Corporate Behaviour and Free Speech

SBI-led consortium to fund Adani Group’s ₹34,000-crore PVC project in Mundra https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/companies/sbi-led-consortium-to-fund-adani-groups-34000-crore-pvc-project-in-mundra/article67097877.ece - July 20, 2023 When even the well documented and analysed Hindenburg report is brushed aside to support Adani’s profiteering from peoples tax monies and making more plastics, it’s a moment when we could ask why nothing we all do matters to them.
https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/companies/sbi-led-consortium-to-fund-adani-groups-34000-crore-pvc-project-in-mundra/article67097877.ece

The coal-to-PVC project is a key component of the group’s ambitious plans to develop a petrochemical cluster at Mundra and central to its overall strategy to be a significant player in the segment.

Supriya Srinate on Adani Issue  https://youtube.com/embed/2EfzPSKW4w8?start=511&end=930 6 mins 

Gautam Adani: the Indian billionaire vs the short seller https://www.ft.com/video/5de54044-3095-4670-83d4-84dce3a57845 Gautam Adani and Narendra Modi have a relationship that one could describe as symbiotic. Adani's rise in business has coincided with Modi's rise in politics, first in Gujarat, where Modi was chief minister at the same time that Adani was rising in business. And then from 2014, when Modi took power as prime minister, Adani's rise was, if anything, even more stellar.

He has also focused his interests on those things that... what Mr Modi calls the "New India" is also focused on, which is of infrastructure-building rapidly, trying to get India up to scale so that it can compete. And on several fronts Mr Adani's interests align with that of the Union Government of India.

He also has one other thing going for him, and that is you have to remember that he is playing on the India growth story. India needs a huge investment in infrastructure, and he is positioned right at the fulcrum where the finger needs to be put.

Concluding

The Adani story has revealed a lot about Indian democracy because democracy is not just living in a free country. It's living in a country where the pillars of democracy all work together.

The image of India and Indian business has definitely taken a slight hit with the Adani group. No doubt about that. Having said that, because the India growth story is so strong, it has now become a must-win market for every company in the world.

I think it's probably too early to say whether this story of the short seller versus the billionaire is something that has transformed Indian business, or that we will have forgotten about in a year's time.

The issue is about the concentration of wealth and whether or not India's middle class will rise up with the success of these businessmen. Is it going to be like in South Korea where the chaebol helped lay the foundation for the economy? Or is it going to be like Russia, where the wealth stayed in the hands of a very few oligarchs at the expense of the nation?