India's telecom-to-oil giant Reliance Industries Thursday reported a steep fall in quarterly profits as the global crude slump and the coronavirus pandemic rocked its key energy refining business. It was the first quarterly drop in three years and came a week after Facebook took a $5.7 billion stake in the Mumbai-based firm's Jio digital platforms in one of India's biggest foreign investments. Reliance, owned by Asia's richest man Mukesh Ambani, said its consolidated net profit for the March quarter fell 39 percent to 63.48 billion rupees ($845 million) from a year earlier. Ambani added in the earnings release that he would "forego his entire salary until the impact of COVID-19 abates". Local media reported that higher-earning employees faced pay cuts of up to 50 percent. Revenues from operations fell to 1.39 trillion rupees ($18.4 billion) from a previous 1.43 trillion ($19 billion) a year earlier. It wrote down 42.45 billion rupees ($565 million) after "inventory holding losses due to the sharp decline in oil markets". Reliance said it would raise 556 billion rupees ($7.4 billion) through a rights issue -- India's biggest according to analysts. Jio -- the country's biggest mobile operator with 387.5 million subscribers -- reported 26.6 percent growth year-on-year as it added more users and data consumption increased. Reliance shares closed 2.86 percent higher on the Bombay Stock Exchange Sensex Index Thursday ahead of the earnings release. vm/grk/je/bfm