There are not many project promoters in India who are capable of investing thousands of crores of rupees in large projects that could be globally competitive. Most of such large projects have been set up in the past by public sector organisations such as Indian Oil Corporation.
Reliance group , Adani group , Vedanta group, Birla group are amongst the few who have announced large sized projects in the private sector in India in recent years.
Unfortunately, due to motivated and negative campaigns , a few of such projects, both in the private and public sector , have been halted in recent years, which have caused a setback to India’s industrial and economic growth to some extent.
Copper project :
Sterlite Copper in Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu is one such project now remaining closed due to a motivated and poorly informed campaign against the project with regard to environmental issues.. As a result, India , which was a net exporter of copper when Sterlite Copper was operating ,has now become a net importer of copper , resulting in huge outflow of foreign exchange.
Sterlite Copper has remained closed for over three years now. But ,there is no change for the better in the soil or atmospheric conditions in Tuticorin after the closure. Obviously, this proves that Sterlite has not caused any environmental issues.
PVC project :
India is now a large importer of polyvinyl chloride (PVC resin), as demand for PVC is steadily increasing and domestic production could not be stepped up.
Main constraint for India in increasing the production of PVC is lack of adequate production of feedstock ethylene by the petrochemical route.
Indian present production of PVC is around 1.5 million tonne per annum
Indian present import of PVC is around 1.73 million tonne per annum
In such a scenario, it was most appropriate that Adani group came forward to implement a large scale coal based PVC project in Gujarat.
The group’s flagship Adani Enterprises Ltd (AEL) had in 2021 incorporated a wholly-owned subsidiary, Mundra Petrochem Ltd for setting up a greenfield coal-to- poly-vinyl-chloride (PVC ) plant at Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) land in Kutch district of Gujarat.
The unit was to have a PVC production capacity of 2,000 kilo tonne per annum requiring 3.1 million tonne per annum of coal that was to be imported from Australia, Russia and other countries.
Adani Group has now announced that it has suspended work on a Rs 34,900 crore PVC project at Mundra in Gujarat, as it focuses on resources to consolidate operations and address investor concerns following a damning report by a US-based short seller.
Though Adani group has said that they are still committed to the PVC project, one has to keep the fingers crossed about the fate of this large scale and much needed PVC project.
A case study :
The US based short seller brought out an adverse report on Adani group which sent shock waves amongst the investors. However, now, it is becoming increasingly clear after detailed investigation by various agencies that Adani group has been sinned against rather than sinning and investor’s confidence in Adani group is returning back .
The balance sheet of each of the independent portfolio companies of Adani group is reasonably strong. Adani group says that it has proven project development and execution capabilities, strong corporate governance, secure assets, and strong cash flows.
The suspended PVC project proposal of Adani group is a case study, as to how much needed projects are forced to be stopped by some so called activists or so called financial research organisations, who seem to focus on hate campaigns with very little understanding of the holistic scenario.
This scenario is causing apprehension amongst the project promoters in India, as it appears that any hate campaigner who manages to get media publicity can halt a project even without justification.
The country is paying a big price due to these negative campaigners