Although senior company officials admit they are observing the much talked about differences between the Ambani brothers who control the mammoth Reliance empire, it has not cast a shadow over the group's day-to-day operations.

"It's strictly business as usual for us. So far, we have not felt any impact whatsoever on operations because of the ongoing controversy," said an official in the corporate communications department of Reliance.

"Reliance is a very big and organised corporate house and all the business units are run by separate teams of professionals," the official, who didn't want to be named, told IANS.

"At this point of time, there is no apprehension in the minds of Reliance employees. We believe all issues will be amicably settled sooner rather than later without any major changes in the structure."

Reliance Industries, which has interests in a wide spectrum of industrial sectors such as petrochemicals, refinery, power, telecom, and finance, employs over 85,000 people.           

Shares of Reliance have gone into a freefall since Nov 19 after it was reported that Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani had admitted to an ownership rift with his younger sibling and vice chairman Anil Ambani.

Mukesh, 47, told employees in an e-mailed message that he was the final authority in matters concerning the operations of the group.

Anil, 45, sent out e-mails to all the employees of the group company Reliance Energy Sunday with a view to taking them into confidence in the wake of resignations of six directors amid the raging ownership feud.

A senior official of Reliance Infocomm, the telecom services arm of the group, said: "Of course, it is a matter of discussion among us since papers and TV channels are filled with all kinds of reports on this."

"But we are not losing our sleep over it. The rumours of differences between the two brothers had been doing around for quite sometime now. So the latest development hasn't come as a surprise to most of us.

"I think the impact of this is being felt more on the stock market than on operations."

Reliance Infocomm last Wednesday launched a new service to help its mobile phone customers choose handsets and select mobile phone numbers of their choice despite the much talked about family rift.

Most officials said the ownerships differences between the brothers might not turn into a long drawn battle and all issues could be resolved soon.

"Although there is lots of speculation going around within the company, at this point of time nobody here is thinking in terms of a spilt or a protracted legal battle," said the Reliance Infocomm official.

"But if the prevailing impasse drags on for long, then we will have some reason to worry about the future of the company." 

Reliance accounts for 3.5 percent of the country's gross domestic product and 10 percent of the revenue collected by the government.

Rumours of a rift between the two brothers, Mukesh and Anil, had been floating since the death of their father and group patriarch Dhirubhai Ambani in July 2002.

--Indo-Asian News Service