June 5, 2023

India is the world’s second-largest consumer of coal and third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his officials regularly 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. 

Yet non-profit groups in India, who oppose the rising number of coal plants, face the anger of Modi’s government, says a report in The Washington Post this week.

The Post story, based on interviews and public and confidential government documents, “is a case study in how the Modi government uses state power to push through its economic policies and to aid (Gautam) Adani, a major operator of coal power plants and mines.”

The reporters uncovered government actions against three nonprofit organizations which opposed a new coal mine in Chhattisgarh state in central India, allegedly by mobilizing protesters, filing lawsuits, and voicing public criticism. The Adani-operated mine is in Hasdeo Arand, a roughly 600 square mile forest with dense lush sky-high sal trees and sloth bears, elephants, and other wildlife.

Hasdeo’s coal reserves are estimated to be more than five billion tons. When complete, Adani’s mine will have cleared about 5,000 acres of forest land.

Indian officials say that coal power projects, such as those set up by Adani, are crucial for a fast-growing country which has little crude oil or natural gas reserves. India’s power capacity is 416 Giga Watts, with 51% of it sourced from coal plants.

There is much potential to replace coal with renewable energy sources, especially solar since it is sunny across the country through the year. But, while in office since 2014, Modi’s government has been unable to attract sizeable capital investments for renewable energy plants to reduce dependance on coal power.

Apparently policies for licenses, incentives, project loans and electricity pricing continue to ensure investors in coal power plants earn far higher profits than those on solar projects. Foreign investors and companies are reluctant to invest in coal plants in India given pressures they face at home from environmental groups. Perhaps this lack of major competitors makes it more lucrative for Indian companies to set up coal power plants in the country compared to investing in solar plants..

In addition to owning power plants, transmission lines and coal mines, the Adani 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.

The Adani group was founded and is run by Gautam Adani, 60-years-old, who is based in Ahmedabad, India. In 2014, his net worth was $2.8 billion, according to Forbes. Adani is from Gujerat. That year Narendra Modi, the former Chief Minister of the state, took over as India’s Prime Minister. Adani “has profited since fellow Gujarati Narendra Modi, India’s most influential prime minister in decades, took office in 2014,” according to AP News.

By September 2022, Adani’s net worth rocketed up more than 50-fold to $152 billion, according to Forbes. He was then briefly the second richest person in the world.

In January this year, a report published by Hindenburg Research stated that the “INR 17.8 trillion (U.S. $218 billion) Indian conglomerate Adani Group has engaged in a brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme over the course of decades.” The report, by the U.S. investment research firm, was titled “Adani Group: How the World’s 3rd Richest Man Is Pulling The Largest Con in Corporate History.”

After the Hindenburg report was made public, the stock prices of Adani’s companies and his net worth fell sharply. Forbes estimates Adani’s net worth is currently $53 billion.  

Last year, a Washington Post story stated that the Modi government has for years granted tax breaks and preferential treatment to Adani’s coal business, raising questions about India’s commitment to transitioning away from the fossil fuel.

Some Indian officials view anti-coal activists as foreign-supported troublemakers. “Officials were particularly incensed by ties between Indian activists and the West, the documents showed,” this week’s Post story states.

An Indian environmentalist, was accused of divulging “internal information of India” and “conspiring” against Adani because of emails about Adani’s coal mining and coal power projects he sent to British and Australian researchers. An Indian lawyer’s license to receive foreign funding should be revoked, officials argued, because of his contacts with U.S. environmental lawyers.

Last September, officials from the Income Tax Department of India raided multiple locations, including the premises of Oxfam India, Independent and Public-Spirited Media Foundation and the Centre for Policy Research (CPR).

Yamini Mishra, South Asia Regional Director at Amnesty International said in a statement that the raids were “yet another blatant example of how financial and investigative agencies of the government have been weaponised to…instill fear among the staff, supporters and funders…and to impose a chilling effect to silence civil society at large…It is alarming how the attack on the rights to freedom of expression and association by the authorities keeps growing unabated every day in India.”

In a 2014 report, after Modi became the Prime Minister, a report from India’s Intelligence Bureau stated that foreign non-profit groups such as Greenpeace, Sierra Club and Amnesty International are “negatively impacting economic development” in India and are “a threat to national economic security.”

In 2020, Amnesty was forced to close its operations in India. Early this year, Indian authorities froze the foreign-currency bank accounts of CPR and two other non-profit groups, crippling the Indian environmental organizations, which derive three quarters of their budgets from overseas donations.

Ashutosh Varshney, a political scientist at Brown University, told the Washington Post that Prime Minister Modi has never addressed any of the closures or funding restrictions on Indian non-profits. “Modi is confident that Western governments will not support their NGOs because Washington needs Delhi…because of the rise of China.”

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