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Title: India Is Broken—And why it’s hard to fix: A People Betrayed, 1947 to TodayAuthor: Ashoka ModyPublisher: JuggernautPages: 512Price: ₹899For an academic and international civil servant to write a magnum opus that takes a broad sweep of India’s contemporary history and political economy, in a language that is understandable to the lay reader, is not an easy endeavour.When Professor Ashoka Mody was asked by an interviewer why he published his book at this juncture, nearly nine years into the...

The outcome of the elections to the Karnataka legislative assembly has predictably led to euphoria in the Congress and other political parties opposed to the Bharatiya Janata Party. Some have gone to the extent of arguing that Saturday’s results signify the beginning of the end of the authoritarian rule of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It would be premature to jump to such a conclusion. The next Lok Sabha elections are ten months away. Much could happen in this period.Still, Karnataka is...

During a heat wave in the Indian state of Haryana in 2022, the Adani Group supplied less power than it was contracted to and also diverted power away from Haryana to the state of Gujarat. This summer, Adani Power can officially supply less power to Haryana and get paid more for each unit, despite a Supreme Court judgment which said there is no justification for hiking tariffs. Here, we report on how Haryana’s chief minister has overridden a long-term, binding power contract with Adani, even...

Gurugram/London/Bengaluru: In 2018, the Congress party had alleged that the Narendra Modi government had turned a blind eye to Jatin Mehta’s alleged misdemeanours, allowing him to leave India and delaying the filing of cases against him. It had asked whether the “protection” for him had anything to do with his “close relationship with an industrial house closest to Narendra Modi through marriage of his son”. This industrial house is, of course, the Adani Group.In Part 1 of this two-part series...

Long before allegations of fraud levelled by banks against Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi made headlines in the media in India and the world, another diamantaire from Gujarat, Jatin Mehta, and his group of companies had caused a major loss to Indian and international banks and became the one of the largest wilful defaulters of loans, together with Kingfisher Airlines headed by Vijay Mallya – all four of them are currently outside India. Unlike the cases of Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and Vijay Mallya...

Book: Guru to the World: The Life and Legacy of VivekanandaAuthor: Ruth HarrisPublisher: BelknapPrice: ₹799This nuanced and detailed account of the life and times of Narendranath Datta (1863-1902), better known as Swami Vivekananda, by a professor of European history at the University of Oxford has come at a time when the century-long target of achieving a Hindu rashtra by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is arguably at its closest.Ruth Harris’ book on the saffron-robed ascetic, who inspired some...

criminal investigation against Adani Enterprises Limited and others registered in India’s capital New Delhi by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has been pending for three years. The filing of a first information report (FIR) by the CBI in the designated CBI court in New Delhi relates to allegations about rigging of tenders for procurement of coal for power stations owned by the Andhra Pradesh Power Generation Corporation that involve a 'proxy' company named Vyom Tradelinks, which has a...

There is evidence indicating that an entity linked to the Adani Group financially supported a company that violated sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on trade with North Korea. The sanctioned company was owned by sons of Chang Chung-Ling, an Adani Group associate who appeared in the Hindenburg report due to his directorship of Adani entities under scrutiny in that report. At the heart of this issue is a tanker that transferred oil products to a North Korean ship in...

Book: Imprints Of The Populist TimeAuthor: Ranabir SamaddarPublisher: Orient BlackSwanPrice: ₹1,105One dictionary definition of the word, ‘populism’, is that it is a political approach that strives to appeal to ordinary people who feel that their concerns are disregarded by elitist groups. In other words, the word signifies the quality of appealing to, or being aimed at, the proverbial aam admi. The political thinker, Ranabir Samaddar, writes several thousand words in his elaborate attempts to...

Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, the journalist who found prominent mention in the Hindenburg Research report that triggered turmoil in the share prices of the Adani Group and cast international glare on Indian probity in corporate governance, breaks his silence two-and-a-half years after a court in Ahmedabad issued a gag order asking him not to speak or write anything that may go against the interests of the Adani Group. Guha Thakurta said he was not willing to hazard a guess on the future of the Adani...