Odisha HRD

Vedanta’s reputation in the US: the US government and states of Arizona, Texas, Monatna and Washington support it

September 8th, 2009

Many misguided activists of Orissa and India have tooth and nail opposed any and all operations of Vedanta  in Orissa. Their vendetta against Vedanta is so much that they even oppose Vedanta University, regardless of its benefit to people of Orissa.

At a drop of a hat they will mention that Vedanta is blacklisted by the Norway government pension fund; also referred to as the oil fund. But what the activists fail to mention is that the Norway government pension fund also blacklists Boeing, Wal-mart, General Dynamics, Honeywell, etc. All of these are well respected multi-nationals. See the whole list at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Government_Pension_Fund_of_Norway#Excluded_companies.

Many activists also often question the credibility of Vedanta and its subsidiary Sterlite. For them here is a quote from an Arizona newspaper.

Arizona joined several other states in supporting an Indian company’s bid for Tucson-based copper producer Asarco LLC, during closing arguments of a bankruptcy hearing in Texas Tuesday.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Richard S. Schmidt heard the final oral arguments about who should get the local copper producer: Sterlite Industries, the Indian company that has been actively working with Asarco management and workers …

The U.S. government supported Sterlite’s bid, as did the states of Washington, Montana, Texas and Arizona, among others. The United Steelworkers, which represents many of Asarco’s workers, also has supported Sterlite’s bid and threatened to strike if Grupo Mexico gets the company back.

… Grupo Mexico and Sterlite have each offered to fully repay all of Asarco’s creditors, who claim to be owed $3.62 billion. A majority of those creditors, which include several state and federal environmental agencies, say they would prefer Sterlite, according to court records.

Unfortunately, the judge did not recommend Sterlite and it goes to the District Court of Texas for a  decision in 4-6 weeks. The main reason behind the judge’s recommendation was that Sterlite was offering less upfront cash. However the fact to note is that Sterlite was backed by the US government and various states as well as the workers of the company and state and federal environment agencies. In fact the workers union support it so much that they are threatening to go on strike if the judge does not favor Sterlite. See http://www.vccircle.com/500/news/sterlite-suffers-setback-on-asarco-bid-but-has-workers-support for more details.

Yet the activists in Orissa and India are misleading the common people there with all kinds of  propaganda against Vedanta and Sterlite. So much so that their plans in Lanjigarh, Jharsuguda and Puri have all been delayed. I hope the people of Orissa see and understand what the US and the states of Washinton, Montana, Texas and Arizona are seeing and support Vedanta University. I also hope that they negotate with Sterlite/Vedanta in Lanjigarh and Jharsuguda so that the company establishes branches of Vedanta University and its medical college in or near Lanjigarh as well as Jharsuguda.

Moreover, I hope the people of Lanjigarh learn about this and directly negotiate with Sterlite regarding their concerns and work with them, as the workers of ASARCO in Arizona are doing, rather than getting swayed by the propaganda of the activists who are blinded by their (perceived) supreme court loss and care less about the people and more about their vendetta against Vedanta.

Entry Filed under: Bhawanipatna-Kesinga-Lanjigarh (8),Bhubaneswar-Cuttack-Puri- Khurda area (1),Sambaplpur-Burla-Jharsuguda-Baragarh area (4),Vedanta University, Puri