Corporate Behaviour and Free Speech

Will SC Experiment Provide Answers to the Adani Share Saga? https://www.moneylife.in/article/will-sc-experiment-provide-answers-to-the-adani-share-saga/70076.html
Sucheta Dalal 09 March 2023

Extracts: market volatility is usually triggered by policy actions of governments, regulators and monetary authorities, or technology failures and even rogue algorithms. A short-seller, who puts out a detailed report covering two years of research, can only trigger volatility when there has been a relentless run-up in prices that is not matched by fundamentals.

SEBI has been directed it to look into some specific details: 1) to investigate whether there is a violation of Rule 19A of the Securities Contracts Regulation Act which prescribes the maintenance of public shareholding (25%); 2) whether there was a failure to disclose related party transactions; and 3) if there was manipulation of stock prices in contravention of existing laws....

in (its annual report) FY21-22, SEBI claims to have “deeply integrated technology into its surveillance functions. In its 2020-21 annual report, SEBI had claimed that “SEBI uses various innovative techniques, such as pattern recognition and data analytics” .. but failed to catch the run-up in Adani stocks....important for SEBI to tell us how and why it missed the big elephant in the room, namely, the extraordinary run-up in Adani group shares leading to sky high valuations. And why were these not a part of the 72 investigations into price and volume manipulation completed in 2021-22 and 82 in 2020-2021? 

https://www.telegraphindia.com/business/how-mumbai-is-left-at-the-mercy-of-adanis/cid/1920609?s=08 6.02.23 Extracts from the article..   The risks arise from the fierce collateral terms attached to the $1-billion Senior Secured Notes that Adani Electricity Mumbai Ltd (AEML) floated in February 2020 — just 18 months after the Adani group gained control of beleaguered tycoon Anil Ambani’s Reliance Infrastructure Ltd...The terms of the loan covenant are not widely known because AEML is an unlisted company — and that means the city of Mumbai, its financial regulators, financial institutions, banks and market authorities are possibly unaware of the powder keg they might be sitting on.

The private sector was allowed to enter the power transmission business only in 1991 even though a few players like CESC and Tata Power had been involved in generation and distribution for several decades.

Section 17(3) of the Electricity Act, 2003, says: “No licensee shall at any time assign his licence, or transfer his utility, or any part thereof, by sale, lease, exchange or otherwise without the prior approval of the Appropriate Commission.” .. It is hard to believe that the authorities could have envisaged a situation where the licence could be assigned to a bunch of creditors. The Adanis are probably the first power utility to assign their licence in the manner that they have done.

Comment: on Whatsapp.. For the last two months Bombay has been lit like a Christmas tree. First for one meeting of g20, then inauguration of one small segment of the metro by PM, and republic day.. new government etc... Wonder who is footing the bill to whom!!!!

There is more: the investors in the Notes also hold the rights to AEML’s transmission and distribution licences, issued by the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC)

 Decoding the Adani Scam  https://youtu.be/y07OMvvSMDg?t=965 Panel Discussion two hour long

watch Segments:

Opening Remarks: Feroze Mithiborwala, Writer, Social Activist  https://youtube.com/embed/y07OMvvSMDg?start=1126&end=1455    This is not just about PMs role, but it is a matter of national sovereignty when a company is sold national resources and logistics. How do activists understand this.. five stage operation.. cooking up books of accounts, manipulation in the share markets through some entities buying shares, which enables higher loans from banks , which again round trip the capital. Prior to the Hindenberg report, journalist has written about the off shore companies involved.. Role of Adani in other countries like Srilanka, Bangalesh, Israel and facilitation of this through the PMs office.

Presidential Remarks by Dr. G G Parikh. https://youtu.be/4UMYPp0JhRw  The gandhian path would be to get people and youth in large numbers. Can we get back to those ways.  They feel that they can keep making mistakes, and people will forget. I dont think this can continue. Slowly a situation will arise when youth will come to the streets in a big way. Naya Jamana Ayega, Humari Republic bach Jayegi.

Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, Journalist, Author  https://youtube.com/embed/y07OMvvSMDg?start=1797&end=1894   the Adani group has filed six cases against him, including two gag orders, but he chose to speak as silence was no more an option.

Six Defamation cases details  https://youtube.com/embed/y07OMvvSMDg?start=3653&end=4405   Story of Resignation from EPW, Gag order after story on retirement of judges. Was PGT informer for Hindenberg? 

About the Adani group. Its spectacular rise & precipitous fall : https://youtube.com/embed/y07OMvvSMDg?start=1895&end=2267    “The Adani group has expanded into many areas of business for which it has taken loans from various banks and even LIC. It is too big to fail but if it slows, it can certainly have an impact on the country,”

 The Uniqueness of the Adani group . Never before has a corporate group spreads to so many sectors of the economy, and is dominant of many of the sectors.  https://youtube.com/embed/y07OMvvSMDg?start=2267&end=3044  The story of the different started with the SEZ in Mundra during the Congress regime.  which is now the biggest SEZ, biggest container port. and a chain of 12 ports all along the coast. The core of the india's infrastructure, including food storage infrastructure and defence military grade drone., importer of coal, nine coal mines in India has been rendered to the Adani Group.

 Bangladesh project issue.  https://youtube.com/embed/y07OMvvSMDg?start=3044&end=3177  

Dominance in gas, solar, cement media, real estate, etc https://youtube.com/embed/y07OMvvSMDg?start=3179&end=3653 

Real estate: more than 300 projects.. Dharavi included  https://youtube.com/embed/y07OMvvSMDg?start=3393&end=3443

Family connections https://youtube.com/embed/y07OMvvSMDg?start=3443&end=3539

Ravi Nair, Journalist, Author 

 Bailable warrant from Mansa station in Gujarat. what was it all about   https://youtube.com/embed/y07OMvvSMDg?start=4485&end=4726 . adani in aug 2021. Court used to send summons to an old address. They collated different tweet and different articles, most of the tweets are quotes from other articles with links. So what the original article is not defamatory, but tweeting it became defamatory!

 government support to the group. https://youtube.com/embed/y07OMvvSMDg?start=4726&end=5356  “Adani calls his rise mehnat (hard work), mehnat and mehnat. But it is Prime Minister Modi who has worked hard for him,” said Nair. eg Godda power project. 2 MOUs for indian companies, to establish plants in Bangadesh.  After 3 months the MOU changed to Adani project to build the plant in India, and export that power.  For the project they forcibly took 2,000 acre of land from farmers to help them set up a power project. . Just before the 2019 elections this Godda area has been declared as an SEZ where he enjoys many tax exemptions,”      “Bangladesh is paying more price to a private company who is exporting thermal electricity to them when India is not even a power surplus country.

The story of water being drawn from the ganga. environment clearaance?  https://youtube.com/embed/y07OMvvSMDg?start=5356&end=5562             Then they wanted water from the Ganga which is 90 km away, so again they forcibly took more land.

Sri Lanka Story  https://youtube.com/embed/y07OMvvSMDg?start=5563&end=5826        Modi govt. forced the Lanka govt to give this project to Adani.

In 2019 - PMO decided to privatised six airports. The story behind Mumbai airport. https://youtube.com/embed/y07OMvvSMDg?start=5827&end=6383        -

Offshore  investments & SEBI investigations: https://youtube.com/embed/y07OMvvSMDg?start=6392&end=6941  “There were to be inquiries against the Foreign Portfolio investors who were investing only in his companies in India. SEBI was to inquire but where are the earlier reports? Now, SEBI will be inquiring again,”

Adv. Mihir Desai, PUCL https://youtube.com/embed/y07OMvvSMDg?start=8629&end=8878   Refers to the opinida article referenced below.. when you are talking about Adani you are not only talking about shares going up and down. You are talking baout large scale un-employment, about rights being taken away from Adivasi, you are talking about environment being de-graded. All these are human rights issues. and it is likely to affect the economy at large.  and when you see the government also  tweaking the Laws, that is something that needs to be answered by the government. 

Here is what Opindia highlighted : https://www.opindia.com/2023/02/naxals-muslim-and-christian-groups-organise-event-on-adani-scam/

& Free Press ... Here's how Adani slowing down can have impact on India https://www.freepressjournal.in/mumbai/heres-how-adani-slowing-down-can-have-impact-on-india The slowing down will not just affect the economy of the country but can also lead to large-scale unemployment and the use of public money to bail it out, said the speakers. March 02, 2023  The Adani group has filed six cases against Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, including two gag orders, but he chose to speak as silence was no more an option. ...there has been a pattern in the rise of the Adani Conglomerate; a pattern in the filing of defamation cases against journalists who wrote against Adani, no publication of earlier enquiry reports in which Adani was accused and tweaking of government rules to favour Adani in getting airports where it had no experience.

 Speakers said that the citizens of Bangladesh were against the terms and this could harm the relations between the two countries. In many cases, the speakers alleged that there was a lot of transfer of goods within the group itself. They further alleged that some of the companies were owned by relatives of Adani who are on the run for having defaulted on bank loans and their whereabouts are not even known.