Financing is so tight for the Adani Group after its shares got savaged by Hindenburg that it plans a $500 million loan prepayment by P R SANJAI, SUVASHREE GHOSH, STEVEN ARONS AND BLOOMBERG FFebruary 9, 2023 https://fortune.com/2023/02/08/gautam-adani-group-prepay-500-million-bridge-loan-financing-hindenburg-short-seller/  This marks the second time in a week that the group has taken steps to prepay debt as it fights to regain investor confidence and stem the stock rout. Billionaire Gautam Adani and his family have prepaid $1.11 billion worth of borrowings backed by shares, the group said Monday.

Adani faced a margin call of more than $500 million on that loan, prompting the Indian tycoon to repay the whole debt, Financial Times reported Wednesday. The Adani Group said it didn’t receive a formal request for a margin call and that the loan was repaid early “per our prepayment planning,” the paper reported.

Adani faced margin call on $1.1bn loan before repaying in full - https://www.ft.com/content/b5ad1852-dd09-4b38-8d74-c2a99462395f  Comment BY SS From "Prepaid" to "Repaid": All Too Fast!

Gautam Adani, whose Indian business empire is under pressure over fraud allegations, repaid a $1.1bn share-backed loan last week after facing a margin call of more than $500mn, according to four people with direct knowledge of the matter. They said the repayment was designed to avoid further damage to investor confidence in the group.

Rather than post cash against the loan, which did not mature until September 2024, the Adani Group’s founder and his family opted to repay it completely. Adani has not disclosed the source of the funds used to repay the loan.

 

"The Mumbai Marathi Patrakar Sangh, the Brihanmumbai Union of Journalists and the People’s Union of Civil Liberties (Maharashtra) have all expressed shock over the incident. The organisations have said that Warishe’s killing was clearly designed “to silence and intimidate all those who dare to speak up and to uncover the intimidation and land-grab that has been going on in the name of acquisition of land for the project.” https://thewire.in/media/maharashtra-journalist-killed-refinery-shashikant-warishe 

https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/green-patches-are-being-crushed-this-is-leading-to-poor-air-quality-surendra-jondhale-8426097/  Pratip Acharya  February 6, 2023

Green patches are being crushed… this is leading to poor air quality: Surendra Jondhale "Another aspect of this budget is that the BMC is going to dive into its reserves (Fixed Deposit) and they are saying that this money will be utilised for development works in city," says Jondhale.
This budget is entirely a politically shadowed administrative budget.  you will see that lesser funds are being allotted to the education and health department, just like the Union budget for this year.

Another aspect of this budget is that the BMC is going to dive into its reserves (Fixed Deposit) and they are saying that this money will be utilised for development works in city.  ( see Udhav Thackeray response to PM's suggestion in this regard )

This year we have seen the municipal commissioner speaking majorly about mitigating air pollution. They have also earmarked Rs 25 crore for this purpose.  Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has also spoken about mitigating air pollution of Mumbai and she has connected the current situation with better waste management. The situation in Mumbai today is the result of prolonged incorrect waste management. Air pollution is just an additional factor, the unmanaged construction works, open debris dumping and garbage burning are the primary contributing factors for bad air quality. These factors need to be addressed first, then only the problem could be solved at a holistic level.

These problems wouldn’t have risen in the first place, if the city had enough green patches and trees. For example, the Aarey forest is like an oasis to the Mumbai metropolis. Whatever green patches are left in the city now are now being crushed for real estate or infrastructure projects. The lack of trees around is only resulting in poorer air quality nowadays.

This budget is proposed solely keeping the upcoming elections in mind.

Ahimsagram is inspired by principles of Nonviolent Communication (NVC), Self Management, Holacracy and sustainable living practices! We work with Holacracy as a Governance method,

- for those who want to develop sustainable businesses as well as for those wanting to learn about self management.

- offering trainings in self management which will give tools to other organisations or entrepreneurs to set up their own businesses with more ease and effectiveness, while working collaboratively and creating engaging and inspired teams.

https://ahimsagram.in/our-story/

Ahimsagram was founded by Shammi Nanda,

Sociocracy as our governance system, as we wanted to create a world where each person has a voice.

Holacracy: our team works on self management principles where everyone in the team takes responsibility of their role (s) while enjoying autonomy and freedom (Brian Robertson)

NVC -  Marshall Rosenberg

Citing development needs, the government took over Delhi’s once thriving commons. Now, much of this land is neglected, walled off or encroached on by the rich. https://scroll.in/article/1043344/how-delhi-ate-up-its-village-commons 

A board in the middle of the dried pond announces that it is situated on “gaon sabha” land. This is a category of land that, under the Delhi Land Reforms Act, 1954, is jointly owned by a village, and comprises areas used by the community, including for the digging of wells, collecting forest produce or as burial grounds. The act vests the rights of usage of such common lands with the gaon sabha – the representative body that governs a village or a group of villages, whose executive arm is the gaon panchayat.

But blame for the pond’s mismanagement does not rest with the gaon sabha. In 1990, the Delhi government issued a notification that dissolved all the gaon panchayats constituted under the 1954 act, and transferred the ownership of the gaon sabha lands to the revenue department of the Delhi government.

With that, the divisional commissioner of Delhi, an officer of the revenue department, took over the duties and powers of the gaon panchayats

by Vaishnavi Rathore

08/02/2023

The ongoing anti-encroachment drive in Jammu and Kashmir has sparked a heated debate and has become a major source of contention.

https://thewire.in/rights/watch-jammu-kashmir-anti-encroachment-drive-homeless 

by Faizan Mir

08/02/2023

read more

Journalist who exposed Barsu Refinery project mowed down Free Speech Collective. FEBRUARY 7, 2023 https://freespeechcollective.in/2023/02/07/journalist-who-exposed-barsu-refinery-project-mowed-down/
In a shocking incident, journalist Shashikant Warishe was mowed down and crushed by a vehicle allegedly driven by Pandharinath Amberkar, a local land-dealer and accused in several land grab cases in the controversial Barsu refinery in the western Konkan region of Maharashtra, barely a few hours after he published a report in Marathi newspaper Mahanagari Times about his links with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

Decoding the Budget Through a Feminist Lens By Rohitha Naraharisetty talks to Vibhuti Patel Feb 2, 2023 https://theswaddle.com/decoding-the-budget-through-a-feminist-lens/

gender gap in five important areas. One, adverse sex ratio. Second is education . Third is employment —  Fourth is decision making — Fifth is gender-based violence. supply-side economics and growth doesn’t translate to welfare or empowerment.

Women and children should be separated because right now, the majority of the budget goes to Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), which also addresses women and children. And the second part of this allocation goes to reproductive and Child Health (RCH).

support to self-help groups (SHGs), there’s big applause about the budget allocating massive resources to SHGs. Yes, they did play a heroic role during the pandemic, but who will mediate them? If you are just parking money in private microfinance, they will exploit these women. We have had cases of women borrowers dying by suicide because of the bouncers who would humiliate and degrade them. These are some of the very serious concerns that we have.

Also, look at the budget on gender-based violence: with the Nirbhaya fund that has been allocated since 2013 — 1,000 — crores per year, you hardly see any utilization. There are states and union territories where there is 100% non-utilization of the fund. Though there is a clause that money cannot be diverted, most of the time, what is allocated for gender gets diverted. In Maharashtra, they recently bought SUVs and vehicles for MLAs using the Nirbhaya fund.

The EBHLE Community project has been in the works for sometime now. We started acquiring land in January 2020. But COVID came in March 2020 and put a delay. Now finally, the project will take off this year. EBHLE Community project is about creating an Eco-sustainable space, in a rural setting, of like minded people with its 3 pillars of Learning, Livelihood and Governance. It can accommodate 80 families and 300 Learners in the age group of 4 to 16. By 16 years of age we expect the kids to be self-sufficient in learning with creative problem solving skills and thereafter be able to pursue further learning of their interest (not our interest) on their own. For families it's going to be an experience of living a self-sustainable lifestyle in Nature, with Nature for the betterment of humanity and our progeny. This might sound audacious and a fantasy.
The project has a 100 year vision.

Usually the Community Meets were only open to people who have lived at Sapna Ranch for the minimum of a week, have realized that going forward, this is how they want to live and made a commitment to be a part of the project.

However with the post COVID Era people's priorities have changed and more want to move out of the urban setting and pursue their interests in a healthy, nature friendly, rural setting with work from home capabilities. Sapna Ranch has 100 Mbps fiber connectivity for internet.

Hasmukh by WhatsApp at ×91 9552689001 or by Telegram at +91 7558228952 or email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.