So, the BJP has finally started using their Bhramastra, the shrinking Hindu population and the growing Muslim population. This narrative has been quietly circulating in WhatsApp groups for years in many different forms and versions. Today, let’s puncture this fear-mongering story.

So, in a now-deleted tweet, @AmitShah said that the Hindu population in India was 84% and the Muslim population 9.8% in 1951. And in the 2011 Census, it is 79.8% and 14.2% respectively. Forgetting that he is the Home Minister responsible for maintaining the population count, Amit Shah claimed that the Muslim population is now 24.6% and blamed it on infiltration. Saying this without even conducting a Census means he is also admitting that infiltration has skyrocketed under his own watch. Anyway, he has deleted the tweet.

So let’s answer the fundamental question. Is the Hindu population actually shrinking, or is the Muslim population growing faster and causing this 4.2% change? Let’s find out. (1/n) In 2011, India had 62.37 crore men and 58.65 crore women. If we take a 1000:1000 sex ratio, there are 3.72 crore women missing in India. If we assume the highest natural sex ratio in the country, 1084, which happens to be in Kerala, we should have 67.61 crore women instead of 58.65 crore now. This means 8.96 crore women are missing in this country. It’s not a small number. It’s almost equal to the population of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana combined.

a. Where did these women go?
b. Were they not born?
c. If they were born, who killed them? (2/n)

Dear @ECISVEEP,

We saw your press note of accepting the electoral role manipulations that happened in various constituencies as proven @RahulGandhi with evidence.

However you are trying transfer the responsibility to political parties saying that they had one month time to object and they didn't do and therefore they are held responsible.

We have a few points against your rather naive and stupid arguments. (1/n) 1. If an opposition party fighting an election has to spend this level of resources and people to find patterns comparing multiple electoral rolls and find a duplicate voters, it needs at least digitally searchable electoral rolls. In 2019 General Elections, rolls were digital. Why did you make it a scanned copy? Wasn't it a deliberate attempt to not allow opposition parties to run an algorithm to figure out duplicate voters, house #0s and children of dfsdfsdfsd and qwewrwqefsdf?

What does this amount to? (2/n)

How A&A is taking over small, profitable businesses in India through brute force

Remember the story of Adani and DragonPass, the Chinese airport lounge aggregator that was operating at Adani-managed airports? Their partnership ended after public outcry following the Pahalgam terror attack. But there’s a new twist to the tale.

DragonPass, a Chinese company, offers access to over 1,000 airport lounges globally, along with premium services like discounts at airport restaurants, spa treatments, and even limousine pick-ups. It sounds luxurious, but it is more popular outside India. In India, they had entered the market primarily through Adani Airports.

However, in the same space, there is an Indian company called DreamFolks, founded in 2013 by Ms. Liberatha Kallat. DreamFolks may not offer limousines or spa treatments, but it provides access to most airport lounges across India. If you have a credit or debit card from banks like HDFC, ICICI, or Axis, you might already be eligible for free lounge access without even knowing it. DreamFolks holds over 90 percent of the domestic market and is also present in more than 100 countries. While DragonPass offers international five-star style benefits, DreamFolks is the reliable, homegrown option that helps lakhs of Indian passengers enjoy free snacks, Wi-Fi, and a peaceful seat before boarding.

DreamFolks went public in September 2022 and has been growing steadily with strong profits ever since. This is where the real story begins. (1/4) After the DragonPass partnership ended due to public backlash, Adani Airports appears to have been eyeing DreamFolks. Just yesterday, a planted article appeared in a leading media outlet claiming that ICICI Bank and Axis Bank have “ditched” DreamFolks due to service disruptions, and that more banks may follow. The headline makes it sound like there is something seriously wrong with the company or its services.

But a closer reading of the article reveals that the so-called service disruption occurred on 22nd September 2024, and the banks reportedly took action 271 days later. Taking such delayed action against a company with over 90 percent market share is hard to believe.

The real goal seems to be a hostile takeover, aiming to push down DreamFolks’ stock price by spreading fake/negative news in the media. Interestingly, neither ICICI nor Axis Bank provided a comment, as mentioned in the same article. (2/4)

GADKARI’S HAM NATIONAL HIGHWAY SCAM | The NHAI project for six-laning 40.8 km from Azhiyur to Vengalam in North Kerala was awarded to Adani Enterprises for ₹1,838 crore. Adani then subcontracted it to Wagad Infraprojects, Ahmedabad for ₹971 crore. This deal deserves closer scrutiny. It seems like a match made in heaven, maybe a little too sweet. After all, @nitin_gadkari owns many sugar mills. But there is more to the story.

The BJP has brought in a new model of corruption through something called HAM, which we will explore in this thread. Nitin Gadkari is the one who introduced the Hybrid Annuity Model (HAM). Before this, most highway projects were awarded using two models: EPC and BOT. What are these, and how do they differ?

EPC (Engineering, Procurement, and Construction): The government pays the contractor to design and build the project. Once the work is completed, the contractor walks away. EPC was widely used before the 1990s when the government fully funded infrastructure projects. It is still used in fully government-funded projects.

BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer): A private company builds the project, operates it (usually by collecting tolls) for a fixed number of years to recover its investment, and then hands it back to the government. BOT became popular in the 1990s to bring private investment into public infrastructure. However, contractors were often unwilling to take up routes that were less profitable.

HAM (Hybrid Annuity Model): This model aims to balance risks. The government pays 40 percent of the project cost during construction, and the remaining 60 percent is paid as fixed annual payments over a period of time. The company does not collect tolls. HAM was introduced by Nitin Gadkari in 2016 to speed up highway construction while sharing risks between the government and private players. (1/n) Since 2016, the BOT model has been practically dead, and most projects are now executed under either the HAM or EPC model. Kerala’s NH-66 six-lane highway project has been divided into more than 19 phases. Some of these phases are being executed under the EPC model, while others follow the HAM model.

In the Hybrid Annuity Model (HAM), the contractor is responsible for both construction and maintenance. The award cost refers to the amount the contractor will receive. In the case of EPC, this cost is paid in phases based on the progress of construction, but maintenance remains the responsibility of NHAI.

Under HAM, 40 percent of the award cost is paid to the contractor in five instalments as the construction progresses. The remaining 60 percent is paid as fixed annuity in 30 instalments over 15 years, along with interest at the bank rate plus 3 percent. In addition, the Government of India pays for the maintenance of the highway for 15 years, in half-yearly payments, adjusted for inflation.

And this is precisely where the scam lies. Most people mistakenly believe that the award cost includes maintenance charges as well, but that is not true. (2/n)

NH SCAM EXPOSÉ | Simple and efficient corruption by BJP and its their investors in NHAI construction in Kerala and everywhere.

NHAI is constructing a six-lane Highway on NH-66 from north to south of Kerala. We will take just one 40.8 km section of the project from Azhiyur to Vengalam which is in Calicut district.

Adani Enterprises was awarded the contract for 1838.1 Cr, which means the cost is 45 Cr per kilometre. Adani Enterprises subcontracted the whole project to Wagad Infraprojects from Ahmedabad for only 971 Cr, which means real construction cost is 23.7 Cr per kilometre including Wagad's profit margin.

Modi and Gadkari has been constructing highway for lakhs of crores and can you imagine the scale of corruption going on? Is this only one-off case? There's more:

Below is the screenshot from NHAI website of the contract: (1/5) As you can see from Wagad's website their contract is worth only 971 Cr. (2/5)

**Scam Alert** Massive EV Mobility Scam Using Taxpayers' Money!

India government's Electric Vehicle policy and schemes are nothing but a huge scam. It's just a heavily subsidized program for the rich that is being marketed as a masterplan to reduce carbon emissions and pollution. Here is the latest example.

BluSmart Mobility is India's biggest Electric Car based ride hailing service with nearly 8000 Electric Cars operating in Delhi-NCR and Bengaluru. BluSmart is based in Ahmedabad, and founded by Anmol Singh Jaggi, Puneet Singh Jaggi and Punit K Goyal in 2019.

Unlike Uber and Ola, it operates its own fleet with drivers working on monthly salary. How can a small startup company run a fleet of 8000 cars just like that? (1/8) Anmol Singh Jaggi and Puneet Singh Jaggi, aka the Jaggi Brothers (not Jaggi the Godman) hold a web of companies. All of these companies are based in Ahmedabad, where the duo-crooks come from. You are right, the same two crooks you imagined :-)

We've not delved into the details of holding structure of these companies. But it somewhat resembles the web of companies owned by the notorious tax evader and black money holder chief of @BJP4Keralam, some of them are in notorious tax havens. (2/8)

How fake is our GDP numbers? 🧵

BJP has started a new propaganda that we've reached a $4.3 trillion GDP. But even they don't believe these numbers, and nobody with eyes to see and ears to hear believes them either. We've been saying that there have been issues with the GDP formula since 2015. But nobody ever really understood what is actually wrong, how wrong we are, and what the implications are.

So, here is our humble attempt to explain @arvindsubraman’s paper, India’s GDP Mis-estimation: Likelihood, Magnitudes, Mechanisms, and Implications, published in 2019, which details what is wrong with our GDP. Dr. Arvind Subramanian served as the first Chief Economic Advisor to Narendra Modi’s government.

According to Dr. Subramanian our GDP growth rate is over estimated by roughly 2.5%. When we say our GDP growth is 7%, the real growth is around 4.5% according to his study. He also present very credible evidences.

So our attempt here is to explain it as simply as possible. Please read till the end, though there are a lot of numbers involved, we hope you'll be able to understand exactly what went wrong with our GDP calculations. (1/n) Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the value of all goods and services produced in a country for a given year. It shows how much a country’s economy has produced and is a key measure of economic health. A higher GDP means more economic activity, while a lower GDP indicates slower growth or a shrinking economy.

If Bajaj has produced 1000 scooters last year, the GDP of Bajaj is the value of the 1000 scooters it produced last year. This year if it has produced 1100 scooters, the GDP of Bajaj has grown by 10%.

GDP growth refers to the increase in GDP compared to the previous year. If GDP grows, it means the economy is expanding, businesses are making more money, and people generally have more income and job opportunities. For example, if India's GDP was ₹200 lakh crore last year and this year it becomes ₹210 lakh crore, the GDP growth rate is 5%. This means the economy grew by 5% over the year. (2/n)

Internet Pornography: The time has arrived for regulation in India

The incident that is described here is not an isolated one. Tens of thousands of such cases are happening across India, and many of them will not appear in the news, as cases involving minors are swept under the carpet.

Free-flowing access to pornography has become a pandemic in India for the last decade or more. This is the elephant in the room that nobody wants to talk about. We decided to address this topic, hoping it will resonate with all of you irrespective of political ideology, as it is a problem affecting all of us and our future generation.

What is Pornography?

Pornography is the portrayal of erotic behavior designed to cause sexual excitement. It is words, acts, or representations that are calculated to stimulate sex feelings independent of the presence of another loved and chosen human being. It is divorced from reality in its sole purpose to stimulate erotic response. It is preoccupied with and concentrates on sex organs for the purpose of sexual stimulation. It emphasizes them and focuses on them in varying ways calculated to incite sexual desire. (1/11) Alarming increase in porn consumption in India

India ranks among the top consumers of online pornography globally. In 2023, India was reported as the third most frequent viewer of such content worldwide. In 2019, the majority of Pornhub visitors in India were adults aged 25 to 34, with approximately 67% being male.

Notably, the proportion of female viewers has increased, rising from 26% in 2014 to 30% in recent years, surpassing the global average of 24%. Additionally, during the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a significant increase in the number of Indian women watching porn, with a reported rise of 129%.

These statistics highlight the widespread consumption of pornography across different demographics in India. (2/11)

Digitisation of Nomination Forms

One Nation, One Election is dud. If Modi Govt and @ECISVEEP is so keen to do electoral reforms, we have decided to share our suggestions with very simple and highly impactful changes in our Electoral System.

We will start with a simple one to begin with. The digitisation of Nomination Forms.

The current nomination form, Form-26, consists of an extensive list of fields to be filled, a minimum of 515 fields in total, which often result in unnecessary burden, time consumption, and financial strain on candidates. We propose a digitized alternative that streamlines the process, reduces errors, and enhances efficiency.

Basic Background

The current Form-26 mandates candidates to fill numerous fields, totalling 515, which often result in unnecessary burden, time consumption, and financial strain on candidates. For instance, a candidate who is single, without any cases against him, and with some movable and immovable property would typically need to fill less than 50 fields in total. However, candidates are forced to meticulously fill 460+ columns with "Not Applicable", "NIL" or "No" entries.

This process is time-consuming and prone to errors, as even a single unfilled field can lead to disqualification by the returning officer. Moreover, candidates often spend significant time and money on vetting the form via lawyers and submitting multiple copies for safety. The manual scrutiny of these forms by returning officers is also prone to errors, as they must sift through numerous fields filled with "Not Applicable" entries.

At present, returning officers are primarily occupied with scrutinizing nominations for clerical errors, often resulting from human oversight given the extensive number of fields to be completed. Unfortunately, even minor mistakes can lead to disqualification, diverting attention from more critical issues. Meanwhile, significant discrepancies in asset and criminal antecedent disclosures are sometimes overlooked. This focus on minor errors detracts from addressing more substantial concerns, emphasizing the need for reform in the nomination process. We are missing the forest for the trees! (1/5) Civil Society organizations save time & money

Civil society organizations currently invest significant effort in digitizing handwritten forms submitted by candidates to gather information about assets, criminal cases, and other pertinent details. However, candidates often fill these forms in handwriting and sometimes in local languages to evade detailed public scrutiny. Digitizing the nomination process would alleviate this burden and make it easier for the public to analyze candidate disclosures without the need for manual processing of handwritten forms. (2/5)

Shri Rahul Gandhi's statements in his speech in Lok Sabha today and the facts that support them. 🧵

“You talked about the internship program in the budget, and maybe this is a joke, because you said that this internship program will be only in the 500 biggest companies of India. And 99% of our youth have nothing to do with this internship program, they are not going to get any benefit from it.”

Top 500 companies only employ 1% of the workforce: These companies currently employ ~70 lakh, out of India’s workforce of 56.5 crore.

● Companies with 70 lakh employees cannot hire 1 crore interns
● Completely ignores the real jobs problem:
- 10.3 crore youth have completely given up looking for jobs.
- The informal sector employs 90% of people but is struggling.
- ~72% of students do not pursue higher education,5 and even half of degree holders are unemployable. (1/6) “Paper leak, let me tell you, in 10 years, 70 papers have been leaked…”

● There have been over 70 paper leaks over the past seven years
● These leaks disrupted the schedules of 1.7 crore applicants (2/6)

THE GOBAR THREAD | Can Gobar save you from harmful radiations?

In this funny video, Arun Shourie talks about a man who used cow dung to protect himself from the harmful radiation of a cell phone.

We have all had a hearty laugh at him. But what is the truth? Are cell phone radiations harmful to humans? Can cow dung protect you from them? Let's find a logical answer to this today. (1/n) Mobile phones communicate using radio waves. Radio waves span from low frequencies to ultra-high frequencies, used for different applications, as shown in the image below.

Our smartphones use a band (4G) in the range of 600-2500 MHz. Assume for a moment that radio waves can cause cancer. Let's then look at other electromagnetic waves that can cause cancer, which will make it simple and clear. (2/n)

EV-GRID DISASTER PART-3 | Last week we gave an overview of how India's mindless all-electric policy is going to be a disaster. Our argument is based on the fact that the additional energy demand is going to be fulfilled with Coal power plants, which will nearly triple the carbon emissions and require the grid capacity to be increased by double or more.

We received a lot of counterarguments using the data from the US about the energy mix. Today we will dissect the argument in more detail using simple fundamentals and will try to prove that citing US data will not work in the Indian context.

To begin with, let's take a look at the Electrical Energy mix of US and India. First of all, the US consumes 13 times more Electricity with 33 Cr population. A whopping 76% of our Electricity comes from Coal, whereas it is only 16.2% for the United States. They generate 775 GWh (18.5%) from Nuclear, whereas we generate only a minuscule 8.8 GWh from Nuclear which is the cleanest form of energy. (1/6) What is more important is their use of Natural Gas. 43.1% of their Electricity is generated from Natural Gas (Methane), which is much more energy-dense and the power plants are more efficient than Coal-based thermal power plants.

There are two types of Gas based power plants. Single Cycle Gas Turbine (SCGT), which has a thermal efficiency of only 35% and Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT), which gives a thermal efficiency of 60% by reusing the steam. Watch the video to understand how they achieve this in CCGT.

In India, we barely use natural Gas to produce Electricity. It is a paltry 2.8%. Also in the US, around 58% of the Natural Gas based electricity comes from more efficient CCGT plants, which makes the emissions much lower. (2/6)

We've compiled the Coal production and import data from the last 20 years. During the Dr. Manmohan Singh Government, we produced 4889 MT of coal. 758 MT was imported and the share of imports was 13.43%.

During the Modi era, the production grew only by 52% to 7425 MT, but the imports nearly tripled to 2228 MT. The share of imports was 23.09% for the last 10 years when compared to 13.43% during the UPA years.

UPA delivered much better despite a CAG report engineered by Mr. Vinod Rai & Co. resulting in the cancellation of 214 coal blocks allocated since 1993. The decision had an estimated impact of around Rs 2.85 lakh crore worth of investments linked to the 214 coal blocks and their end-use plants. Vinod Rai was later rewarded by Modi for his engineering excellence with a plum post in BCCI. (1/4) You might ask this question. Last three years our coal production has improved a lot. Still, why are we importing so much coal, and with a record 268 MT imports in the last year alone?

Look at the share of coal imports from Indonesia and Australia. Adani owns coal mines in these two countries. Do you need any more explanation? (2/4)

NTA and its shady chairman 🧵 Meet Dr. Pradeep Kumar Joshi, the serial offender who has no taste of merit but repeatedly secures coveted appointments by just being a loyal RSS man. His career is as phenomenal as any chamcha could dream of. Let's go through his biodata. (1/n) Dr. Joshi has no remarkable research, achievements, neither represented India in coveted academic forums at home or abroad nor was never a fixture of any academic event worth its name. He was an ordinary faculty member at Rani Durgawati College, Jabalpur. (2/n)

EV-GRID DISASTER | How our thoughtless EV policy is going to endanger India's future

A few days ago Transport Minister @nitin_gadkari said that Central Govt is planning to eliminate Petrol and Diesel vehicles by 2034 and replace them mostly with Electric Vehicles.

But if they are really serious about it, it is going to be a disaster-in-the-making for the country. Why do we say so? (1/n) What is the main objective of this move?

The stated objective of this move is to reduce Carbon (CO2) emissions and meet our climate goals. In plain sight, EVs don't emit Carbon Dioxide. But the electrical energy required for charging the batteries generates a lot of carbon dioxide.

Let's assume that we’re adding multiple coal-based power plants to meet the electricity demand for charging these new EVs. Later, we will explain why we made this assumption.

We’ll compare emissions between an EV and a Petrol/Diesel car using the Tata Nexon as a benchmark. The Tata Nexon comes in Petrol, Diesel, and EV variants with similar specifications. Based on reviews, the Tata Nexon EV Max has a range of 276 km on a full charge with its 40.5 kWh battery. It needs 11.66 Kg Petrol or 10.62 Kg Diesel to cover the same distance.

How much coal will be required to fully charge the battery? Let's find out.

The charging efficiency of an EV is around 80%. This means you need 50 units (KWh) of electricity to fully charge a 40 KWh battery.

The energy density of good-quality Coal is 24 MJ/kg (about half that of Petrol or Diesel). The efficiency of a Coal power plant is around 33%, so we can produce only 2.2 units (KWh) of electricity from 1 kg of Coal. Besides, there is approximately 15% transmission loss on the grid as the electricity reaches your home from a Coal Power Plant in Chhattisgarh.

To summarize, to fully charge the Tata Nexon EV Max, we need approximately 26.7 kg of Coal. This is nearly 2.5 times the amount of Petrol/Diesel needed for the same distance, resulting in approximately 2.5x carbon emissions.

We don't always use the best quality coal. We use Anthracite, Bituminous Coal, Lignite and Peat for power production. Lignite has nearly half the energy density as Anthracite coal. So, when we migrate to EVs fully, we will end up tripling the carbon emissions. (2/n)

This is the marks card of Anitha, a Dalit girl from Tamil Nadu's Ariyalur district who got 1176/1200 (98%) in her 12th standard but committed suicide after her fight against NEET failed after the Supreme Court dismissed her pleas.

Today, when you see candidates who failed in Physics and Chemistry score 705/720 in NEET, you realise how unfair and one-sided the system is. Anitha is a martyr in this fight. Read her story below (1/4) Anitha was a brilliant girl from a very poor family. She was the little sister of four elder brothers and her father was a daily wage earner. Her mother died when Anitha was studying in 2nd standard as she didn't get timely medical help.

Anitha was determined to become a doctor from childhood and always stood first in her school till 12th. Before the introduction of NEET in 2017, medical admissions in Tamil Nadu were determined based on 12th Standard marks, and she scored very high marks of 1176/1200!

When the results came out, she didn't clear it. She was at the forefront of the fight against NEET by students from Tamil Nadu with activists like Prince Gajendra Babu leading the agitation. (2/4)

NEET SCAM DEBUNKED | The NEET-2024 scam, how it was orchestrated and the methods used.

Widespread manipulation happened in NEET 2024 exams and the results bear testimony to the allegations made by students soon after the exam. Many people didn't understand the details of the fraud happened and therefore we decided to analyse it from basics.

This Government has put the life of lakhs of children who studied day and night for fulfilling their dream of becoming a doctor and serve the society. Many poor parents have taken loans to fulfil their children's aspirations. Several Children committed suicide after the results came out.

This gross crime needs to be investigated, punish the culprits, provide remedy for the aggrieved children as soon as possible. (1/n) NEET medical entrance is a nationwide medical entrance exam conducted by National Testing Agency (NTA) established in 2017.

The exam Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ) covering four subjects Physics, Chemistry, Zoology and Botany. There are 50 questions in each subject and maximum 45 questions will be considered for valuation. Each right answer will get four marks and a wrong answer carry one negative mark. Maximum marks possible is 720.

The students mark the correct answer in an OMR sheet, which will be evaluated by a Computer avoiding human intervention.

The exam is conducted in English as well as in 12 regional languages for vernacular medium students. The students will have to answer 180 questions in 3 hrs 20 mins time. (2/n)

MOTHER OF ALL THREADS | How Modi Created a Bogus 'Black Money Narrative' and Exploited It

During the 2014 General Elections campaign, Modi claimed that there would be ₹15-20 lakhs worth of black money for every Indian stashed abroad. He also promised to bring back every penny if he is given power.

If you apply this ₹15 lakh figure to a population of 120 crore, it amounts to around $30 trillion. India's GDP back then was $2.04 trillion, and the world GDP was $79 trillion.

Let's analyze how they arrived at this astronomical figure, what was wrong with it, and how they fooled all of us, including his Khattar Bhakts (1/n) Let's examine the origins of these kinds of figures. When the alleged 2G scandal broke out, the then-CAG Vinod Rai estimated that 2G spectrum allocations resulted in a loss of ₹1.76 lakh crore for the nation. He arrived at this figure by multiplying the 3G spectrum price for Delhi and Mumbai circles and then applying it to the 2G spectrum for all 22 telecom circles across the country.

Dr. Manmohan Singh had the vision to provide 2G spectrum at a cheaper price to increase mobile telephony penetration across the country. The result of which was that there 21 telecom companies giving mobile services across the country. This led to an era of one-paisa calling, and the era of expensive STD calls disappeared.

CAG Rai's logic was like taking today's gold price (3G) and applying it to silver (2G). Hell broke loose and everyone alleged that there was a huge scandal and Congress and DMK leaders made a lot of money out of this. Everyone pitched in, including today's Godi journalists like Arnab Goswami and others. Dr. Manmohan Singh ordered investigations, and the case went to the Supreme Court, which cancelled the 2G licenses granted to companies. (2/n)

Why is Papa hurriedly selling govt land for a pittance just before retiring?🧵Read on!

Last week, the Telecom Secretary issued a notification that 600 land parcels and buildings of BSNL and MTNL are being put up for outright sale as part of asset monetization.

While these properties are initially offered for sale to government departments and other PSUs, they will eventually be auctioned to private entities. Most of these are prime properties, particularly those held by MTNL, which only owns properties in Mumbai and Delhi. (1/n) BSNL owns 10,568 acres, and MTNL owns 334.36 acres of land, all in prime locations in Mumbai and Delhi. The government's estimated value for BSNL's land is ₹1.26 lakh crore, while MTNL's land is valued at ₹12,000 crore.

It's challenging to assess these numbers at a glance, so let's convert them to average per square foot values for better relatability. (2/n)

EXPOSED | Did Modi Govt Import Cheaper Oil from Russia for Reducing Fuel Prices? 🧵

A few weeks ago, @saurabhtop of Lallantop asked @DrSJaishankar about the brief given to him by Modi regarding the decision to import crude oil from Russia during the Russia-Ukraine war, which began in February 2022.

Mr. Jaishankar said, "We've to keep the petrol price as low as possible. Petrol is the most inflationary. If it goes up, everything else becomes expensive. The objective was that India's consumers should pay less."

Listen to him fully before reading the rest of the thread. It gives the impression that Modi's single-point focus was to provide the benefit of cheaper Russian crude to Indian consumers. (1/n) The price of petrol and diesel before the war began in January 2022 was ₹95.41 and ₹86.67 respectively. It went up to ₹105.41 and ₹96.67 in April after the war started. It came back to ₹96.72 and ₹89.62 in May. It remained the same just before the elections were announced, with a two-rupee cut in March. We deserve such little mercies, isn't it?

Does this mean that India didn't get any benefit from cheaper crude imports from Russia? No. (2/n)

Mumbai - Ahmedabad Bullet Train: A disaster in the making 🧵

Ten years ago, Modi announced a Bullet Train project connecting Mumbai and Ahmedabad by 2022. This was hailed as Modi's ultimate vision, and everyone blamed Congress for not bringing Bullet Trains to India.

Ten years later, it is only 30% complete, and the revised deadline is now 2028. Let's not debate whether we need a bullet train or not. Instead, let's analyze the financials of the project and see how it is going to be the biggest liability for the country once launched, if and when that happens. (1/n) The initial cost estimation for the project was ₹1.08 Lakh Crore for constructing 508 KM with 12 stops.

The cost was later revised to ₹1.65 Lakh Crore, but it is expected to cost ₹2 Lakh Crore when completed, as reported by RSS mouthpiece @SwarajyaMag. That's a whopping ₹398 Crore per km!

The project was supposed to be 80:20 funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which is a loan with a tenure of 50 years and an interest of 0.1%.

So, ₹1,60,000 Crore will come from Japan, and NSHRCL has to raise ₹40,000 Crore if the cost stays at ₹2 Lakh Crore. It can go beyond that. (2/n)

swarajyamag.com/infrastructure…