Reportage on a planet without equitable or sustainable development.
on india’s coal shortage
Blocks were to be given to companies that needed captive coal-mines- to feed their steel, cement, power and sponge iron plants. A lot of companies showed plants on paper – as something they were planning to set up – and they were allocated mines… The companies that got the mines are not extracting coal. They are instead looking for buyers, who are typically companies with plants but without mines. My estimate is that 80% of companies that won these blocks had no plants that needed coal.
BJP Lok Sabha MP Hansraj Ahir’s complaint about coal block allocation has led the Central Vigilance Commission to order the Central Bureau of Investigation to hold a preliminary enquiry into allotments between 2006 and 2009. Talking to me, Ahir said that private companies have misused the coal blocks allotted to them — some have sold the blocks, others have amassed more blocks than they need. Excerpts from an interview.
I am an Indian journalist with interests in energy, environment, climate and India’s ongoing slide into right-wing authoritarianism. My book, Despite the State, an examination of pervasive state failure and democratic decay in India, was published by Westland Publications, India, in January 2021. My work has won the Bala Kailasam Memorial Award; the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award; five Shriram Awards for Excellence in Financial Journalism; and, more recently, been a finalist at the True Story Award and GIJN’s Global Shining Light Awards. Write to me at despitethestate@protonmail.com.
“Westland closure: Titles that are selling fast and a few personal recommendations,” by Chetana Divya Vasudev, Moneycontrol. (Because this happened too. In February, a year after DtS was released, Amazon decided to shutter Westland, which published the book. The announcement saw folks rushing to buy copies of Westland books before stocks run out.)
Fractured/Earth 
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