Ten years and two months after I left ET, I have written again for the paper. This one is an Opinion, written for the edit page, which builds on my Frontline report to explain why funding, not government clearances, will be the bigger challenge for the transshipment port project. Why so? There is the question of ESG — can banks fund a project that annihilates rare, endemic biodiversity, cuts anywhere between 1 million to 10 million trees, exposes a hunter-gatherer community to extinction without facing consequences? Then, there is the question of seismicity. And, apart from these two, the evergreen question of the port’s dismal economics.
[…] report is different from its forerunners in Frontline and ET in two ways. It better blends ecological, social and economic costs. Also, riding on others’ […]
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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