Ambani may still want Zee, and India’s embarrassing power crisis

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Editor's note: This is Street Smart, The Morning Context’s weekly newsletter on everything that impacts corporate India. Every Thursday, Street Smart will bring you an original, reported or analytical take on issues that have the potential to shake up the business ecosystem. Surendar here. First there was the rumour, then an insinuation and finally the confirmation. Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries was in talks to buy Zee. It may have not “proceeded” with the talks, but there are enough reasons to believe that Ambani cannot do without Zee. Separately, India’s power sector is going through an unprecedented shortage of coal. A shameful situation for a coal-rich country like ours. Who is to blame? Read on.  Ambani’s Zee quest It is a surprising turn of events that sees Reliance Industries caught in a takeover battle with Zee Entertainment as such things don’t happen in India, especially when promoters of both companies are politically connected. In its media message, Reliance said that it regretted being drawn into Zee’s dispute with its investor Invesco, that it respected all founders and had never resorted to any hostile …