Book launch: Gas Wars

BOOK LAUNCH |Gas Wars: Crony Capitalism & The Ambanis by Paranjoy Guha Thakurta with Subir Ghosh and Jyotirmoy Chaudhuri Natural gas that lies below the ocean bed in the Bay of Bengal along the southeast shores of India off the basin of two great rivers, the Krishna and the Godavari, has over the last decade or so become the subject of considerable political controversy involving the office of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas as well as the Prime Minister's Office. Paranjoy shows how this simmering controversy boiled over into a primetime storm on gas pricing even as he introduces new dimensions to it. While many reasons have been attributed to the split in the powerful Indian business family, the Ambanis, this book argues that the battle between the Ambani brothers was largely about wresting control over reserves of natural gas that are below the ocean bed along the basin of the two greatest rivers of southern India.