. Since then, many media organisations have accused SEBI’s ex-chief Madhavi Puri Buch of regulatory failure, a charge she denied in a press statement on Tuesday. 

Break: Previously, SEBI has published several reports on how nine out of ten small traders make losses in options trading, a topic The Core recently covered too. On Monday, SEBI released another report saying the number of individual investors of equity derivatives is down by 20% this year compared to the last, but up by 24% compared to two years ago.

Kerala Sues MSC Shipping. Kerala has sued the Swiss shipping giant MSC for $1.1 billion in damages after its vessel, MSC ELSA3, capsized off the state’s coast on May 25, causing a massive oil spill in the Arabian Sea.

Flashpoint: The Kerala High Court has ordered the detention of another MSC vessel at Vizhinjam Port until compensation is secured. The state alleges that serious ecological and economic damage has occurred, affecting over 105,000 fishing families.

Implications: The case could set a precedent for corporate accountability in maritime disasters, as states assert stronger legal claims over environmental damage and public health impacts. MSC has yet to respond.

India Wants Rare Earth Metals From Australia. India is in talks with Australia to source rare earth metals, according to an Economic Times report. Both public and private sectors in India have also expressed interest in Australia’s copper blocks, said Malini Dutt, the Trade and Investment Commissioner of the New South Wales Government in Australia. 

Context: India currently has 6% of the world’s supply of rare earth metals, but it doesn’t have the technology to process them. Since China halted its supply in early April, in response to the US’s tariffs, India has sought alternative sources of rare earth metals; the country previously reached out to Japan and Vietnam too.  

Flashpoint: India is also trying to increase its own processing capacity as well, by designing incentive schemes for companies to set up processing plants, as The Core previously reported.

PODCAST

On Episode 627 of The Core Report, financial journalist Govindraj Ethiraj talks to Sheetal Sapale, VP – Commercial at Pharmarack. We also feature an excerpt from our upcoming interview with Sumit Goswami, CEO and co-founder of ARVO, part of our Build on Blockchain Series.

• The markets stage a late recovery

• Countries around the world are grappling with the latest Trump tariff salvo

• Weight loss drugs are flying off the shelves but there are concerns too

• Cement industry fortunes are looking up

• Food costs are down annually but rising over last month

• Electric vehicle sales jumped last month

👥 THE TEAM

✍️ Zinal Dedhia, Salman SH, Kudrat Wadhwa | ✂️ Rohini Chatterji | 🎧 Joshua Thomas