Gas Wars: Crony Capitalism and the Ambanis

The two brothers had fought over many issues, but what sometimes got
lost in the din of the battle cries was a simple fact: much of the
tussle was over India's natural resources, about how the resources were
intended to be mined, marketed and monetised. Paranjoy Guha Thakurta
shows how the simmering controversy over the rich natural gas reserves
in the Krishna-Godavari Basin boiled over into a primetime storm on gas
pricing involving the office of the Comptroller and Auditor General of
India, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas as well as the Prime
Minister?s Office, even as he introduces new dimensions to it. While
many reasons have been attributed to the split in the powerful Indian
business family, the Ambanis, this book argues that the battle between
the Ambani brothers was largely about wresting control over reserves of
natural gas that are below the ocean bed along the basin of the two
greatest rivers of southern India. With painstaking research, a
meticulous perusal of press reports, as well as a few surprising
exclusives, Gas Wars highlights cases of crony capitalism that allowed
the Reliance group to blatantly exploit loopholes which were consciously
retained in the system to benefit it. Even as the book tells the story
of how the country's largest corporate conglomerate has benefited from
the way government policies are structured, it lays bare the alarming
facts of a natural disaster waiting to happen due to the ruthless
exploitation of the country?s natural resources in order to swell the
fortunes of a few.