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Subscribe to RSSIndia may have lost $210 billion in what one opposition politician described as the "mother of all scams," according to reports.
A draft report by government auditors estimated the sum was lost when state-owned coalfields were sold to private operators too cheaply because of a lack of competitive bidding.
The draft from the Comptroller and Auditor General's (CAG) office, leaked and reported by the Times of India, criticized the allocation of 155 coalfields to about 100 private and some state-run firms between 2004 and 2009, questioning why they were not auctioned off to the highest bidder.
However, while the published excerpts criticized the government's methods, they stopped short of direct accusations of corruption and the auditor also later backed away from the loss calculation and said its thinking had changed.
Reuters reported that the revelations had provoked fury in India's parliament, where lawmakers are angry at a string of recent scandals and policy missteps by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
India's 'untouchable' queen faces election test
Singh, who oversaw the coal ministry during some of the period covered by the report, made no comment during his appearance in parliament on Thursday but his office called the leaked report's estimated loss "exceedingly misleading."
Opposition party leader Prakash Javadekar described the coalfield sale as the "mother of all scams" and the government as "the government of looters" in comments reprinted in the Times of India.
Singh has lurched from crisis to crisis since massive corruption in the sale of telecoms spectrum surfaced two years ago, culminating in the quashing of licenses. The telecoms sale may have cost the government up to $36 billion.
The uncertainty over the coal contracts will add to investors' confusion about doing business in one of the world's fastest-growing economies.
Any suggestion of lost revenues also underlines the weakening state of the central government's finances. The budget deficit is expected to blow out to 5.9 percent of GDP this fiscal year from a goal of 4.6 percent, leaving the government financially stretched for the upcoming year and ahead of elections due by 2014.
Reuters and msnbc.com's Alastair Jamieson contributed to this report.
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Hmm, I wonder if Bernie Madoff was giving them financial advice....
Dang it! How come I cannot get in on these rackets?!
Obviously, you are uncaring of other's investments. Maybe you should go work for Solyndra?
At least it wasn't a Nigeria 409 scam that did them in.
It wasn't personal, just business. Bain Capital has offices in India?
Reminds me of Halliburton.
That's Cheney. the one that scammed millions but was voted in as our vice president. Now I don't get that. It's like saying "please come sh!t me too, hell, sh!t the entire country"!!!!! But then again it's republicans!!!!
This is chump change compared to the multi-trillion$ scam pulled off by the A$$hole and his dick, Darth Cheney, along with their cabal of thieving chicken hawk neocons and their MIC, Wall St., big oil, pharma and health care paymasters. Hell, Bremer pissed away that much in his first two weeks in Iraq with no receipts or slight recollection where that trailer full of cash disappeared without a trace.
And I'll bet Hank Paulson and his Wall Street accomplices are still laughing over snifters of fine cognac and Cuban cigars how they conned everyone out of $780 billion with no strings attached to cover their bad bets on derivative instruments designed to enrich the brokerage houses instead of their clients.
If I go on, I won't get to sleep until 2:00 AM having to think about why the Repugnicans should never be allowed to lead our nation into another massive $hit hole like they left for PBO to clean up.
Impeach the Supreme Court members that gave us "Citizens United" BS.
HA HA....the bigh spender's are still in office!
(BTY...voters are getting too young too remember Cheney - so own Obama)
September 2007: [Democratic-controlled] Congress raising the debt limit to - $9.815 trillion
July 2008: [Democratic-controlled] Congress raising the debt limit to - $10.615 trillion
October 2008: [Democratic-controlled] Congress raising the debt limit to - $11.315 trillion
December 2009: [Democratic-controlled] Congress raising thedebt limit to - $12.394 trillion
February 2010: [Democratic-controlled] Congress raising the debt limit to - $14.294 trillion
What are we now?
ALMOST 16 TRILLION!?!?! Way to spend our tax money
Mr. Big $PENDER OBAMA - Epic Fail
Soon it will have been 4 YEARS since he was in office.
AND THEY STILL KEEP TALKING ABOUT HIM!!!!!!!!!
Obama 2012 HELL NO !!!!!!
All we have left is HOPE and a little CHANGE.
How about them high gas prices.
How about spending another TRILLION or TWO
With nothing to show for it,,,,,,,,,
And that RECOVERY SUMMER,,,,,,,,,
Where are the jobs,,,,,,,,
Heck...Obama did it with everyone watching.....
This happens with Republican defense spending all the time.
The Republicans cut taxes on the wealthy and then increase military spending, and then blame everyone else for an out-of-control deficit.
Mother of all scams? This and Bernie Madoff together can't even come close to the Social Security and Medicare scams.
How does this qualify as a "scam"? Unless there was evidence that the bidding was deliberately closed to competitors, this just looks like the government didn't get as much as it wanted from the sale of their assets (so what else is new?).
India has real scams and corruption problems all the time. This isn't the crippled, malfed baby of all scams, much less the mother.
Poor journalism as usual.
And I'm suppose to care why? We've been loosing jobs to India for years. I really don't care if their government screws them just as long as it doesn't cost us money.
Lady Cat ....hmmmm
And India is supposed to care about your job losses ? Why ?
It has been educating its population in Science Math and Engineering for decades while American kids are leading from behind in all these skills.
India does not care if jobs that were in US before are going there now because non performing US students is not India's problem and neither are greedy American corporations who think of their bottom line ahead of everything else.
Your skill devoid students, your lazy workers, your corporations - YOUR problem !!!
Mr.India,
India certainly is taking jobs from Americans...there are hardly any CALL CENTERS left here. Nothing worse than trying to speak with someone to get information and you can't understand what they're telling you. I guess to get the jobs back, we'll have to teach broken english in school.
India is not TAKING your jobs...
You are GIVING your jobs to India...
India is (still) a third world country which lags America in Military strength and whose economy is 1/4th of the size of American economy.
India cannot make America do anything unless America wants to do it.
Stop blaming India and blame your own corporations.
As for not understanding their English - guys if more and more of your corporations choose to outsource their call centers to India - you are gonna have to start learning the Indian Accent i guess or you are @!$%# out of luck in terms of fixing any or all issues for which you may call customer service ...a
It don't matter were they are in the world. Government = Crooks
They are all crooks and the people need to hold them responsible.
It's good to see it in other country's and not just here in the good old USA
WHaaaaaaaaaaaaaaH!
Don't worry. They'll make that money back selling ephedrine to Mexico (where it can't be traced) to make methamphetamine. India and China are Mexico's largest drug suppliers. Comments have been made that if the ephedrine was actually used to treat patients, there is enough 'lost' in Mexico to legally treat 600,000 patients for 200 years!
India and China are Mexicos biggest drug suppliers ? Did you just pull that information out of your ass ?
On an average Americans are usually quite ignorant of the world outside but this is the first time i am seeing one pull statistics out of thin air.
Mr. India: The only ignorant Americans are those that have been indoctrinated by Faux News and right wing radio as they blast out their talking points, disinformation, revised history and conspiracy theories that have little resemblance to the truth. They offer the right wing version of fair and balanced (news?) propaganda. Their phobias/manias include knowledge, science and poor folks' sex lives and organs.
In fact, more or less 30% of my countrymen would probably ask which tribe you were from. They wouldn't recognize the truth if it hit them in the face. So, yes, he did pull what he knows out of his ass!
LOL @ George - I know i know ...
But if i may be candid, the problem is not just with Faux news listeners. America - for some reason - has a very insular culture. You guys are just happy within the confines of your border and most otherwise educated middle class people have no desire nor inclination to find out anything about the rest of the world except perhaps some countries in Europe.
In comparison, the average middle class person in India knows so much more about the world in general that it is mind boggling. Indian news papers have a whole separate sections dedicated to foreign news and analysis. Indians are very inquisitive about the world they live in. I talk to my friends in India and they seem to be much more aware of the republicans primaries for example, than most people in US of A. I can have a much better conversation with a friend back in India about American debt deficit and economy than many people in US. and it all comes down to one thing - Average American is just not all that much interested in intellectual pursuits. The generation that propelled America to the forefront of technology and enlightenment is retiring with no body in sight to take on their role ....
Mr. India:
Don't go overboard with the bragging, sir. I love your country and your countrymen, but I've met an awful lot of Indian grad students who think they're geniuses but know surprisngly little about the world. They know little more than what they see on TV or hear gratuitously repeated -- much like Americans, in fact.
This is what free enterprise and capitalism is all about. Those scammers should be proud. However, compared to the guys on Wall Street that took this country for trillions, they're just pikers.
heh heh..."Wall Street" - how quaintly generic.
Everybody wants 'chai' money - this is not new, happens all the time.
They've got all of our jobs, they can afford it.
Did your grandfather wrote the "jobs" in your inheritance ? Then how are they your jobs ? Did you graduate past high school ? Then how are they your jobs ?
The jobs belong to profit making American corporation which will ship them where ever they can make more money.
Today it is India. Tomorrow it will be China. Day after Phillipines, Nigeria...wherever.
Oh and YESTERDAY it as America.
They are not your jobs. The coporations don't owe you anything and India most certainly does not owe you anything.
Naw, not even if it was American people that had made them successful in the first place. //sarcasm
Glad to hear that. And America most certainly doesn't owe you anything either. Remember that the next time your country comes begging for aid.
MrIndia,
Are the rest of your countrymen so anti American? If so, we don't need India any more than we need Pakistan...maybe less.
Edddwhatever : Dude ..India is the 2nd fastest growing economy in the world. It has been decades since it took any aid from America. During the southAsian Tsunami India refused American Aid telling America to give it to poorer nations like Bangladesh and such. India now a days GIVES Aid to nations in distress - like Maldives, African nations etc. Please try not to be so ignorant.
And Logic4U - No one in India hates America or Americans. Americans are looked up to and considered very affectionately by the Indians - Ask tje hundreds of thousands of Americans who travel to and live in India.
But your whiney-India is taking our jobs- is becoming a bit too tiresome for some of us. We didn;t put a gun to your head and forced you into giving your jobs to us.
We went to colleges, schools - educated ourselves and made us into professionals that are sought after by foreign companies and we are not going to sit there and be made to feel guilty about it. We did nothing wrong.
But India has had it. Everyone knows that. Propped up and on their feet, India doesn't owe anyone anything anymore. Nice that we were able to help ya.
Really. Any proof to that statement (like a link to a web page)?
Don't recall hearing about any aid that India gave during any of America's natural disasters.
I do believe that (no sarcasm here). Truth is, I think India is a fascinating country - the art, architecture, people - it is beautiful, to this drab westerner. Your culture and religion is very interesting. I have always wanted to visit your country.
But when you say that "no one" in India hates Americans, you are again over-generalizing people. You may be Indian but I do not believe you know or speak for all Indians. That would be an impossibility. I do believe though that most Indians do not "hate" Americans... Or I sincerely hope that they do not.
You do not know every American either. If an American made such a statement about another country's people or culture, they would be branded a racist.
I am college educated too. 4.0 GPA. I loved my studies and put a lot of work into my education. I took it all very seriously - nothing short of my very best was acceptable, to myself. I could have made my life easier settling for "B's", but I didn't.
I consider myself pretty average though. I do not think of myself as brilliant - I certainly do not know everything. But I don't think that I'm "ignorant." I've never been called that, at least to my face.
I do agree with you on some of your points. It is the corporations that are taking our jobs away.
However it was the American consumers (and initially with American workers) that made most of these American companies most of their money.
It is cheaper to use the labor in your country, and I assume that it is also cheaper to live a decent life there. Like my grandfather used to say, "A man doesn't mind working for $5 a day, if he can live on $5 a day." But for some people enough is never enough.
Those are the people that are taking our jobs away and I really do not fault any Indians for that.
But I do find fault with pompous asses of any nationality that come along and say suck it up, suffer, you're ignorant, and it's all your fault - when it isn't.
Did they hire Dick Cheney as a business consultant?
No, actually, they went to the Obama school of economics. What' a few trillion in debt between friends? It's not like WE will have to pay it off.......
Vote them all out.....just like what we should be doing in the U.S.
"A draft report by government auditors estimated the sun was lost"
I would have put the price of the sun at more than $210 billion.
But that is the "mother of all scams".
The sellers have to be investigated, they could have manipulated the sale to benefit the buyers with the handsomest promise of gratefulness.
Funny how MSNBC tells this about India, but doesn't mention the similar US scam: how most of the oil pumped in America is from public lands, meaning it's the public's oil, and when oil was $35/barrel the taxpayer got $6.00 in royalties and now when it's $100/barrel/barrel the taxpayer gets $6.65 in royalties - 1% of every dollar over $35. Meanwhile Dem. and GOP politicians grant the oil companies extra tax breaks no one else gets and looks the other way as long as their campaign chests are full of oil company contributions.
Hmmmmm must have been some Republijerks doing a little outsourcing and privatizing.
Privatization is the biggest scam of all on the whole planet. It is simply a way to reward cronies and flunkies at the loss of great jobs with great benefits. I am glad to see that India has the same problem. The only difference is India will deal with their problem. We don't
- So it's a surprise the Indian government is, like most other governments, totally corrupt?
- This certainly qualifies as the 'mother' of something but THE 'mother of all scams' was actually George Bush's awarding of several $hundred $billions in no-bid contracts to his and Dick's friends.
It's no surprise. All politicians and special interest groups go hand-in-hand skipping down that yellow brick road.
Mother of all scams = global warming by al the bullshi**er gore..
Mr. India. Excellent post! My Mom just had surgery at Stanford and it was amazing how many staff members were from Asia and Asia Minor. Her surgeon was Chinese American and a true professional and great guy. These people earned their way in to their positions with hard work, brains, and skill. Everyone(regardless of race or color) should be asking themselves what can I do to emulate these people because they are the future.
In the short run a story such as this will cause an out flow to better havens the like US. India's goverment is corrupt fromtop to bottom and there is no middle uncorrupted available. China too is corrupt, but not as bad or extensive as in India seems to be.
The fact that the primime Mister-the very man who over saw the contractletting issued a "nocomment" is initself telling. One would expect him to at least deny wrong doing. We can probably sustpect there's morethat hasn't bee releaved yet.
now who will I talk to when I call tech support ?