Facebook bets on a different sort of e-commerce in India

RUMOURS OF INDIA’S debt-sodden firms receiving a cash infusion from a foreign buyer swirl regularly, but rarely become reality. With the country in lockdown and oil prices crashing, worries have grown that the most touted such investment—the $15bn purchase of 20% of Reliance Industries’ refining arm by Saudi Aramco, the kingdom’s oil colossus—may be delayed or cancelled. That deal had been seen as a way to ease the pressure from loans used to build Reliance’s Jio telecoms arm: concerns that it was under strain certainly did not help as Reliance’s share price tumbled by more than 40% between mid-February and mid-March amid pandemic panic. But all is not lost for the Indian conglomerate—thanks to Mark Zuckerberg.