Podcast
Questions and Answers
What is the 'electoral bond' scheme introduced by Modi in 2017?
What is the 'electoral bond' scheme introduced by Modi in 2017?
What was the consequence of Hindenburg Research's accusations against Gautam Adani?
What was the consequence of Hindenburg Research's accusations against Gautam Adani?
What is the significance of Adani's purchase of Israel's largest port?
What is the significance of Adani's purchase of Israel's largest port?
What is Adani's flagship business?
What is Adani's flagship business?
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What is the 'fraud of Modi's India'?
What is the 'fraud of Modi's India'?
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What is the purpose of the 'electoral bond' scheme introduced by Modi?
What is the purpose of the 'electoral bond' scheme introduced by Modi?
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What is the consequence of Modi's policies on public health and education?
What is the consequence of Modi's policies on public health and education?
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What is the role of Western politicians, journalists, and bankers in Adani's rise?
What is the role of Western politicians, journalists, and bankers in Adani's rise?
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What is the 'electoral bond' scheme introduced by Modi in 2017?
What is the 'electoral bond' scheme introduced by Modi in 2017?
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What was the consequence of Hindenburg Research's accusations against Gautam Adani?
What was the consequence of Hindenburg Research's accusations against Gautam Adani?
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What is the significance of Adani's purchase of Israel's largest port?
What is the significance of Adani's purchase of Israel's largest port?
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What is Adani's flagship business?
What is Adani's flagship business?
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What is the 'fraud of Modi's India'?
What is the 'fraud of Modi's India'?
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What is the purpose of the 'electoral bond' scheme introduced by Modi?
What is the purpose of the 'electoral bond' scheme introduced by Modi?
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What is the consequence of Modi's policies on public health and education?
What is the consequence of Modi's policies on public health and education?
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What is the role of Western politicians, journalists, and bankers in Adani's rise?
What is the role of Western politicians, journalists, and bankers in Adani's rise?
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What was the reason for Gautam Adani's fall from being one of the world's richest men?
What was the reason for Gautam Adani's fall from being one of the world's richest men?
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What did Adani hope to achieve through a stock offering?
What did Adani hope to achieve through a stock offering?
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What is the 'electoral bond' scheme introduced by Prime Minister Modi in 2017?
What is the 'electoral bond' scheme introduced by Prime Minister Modi in 2017?
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What is the impact of Modi's policies on public health and education in India?
What is the impact of Modi's policies on public health and education in India?
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What is the purpose of the rail link between Israel and its new friends in Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf?
What is the purpose of the rail link between Israel and its new friends in Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf?
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What is the impact of Modi's policies on India's middle class?
What is the impact of Modi's policies on India's middle class?
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What is the effect of the 'electoral bond' scheme on Modi's political opposition?
What is the effect of the 'electoral bond' scheme on Modi's political opposition?
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What is the impact of Modi's policies on India's environment and public health?
What is the impact of Modi's policies on India's environment and public health?
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Study Notes
The Rise and Fall of Indian Tycoon Gautam Adani and the Complicity of Western Institutions
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Gautam Adani, an Indian businessman and associate of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was accused of fraud by US-based research investment firm Hindenburg Research, resulting in a stock-market rout and loss of much of his fortune.
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Adani's purchase of Israel's largest port brings closer the prospect of a rail link between Israel and its new friends in Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf, and limits Chinese influence in the region.
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Adani's flagship business, Adani Enterprises Ltd., received a pledge of a further $400 million investment by a company controlled by Abu Dhabi's royal family, and he hoped to raise $2.5 billion through a stock offering.
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Adani's spectacular fall continued, with the cancellation of the $2.5 billion share sale and loss of his position as one of the world's richest men.
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Adani's frictionless rise was facilitated by Western politicians, journalists, and bankers who helped another hyper-nationalist elite with dubiously sourced wealth and an extreme aversion to the rule of law and civil liberties.
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Modi helped Adani become India's biggest operator of private airports and ports, as well as its leading producer of power from coal-fired plants, while helping him position himself as India's champion of decarbonisation.
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Modi's cronies have flourished while India suffers from toxic smog, heatwaves, dry riverbeds, falling groundwater reserves, and land subsidence. The number of Indians who go to sleep hungry rose from 190,000,000 in 2018 to 350,000,000 in 2022, and malnutrition and malnourishment killed more than two-thirds of children who died under the age of five last year.
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The new Indian plutocracy owes its swift ascent to Modi, who introduced the "electoral bond" scheme in 2017, allowing any business or special interest group to give unlimited sums of money to his party and keep the transaction hidden from public scrutiny.
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Modi ensures his hegemony by forging a public sphere where sycophancy is rewarded and dissent harshly punished. Adani last year took over NDTV, a television news channel that had displayed a rare unwillingness to broadcast hate speech, fake news, and conspiracy theories.
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Modi's onslaught on democratic rights includes abusive and discriminatory policies to repress Muslims and other minorities, arresting activists, journalists, and other critics of the government on politically motivated criminal charges, including terrorism.
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Adani's lavish purchase of the port of Haifa came after the US put pressure on Israel to forbid his Chinese rival, the Shanghai International Port Group, from managing a port frequented by the Sixth Fleet of the US navy.
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Western corporations and banks channelled tainted Indian money into the pool of global capital, and law firms and PR companies made New York and London safe for Indian oligarchs.
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Liberal and centrist politicians,The Fraud of Modi's India
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Obama praised Modi as a symbol of India's rise, and was the first Western leader to embrace him.
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Modi's government has not invested enough in public health and education, and has instead deployed the unemployable labour force as stormtroopers of Hindu supremacism.
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Despite India's population overtaking China's, private investment keeps falling, and the large middle class that foreign corporations have fantasized about has failed to materialize.
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Modi and Adani have succeeded in bending the moral arc of politics and journalism towards greed.
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Ideological delusion plays a role in the whitewashing of Modi and the greenwashing of Adani.
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India is being urgently revamped as a counterexample to many authoritarian and anti-Western countries in the Biden administration's new Cold War against Chinese and Russian autocracy.
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Strategic calculations are impervious to observable facts, and India has become economically ever more dependent on imports from China.
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Despite this, India is now firmly fixed in the Cold War imagination as a military and democratic counterweight to the free world's autocratic adversaries.
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Flattery from Western officials and opinion-makers helps Modi to project himself domestically as a universally revered icon, and further demoralizes the political opposition.
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Fawning on a Hindu supremacist even as his supporters clamour for a genocide of Muslims in India also helps to entrench lies and propaganda in the public life of Western societies.
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Adani's business empire may or may not turn out to be the largest con in corporate history, but far greater threats to civic morality, democracy, and global peace are posed by those who peddle the gigantic hoax of Modi's India.
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The first big fraud of the new Cold War.
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Description
Test your knowledge on the controversial rise and fall of Indian tycoon Gautam Adani, and the complicity of Western institutions in his business dealings and political power. Learn about the accusations of fraud, the purchase of Israel's largest port, and the role of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in facilitating Adani's success. Explore the impact of their actions on India's environment, economy, and democratic rights, and the implications for the global balance of power in the new Cold War. This quiz will challenge your