Adanis' ambitious coal-mining project in Australia again under cloud, with "predictions" of Labor victory

By A Representative
If early predictions of an Australian Labor Party (ALP) possible win in the elections in the province of Queensland come true, the Adani Group's ambitious Carmichael Coal project in the Galilee Basin – one of the largest coal mine projects in tin the world – may be a big loser. The Australian news portal South Asia Times (SAT), quoting ALP leaders, said, the ALP has announced it will “halt the unprecedented financial support for the project pledged by Queensland's conservative Liberal-National Campwell government.”
SAT reports, quoting local media sources, that the Campwell government has offered to invest $450 million in the project, which would be over and above the State Bank of India announcement in November last year agreeing to provide for a credit facility of up to $1 billion USD for the Charmichaal project. The portal quotes the ALP's environment spokeswoman Jackie Trad as saying the party will “scrap hundreds of millions of dollars worth taxpayers funding for the project.”
SAT further quotes Trad as saying that the Queensland government was “arrogant and out of control” and had refused to listen to the rural households about mining about the need to safeguard the environment in region. It recalls, “Adani is considered close of India’s new right wing government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and last year accompanied him to the G-20 summit in Brisbane. In case of state coal-mining in project the coming state elections in Queensland, one big looser will be the Adani.”
SAT says, “The project is already under cloud from environmentalists, particularly Greenpeace Australia, and is facing a court challenge.” At the same time, it quotes Adani Australia website to claim that the coal-mining project will “create 10,000 local jobs and contribute to $22 billion in taxes and royalties for investment into services.” The news of possible challenge to the Adani Group's biggest international venture comes amid predictions that the ALP and the conservative party are in a “neck-and-neck” contest in the poll, announced three months ahead of schedule.
Australian media reports say, the Queensland Premier, who led the Liberal National Party to a record electoral victory in March 2012 — winning 78 of the 89 seats in the unicameral parliament — will face major reverses, with opinion polls predicting a possible ALP-led coalition. He was quoted as admitting that the ALP could “take power with the support of minor parties”, which is “a very real possibility because this is going to be a tight election.’’
Meanwhile, environmental groups continue their campaign against the Adani Group, with Get Up! Action for Australia declaring, “Don't trust this company with our Great Barrier Reef.” It said, “Reports of bribery, illegal construction, destroying protected environments and corruption. This is the company who wants to be trusted with the world's biggest coal port on our Great Barrier Reef coastline.”
Asking viewers to watch the video it has released in support of its claim, the group said, “Adani still needs to borrow billions of dollars to make this project happen, and we need investors to know exactly who they'd be dealing with.” It gave following instances to prove its point:
* An investigation by the Karnataka anti-corruption ombudsman discovered Adani was involved in large scale illegal exports of iron ore. The report was set up to investigate "large scale corruption and complaints of profiteering through illegal mining with the complicity of the authorities in all levels of Government."
*Adani's approval for its Mundra port states "no existing mangroves shall be destroyed during the construction/operation of the port," and explicitly stated reclamation of creeks was prohibited. Yet, the Indian Ministry of Environment and Forests here found large areas of mangrove were filled with dredge spoil (or, 'reclamated'); 5 ha of mangroves were destroyed in a conservation area; and dredging infrastructure blocked water supply to large areas of mangroves, drying them up and killing them.

Comments

Was Netaji forced to alter face, die in obscurity in USSR in 1975? Was he so meek?

By Rajiv Shah This should sound almost hilarious. Not only did Subhas Chandra Bose not die in a plane crash in Taipei, nor was he the mysterious Gumnami Baba who reportedly passed away on 16 September 1985 in Ayodhya, but we are now told that he actually died in 1975—date unknown—“in oblivion” somewhere in the former Soviet Union. Which city? Moscow? No one seems to know.

Love letters in a lifelong war: Babusha Kohli’s resistance in verse

By Ravi Ranjan* “War does not determine who is right—only who is left.” Bertrand Russell’s words echo hauntingly in our times, and few contemporary Hindi poets embody this truth as profoundly as Babusha Kohli. Emerging from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, Kohli has carved a unique space in literature by weaving together tenderness, protest, and philosophy across poetry, prose, and cinema. Her work is not merely artistic expression—it is resistance, refuge, and a call for peace.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Asbestos contamination in children’s products highlights global oversight gaps

By A Representative A commentary published by the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat (IBAS) has drawn attention to the challenges governments face in responding effectively to global public-health risks. In an article written by Laurie Kazan-Allen and published on March 5, 2026, the author examines how the discovery of asbestos contamination in children’s play products has raised questions about regulatory oversight and international product safety. The article opens by reflecting on lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that governments in several countries were slow to respond to early warning signs of the crisis. Referring to the experience of the United Kingdom, the author writes that delays in implementing protective measures contributed to “232,112 recorded deaths and over a million people suffering from long Covid.” The commentary uses this example to illustrate what it describes as the dangers of underestimating emerging threats. Attention then turns...

India’s green energy push faces talent crunch amidst record growth at 16% CAGR

By Jag Jivan* A new study by a top consulting firm has found that India’s cleantech sector is entering a decisive growth phase, with strong policy backing, record capacity additions and surging investor interest, but facing mounting pressure on talent supply and rising compensation costs .

The kitchen as prison: A feminist elegy for domestic slavery

By Garima Srivastava* Kumar Ambuj stands as one of the most incisive voices in contemporary Hindi poetry. His work, stripped of ornamentation, speaks directly to the lived realities of India’s marginalized—women, the rural poor, and those crushed under invisible forms of violence. His celebrated poem “Women Who Cook” (Khānā Banātī Striyāṃ) is not merely about food preparation; it is a searing indictment of patriarchal domestic structures that reduce women’s existence to endless, unpaid labour.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Rajiv Shah Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

The price of silence: Why Modi won’t follow Shastri, appeal for sacrifice

By Arundhati Dhuru, Sandeep Pandey* In 1965, as India grappled with war and a crippling food crisis, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri faced a United States that used wheat shipments under the PL-480 agreement as a lever to dictate Indian foreign policy. Shastri’s response remains legendary: he appealed to the nation to skip one meal a day. Millions of middle-class households complied, choosing temporary hunger over the sacrifice of national dignity. Today, India faces a modern equivalent in the energy sector, yet the leadership’s response stands in stark contrast to that era of self-reliance.

Beyond sattvik: Purity, caste and the politics of the Indian kitchen

By Rajiv Shah A few week ago, I was forwarded an article that appeared in the British weekly The Economist . Titled “Caste and cuisine: From honeycomb curry to blood fry: India’s ‘untouchable’ cooking”, it took me back to what I had blogged about what was called a “ sattvik food festival”, an annual event organised by former Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad professor Anil Gupta.

Search This Blog