Category: Editorial

The central government’s work in the power sector can be marred by what is happening in the state governments, particularly states that are run by Congress governments where corrupt practices continue unabated. This issue exposes the Hydro Power Scam in Himachal Pradesh. This is the Brakel Fraud story, which began in 2006 when Virbhadra Singh […]

The cover story ‘Banking Fraud’ in this issue is a unique case in which over Rs 700 crore were given by various banks to a fraudulent company against a security of just Rs 67 crore assets and a corporate guarantee letter from a foreign company which found to be bogus. Also, out of Rs 67 […]

Detailed Reports for the Sagarmala Programme have been readied. The Ministry of Shipping released five reports running into 958 pages on August 11, 2016. Stakeholders are to respond by August 31, 2016. Since this becomes gigantic reading, we have compressed the major findings of all these reports into 14 pages, complete with comprehensive cartographic components […]

A multi-tier reform of the Aviation sector has been unleashed. The main components of this are: a historic tariff reform, infrastructure augments, establishing new airports and creating conditions for investment, for expansion of the airline industry and also the entry of new players. So, what can be expected from this policy in the months and […]

This is an amazing convertibility story – how the rich line-up loans and investments for the spouse of a famous banker, make him the owner of big assets and claim no share in it. Truly, Business made easy. This is the story of Deepak Kochhar’s Renweable Empire, built on ‘unclear’ Mauritius route investments and loans […]

DRI scrutiny of coal imports by power generating companies has thrown up data that shows five findings. First, there exists a sophisticated system for trade-based money laundering. It is industrial in its scale of operation and its typical methods are creation of layers and artificial inflation of landed goods. Thus, two sets of GCV (gross […]

UDAY, the big economic intervention of the Modi government to treat discom health, is proceeding apace. Thus far, ten states alongwith their discoms have entered into MoUs with the union power ministry, each making certain commitments aimed at the turnaround of discoms. Out of these ten states, discoms in seven states had massive debts – […]

The Greenko-Budhil hydro-power PPA is a scam of the Uttarakhand government. In our January 2016 issue, we had informed our readers about payments made to Lanco by Greenko for Budhil project to secure a higher per unit tariff for 35 years. This long terms contract was awarded on nomination basis. In this issue we bring […]

If PSUs cannot refine Cairn’s crude from Rajasthan block due to capacity & technological constraints, and if the private Indian refineries refuse to pay the right price for crude, then Cairn seeking permission for export is both natural and appropriate. And the government will also benefit from such export because it will get a major […]

Ujjwal Discom Assurance Yojana or more tellingly its acronym Uday, if it succeeds, would deserve to become the standard text for overcoming crippling indebtedness. So overwhelming is the challenge. The outstanding debt of discoms as on March 31, 2015 stood at nearly Rs 4.3 lakh crore, while their losses amount to nearly Rs 3.8 lakh […]

For generations of Indians, power situation in India has been one nagging problem and a running joke. Political promises of uninterrupted power supply became caricatures. So when Prime Minister Modi promised it during his poll campaign, many derided. But he did it in Gujarat. Everyone has seen it. The PM has set a date of […]

The draft aviation policy aims to make air travel cheaper, easier and India more connected. It will take flying to the masses the draft policy enunciates. The policy has been circulated for stakeholder inputs, after which it would be sent to the cabinet for approval. The major focus of the policy is the domestic sector […]