India; Plethora of Lies and Deceit

Adani Group’s Con game has brought havoc for Modi’s India. Decline in asset prices of Adani’s empire continues which further shakes investor confidence, It is a setback for India’s growth story at a pivotal time. Banks like HSBC Holdings Plc and companies like Apple Inc. are expanding in India to hedge their exposure to China, where a government crackdown on businesses and an erratic pandemic policy have turned investors wary.
Adani’s scandal is not first one. On July 2021, daily The Hindu reported that The BJP government, which came to power through “defections”, completed two years in office with a long list of corruption scandals that dashed the hopes of good administration and the promise of a double-engine government for the State.
Corruption in India is thriving under Modi is evidenced by a string of high profile scandals that shook his administration. Like a murky 7.8 billion euro weapons contract to purchase 36 Rafale fighter planes from France. And a $2 billion bank fraud uncovered last February at India’s state-owned Punjab National Bank. It was reported by Forbes in its Jan 31, 2019 report.
Adani group’s biggest con in corporate history has shaken the confidence of foreign investors. Bloomberg, the biggest finance reporting hub and other foreign media outlets reports that eight of the 10 worst-performing stocks in the MSCI Asia Pacific Index this year are now Adani firms, while bonds issued by the Indian billionaire’s flagship company have fallen to distressed levels in US trading. The turmoil has not only hammered Adani Group shares but is also hitting banks that have given loans to the companies. Government-controlled State Bank of India has tumbled 11% since the Hindenburg report came out. Foreign institutional investors pulled a net $2 billion out of India’s stock market from the country Jan. 27 through Jan. 31, the biggest three-day selloff since March, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The news story quoting Jian Shi Cortesi, a fund manager at Zurich-based GAM Investments, which oversees more than $80 billion in assets,added that The Adani-related headlines are generating a high level of negative attention, which could dampen investor appetite for Indian stocks,”. Having just reported a rather ambitious budget on Feb. 1, the central government now faces questions on whether its infrastructure project plans could be derailed along with Adani, one of its most critical investors. “There is no doubt that Adani’s star is tethered closely to Modi’s own political trajectory — the conflation of the Adani Group’s interests and India’s national interest is striking,” said Milan Vaishnav, director of the South Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Adani is college drop out, like most of the rich and elite, and closest friend of Modi ji. His ascent thereafter coincided with the rise of Modi, who was elected Gujarat’s chief minister in 2001. Their ties were cemented when Adani defended Modi after the latter was accused of failing to prevent one of India’s worst sectarian riots that killed more than 1,000 people, most of them Muslims, the following year. Since Modi came to power, Adani has become the poster child for his administration’s use of private capital to boost infrastructure and domestic manufacturing. Now that the conglomerate’s ability to keep delivering is coming into question, the market crash has spilled into politics, with Modi’s rivals sensing weakness.