New Delhi: Adani Group made profits at the expense of air quality and public health by selling low-quality coal as cleaner fuel to the Tamil Nadu state power utility, a Financial Times report says.
The report, ‘Adani suspected of fraud by selling low-grade coal as high-value fuel’, says that documents reviewed by journalists Dan McCrum, Chris Cook and John Reed throw “fresh light on allegations of a long-running coal scam”. Adani misrepresented coal quality to boost profits in at least 22 shipments in 2014, says the report, raising broader concerns about Adani’s business practices and influence in India, especially as the group takes up renewable energy projects. The report quotes New Delhi-based analyst Sunil Dahiya as saying, “Public health has definitely taken a back seat in India against the interest of the power sector.”
The Guardian report, ‘Modi builds highways but where are our jobs?: rising inequality looms over India’s election‘, says that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seeking a third term by touting a narrative of prosperity and welfare programmes, which, he claims, have uplifted poor people, but high levels of unemployment and inequality plague the country.
According to the report, India’s GDP grew by 7.6 percent in 2023, but critics say this growth favours the wealthy. “A chronic lack of decent jobs” fuels discontent, journalists Hannah Ellis-Petersen and Aakash Hassan write. They highlight the wealth disparity by comparing Mukesh Ambani’s $150 million pre-wedding bash for his son, featuring Rihanna’s $8 million performance, with poverty in rural Maharashtra, where many talked about their struggles amid poor job prospects and welfare schemes whose impact has been spun “wildly out of proportion”.
In a Financial Times report, ‘Missing: India’s third Modi wave’, author and Rockefeller International chair Ruchir Sharma, who hit the election campaign trail in states such as Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and Maharashtra, discusses how Modi’s anticipated third electoral victory might not be as decisive as expected. Despite past landslides, local issues overshadow Modi’s national agenda in these states, writes Sharma.
While urban middle-class voters support Modi’s economic policies, rural voters are concerned about rising food prices and inadequate aid, adds Sharma while pointing out that there is no backlash against Modi. “Just a return to an India before Modi mania, focused on local issues and leaders — with events in New Delhi an afterthought,” he writes.
According to the report, Modi’s influence gets overshadowed by regional figures in Andhra Pradesh, and voters in Maharashtra blame economic stagnation on Modi’s favouritism towards Gujarat, with this waning dominance likely to reduce BJP’s seats in the Parliament.
A TIME report, ‘As India votes, Modi’s party misleads online’, delves into how the Modi government is “misleading” people by using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and deepfakes. Taking the example of a “Congress will say, BJP will do” poster by the ruling party, the report notes how Modi stands in front of a metro rail to tout the improvement in transit services, but it is Singapore’s Jurong East station on the poster.
Chad De Guzman, a reporter working with TIME, calls this poster a part of a broader pattern of disinformation in Indian politics, exacerbated by Generative AI and inadequate social media safeguards. Though false information comes from across the political spectrum, the BJP “uses shadow advertisers” to spread ads that target the Opposition or are hate-based, the report says, adding the party exaggerates its economic achievements too.
An opinion piece in Nikkei Asia, ‘India is stepping up as a security partner in the Caucasus’, discusses how the Ukraine war’s impact on Caucasus power dynamics has allowed India to become a significant security partner beyond South Asia.
Former Indian envoy to Jordan and Libya Anil Trigunayat writes that with Russia’s focus diverted, Azerbaijan has regained territories previously controlled by Armenia, leading to Armenia’s disillusionment with the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and the suspension of its participation in it. This shift has opened doors for India, now supplying about 90 percent of Armenia’s defence equipment, says Trigunayat, who, in the piece, also notes that Armenia supports India’s stance on Kashmir. “Armenia can be a test case for India’s growing role in international security amid exceptional turmoil that has jostled the alliance matrix in the south Caucasus,” he adds.
Flight turbulence leaves one dead, violent clashes in Kyrgyzstan
One passenger died while 71 were injured when a Singapore Airlines flight headed from London to Singapore encountered severe turbulence Tuesday. Read CNN’s latest report to know what the flight passengers experienced.
More than 300 Pakistani students have returned home from Kyrgyzstan after violent clashes that left some wounded in a city whose medical colleges are popular with South Asian students. To know more, read this Al Jazeera report.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
Also read: From East to West, India is making a big push for transnational transport corridors. Here’s why