Centre hasn't intervened in Adani crisis: PM Modi's economic adviser

The Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led central government has reportedly not intervened in the Adani Group's scuffle with United States (US)-based short-seller Hindenburg Research, which triggered a massive downfall in the company's shares. "Nobody's having to rescue anyone in our system," Bloomberg quoted the economic adviser to the PM, Sanjeev Sanyal, as saying. Sanyal revealed the information in an interview in New York.

• Hindenburg published a report on the Adani Group on January 24, which resulted in a $150 billion drop in the conglomerate's market value in recent months.
• Soon after, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Gautam Adani denounced the report as a coordinated attack on India's rise on the global platform.
• The Opposition has also been attacking the Centre over the ongoing Adani-Hindenburg controversy.

According to Sanyal, exposures to Adani Group companies from the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), India's biggest insurer, and the State Bank of India (SBI), the country's largest financier, are very low. He then went on to add that no company is under any financial stress. Sanyal also added that the recent collapse of Silicon Valley Bank wouldn't have a first-order impact on Indian startups.

"Our job is to make sure the markets are transparent and liquid and function-- not for us to intervene," Sanyal said during his interview in New York. "Transparency and orderly market movement is the only thing we care about. If that is maintained, the prices will sometimes go up, sometimes they'll come down," he further added.

Before the report, Adani was the world's second-richest person. While Hindenburg continues to insist that it is a forensic research outfit functioning with its capital and not a hedge fund, numerous media outlets have reported on the Adani Group irregularities since the report. The reports raised issued surrounding the conglomerate's abrupt rise and related offshore investors, which point to Adani's elder brother Vinod Adani.

For over a month now, the Opposition has demanded a joint parliamentary committee to discuss the Adani controversy, while the BJP continues to evade the issue. The Opposition has raised concerns over the exposure of public funds to the group. LIC reportedly has a debt exposure of Rs. 61.8 billion to Adani Group companies, while SBI has an exposure of around Rs. 270 billion.

During his first press address after being disqualified from the Lok Sabha following his conviction of criminal defamation in a 2019 case, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Saturday that he would continue to ask who invested Rs. 20,000 crore in Adani Group through shell companies. The former Congress president also questioned the relationship between PM Modi and Gautam.

"I have been disqualified because the Prime Minister is scared of my next speech. He is scared of the next speech that is going to come on Adani. I have seen it in his eyes," stated Gandhi. "So, he is terrified of the next speech that is going to come and they don't want that speech to be in Parliament," the Congress leader added.