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New Delhi: After signing a binding concession agreement on February 14, 2019, to take over the operations of the international airports at Mangaluru (Karnataka), Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) and Ahmedabad (Gujarat) from the Airports Authority of India (AAI) within six months, Adani Airports Limited has invoked a “force majeure” clause and requested the AAI to postpone till February 15, 2021, the execution of the agreement it signed with the public sector corporation. The Adani group company has also...

I am writing this personalised opinion piece at the invitation of Outlook because I am supposed to have a viewpoint, having spent 43 years as a journalist, that could add to the discussion currently going on about an article published on June 17 written by Salik Ahmad titled “Dear Editor, I Disagree With Your ‘Both-Sides’ Journalism.” First and foremost, my heartiest congratulations to Ahmad for writing what he did and I am overjoyed that his “open letter” has gone viral on social media at a...

Gurugram/Mumbai: “Today I am both delighted and humbled to announce that we have fulfilled our promise to the shareholders by making Reliance net debt-free much before our original schedule of 31st March 2021. Exceeding the expectations of our shareholders and all other stakeholders, again and yet again,” said Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) on June 19, as the company’s stock price hit a record high. He added: “….on the proud occasion of...

Mumbai/New Delhi: Two months ago, on April 18, the Indian government placed restrictions on the inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI) into India by Chinese investors. After concerns were raised about a stake sale of 1.75 crore shares (representing 1% of the total equity capital) of HDFC to the People’s Bank of China (that country’s central bank) worth Rs 3,000 crore between January and March, the government modified rules governing foreign direct investment (FDI) through the “automatic route...

Mumbai/Delhi, June 7, 2020: The “largest-ever” rights issue of shares by India’s biggest private corporate entity, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), closed on June 3, having been over-subscribed by 1.59 times of the announced value of Rs 53,124 crore. RIL will receive this amount from its shareholders after it receives the full pay-out from subscribers to its rights issue scheduled for the end of 2021. As the authors explained in a previous article for NewsClick on May 20, RIL’s rights issue...

From May 20 till June 3, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) will conduct what is being touted as India’s “biggest ever” rights issue, seeking to raise at least US$7 billion (or Rs 53,215 crore). Every eligible shareholder in the company will be entitled to purchase one discounted share for every fifteen shares they hold. The fundraising effort is the latest step in RIL’s effort to become “debt-free.” Over the past three months, as India and the world has grappled with the Covid-19 pandemic, a...

Note: This interview was recorded and broadcast by the Newsclick web portal before a formal request was made on Thursday, April 30 by the Governor of Maharashtra Bhagat Singh Koshyari to the Election Commission of India to conduct elections to fill the vacant positions in the state Legislative Council “at the earliest.” The Commission is scheduled to meet on Friday, May 1 to decide on the dates of the elections. Paranjoy Guha Thakurta (PGT): We are going to discuss the likely Constitutional...

Delhi/Mumbai: On April 22, American social media giant Facebook announced an investment of US$5.7 billion (about Rs 43,574 crore) to acquire a 9.99% stake in Reliance Jio, the Reliance group’s internet data and telecommunications wing. This was soon after a reshuffle within the family in the shareholding of India’s largest private corporate entity Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), which is the Reliance group’s flagship company and of which Reliance Jio is a subsidiary. According to data on...

Instead of promoting a scientific temper among people, much of the media in India is today supporting superstition and injecting communal poison in the hearts and minds of viewers and readers, NDTV India Managing Editor and Magsaysay Award winner Ravish Kumar told Paranjoy Guha Thakurta in an interview published on Sunday April 12, 2020. Here is an edited version of the video interview translated into English. Paranjoy Guha Thakurta: We are going through an unprecedented international crisis...

The media may never be the same in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic collapse that will accompany and follow the health emergency across the world, and in India. Many governments across the globe are claiming that state control over information flows is essential, not just to combat fake news over the internet and social media, but also to confront and combat the ongoing multi-facetted crisis. In this country, there is a distinct possibility that rules could be interpreted...