December 11, 2022

Starting next week, Bangladesh is expected to pay India’s Adani Group for power generated by a new 1,600-megawatt coal fired plant in the state of Jharkhand, India. Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s “vision for Bangladesh is inspirational and stunningly bold,” tweeted Gautam Adani, Chairman of the Adani Group which owns the plant, following a meeting between the two in New Delhi in September.   

The transmission lines in Bangladesh, to transport the power within the country, are reportedly yet to be completed. Even so, once the plant is operational, “Bangladesh must pay Adani roughly $450 million a year in capacity and maintenance charges regardless of whether it generates any electricity,” according to The Washington Post.  Also, the price paid for the power will reportedly be higher than the cost of power produced by Bangladesh’s coal-fired plants.

Currently Bangladesh has a 40% surplus of power generation capacity, according to the Bangladesh Power Development Board. Importing power from the Adani plant in India will hurt Bangladesh’s already indebted economy, according to a report by the Bangladesh Working Group on External Debt (BWGED). “Since Bangladesh doesn’t need any more power, the amount spent will only benefit the Adani Group, not the people of Bangladesh,” Hasan Mehedi, one of the authors of the report, told downtoearth.

The Adani group was founded and is run by Gautam Adani, 60 -years-old, who is based in Ahmedabad, India. In addition to owning power plants, transmission lines and coal mines, the group’s operations include running the Mumbai airport and other airports; Mundra, India’s largest port and other ports; consumer goods including edible oils; cement and real estate businesses in India and abroad.

In 2014, Adani’s net worth was $2.8 billion, according to Forbes. He is from Gujerat. That year Narendra Modi, the former Chief Minister of Gujerat, took over as India’s Prime Minister. Since then, Adani’s net worth has rocketed up more than 40-fold to $134 billion. He is the richest person in India and third richest in the world.

Adani “has profited since fellow Gujarati Narendra Modi, India’s most influential prime minister in decades, took office in 2014,” according to AP News.

Jharkhand has one of the largest areas covered by forests among the states in India. The BWGED report estimates that Adani’s Jharkhand coal-fired power plant will be a major polluter, emitting more than nine million tons of carbon dioxide a year.

The Adani plant “offers a stark example of how political will in India often bends in favor of the dirty fuel — and the business titan who dominates the country’s coal industry,” notes The Washington Post. Meanwhile, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his officials make statements at the United Nations and various global climate summits, that, by 2030, half of India’s electricity will likely be generated from renewable sources and that the country plans to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2070. 

The Adani Group has filed defamation cases against at least seven journalists in India. This year, the group launched an effort to gain control of NDTV, the leading independent TV news network in India. Adani now owns a 37% stake in NDTV compared to 32% held by the founders.

Founded in 1988 by journalists Radhika Roy and Prannoy Roy, NDTV is “one of the few major broadcasters that is often critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party…Adani’s move has sparked fears about shrinking editorial freedom” in India, CNN reported.

Last year, Bangladesh imported $16 billion in goods from India, making it India’s fourth-largest export market. Prime Minister Hasina cannot afford to anger India, even if the Adani power deal appears unfavorable, B.D. Rahmatullah, a former director general of Bangladesh’s power regulator, who also reviewed the Adani contract, told The Washington Post. “Bangladesh now is not even a state of India. It is below that.”

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