The privatisation of the public sector helicopter operator raises questions that the government so far has refused to answer. An investigation by The Wire and NewsClick. On April 29, 2022, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved Star9 Mobility Private Limited’s bid to buy the government’s 51% stake in public sector helicopter service provider Pawan Hans Limited for Rs 211 crore.
The way Patanjali acquired Ruchi Soya is an instructive example of nationalised banks, regulatory institutions and tribunals enabling massive wealth accumulation.
On 28 March 2022, Adivasi (tribal) protesters were arrested and jailed in the Sundergarh district of the state of Odisha in eastern India for obstructing construction work on a railway line that is intended to carry coal mined by Adani in Australia to an Adani coal power station in India.
Global Village Foundation, a Delhi-based “think-tank” with close links to RSS and BJP-led Haryana government, filed a petition that led Supreme Court to stay proceedings of a commission of inquiry instituted by the West Bengal government into allegations that Israeli Pegasus software was used to spy on several Indian politicians, activists, court workers, public servants, and journalists. Why? An exclusive investigation for NewsClick.
One of the key issues being agitated by protestors led by farmer unions at the borders of New Delhi concerns a provision in the Central government’s new farm laws that allows disputes over farming contracts to be adjudicated only by the government bureaucracy, with no provision to approach the courts. An example of what a bureaucratic inquiry can look like is provided by the case of the “New Haven” apartment complex in Bahadurgarh, Haryana.
An FIR filed by the Delhi Police and proceedings in a case at the Delhi High Court alleges that GeneStore India, a biotechnology company, supplied “low-quality” and “unreliable” rRT-PCR testing kits for Covid-19 to various diagnostic labs across the country, offered bribes to diagnostic laboratories, and failed to pay their financial dues.
In August 2020, the Ministry invited public comments on proposed mining reforms. In January, the proposal was approved by the Cabinet. Now, in response to an RTI application, the ministry said that of over 12,000 submissions that it received, it only considered those suggestions that were “committed for reforms.”
Two BJP MPs have levelled allegations of malpractices against the professional in-charge of the insolvency resolution process of Topworth Steels and Power, an ailing company promoted by Abhay Lodha and Surendra Lodha. Documents with NewsClick suggest that after the resolution professional discovered fraudulent transactions in the company, his dismissal was sought by the two MPs. An exclusive investigation.
In a letter to Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Congress MP Kumar Ketkar has claimed that the government is displaying ‘inexplicable tardiness’ in collecting its dues payable by Reliance Industries Limited, the ‘true licensee’ of the telecom spectrum that is used by its ‘front’ company Infotel, which later became its subsidiary, Jio.
