Adani announces Rs 65,000 cr investment in Rajasthan
Jaipur (PTI): Richest Asian Gautam Adani on Friday announced a Rs 65,000 crore investment in Rajasthan over the next 5 to 7 years in setting up a mega 10,000 MW solar power capacity, expanding cement plant, and upgrading Jaipur airport.
The investment by a ports-to-energy conglomerate that Adani heads also spans city gas infrastructure for retailing CNG to automobiles and piped gas to households and industries as well as laying transmission lines to carry renewable power.
Speaking at the Invest Rajasthan 2022 Summit here, he said the Adani group already has a sizeable presence in the state. It operates a thermal power plant, has set up a solar park, and supplies coal to the state's power-generating units.
Adani Group is investing Rs 50,000 crore to add 10,000 megawatts of renewable power generation capacity.
"This will be commissioned progressively over the next 5 years," he said, adding the group just a week back achieved commercial operation of the world's largest wind-solar hybrid power plant in Rajasthan.
Besides, it is looking to double its cement manufacturing capacity following its acquisition of Ambuja Cements and ACC.
"While we already have three cement plants and limestone mining assets, a significant part of our capacity expansion will continue to happen in Rajasthan. We anticipate investing another Rs 7,000 crore to double our cement manufacturing capacity in the state," he said.
The Group is also the operator of Jaipur airport which will be expanded, he said.
Adani would also develop a network to supply piped natural gas and CNG to accelerate cleaner fuel availability to industrial, commercial, transport, and domestic consumers, and set up new transmission projects to move the renewable power being generated.
"Combining all ongoing and future investments, we anticipate investing an additional Rs 65,000 crore in Rajasthan over the next 5 to 7 years and creating over 40,000 direct and indirect jobs," he said.
Speaking with reporters after the inaugural ceremony of Invest Rajasthan summit, Adani said, "Along with this, while speaking to CM Gehlot, two proposals were approved. One for contributing to two medical colleges, particularly where there are no medical colleges, and the other for the cricket stadium in Udaipur."
The Adani Group, which started off as a commodity trader in 1988 and expanded rapidly into ports, airports, roads, power, renewable energy, transmission, gas distribution, real estate, FMCG, cement, data centres, and media business, is also making one of the world's largest bets on energy transition.
It is looking to build capacities to produce green hydrogen - a fuel that can run automobiles as well as factories. It plans to use renewable power to split water to produce green hydrogen.
Adani said the group is betting on green hydrogen, given its ability to generate the most inexpensive solar and wind power. "I believe this opportunity to generate green hydrogen to transform Rajasthan's deserts into 'an oasis of jobs enabling energy transition is an opportunity that no other state has."
His group has already invested over Rs 35,000 crore across multiple industrial sectors in Rajasthan.
These investments have been across a 1,320 megawatt (MW) Kawai power plant and a 10,000 MW solar park that produces 1,500 MW of green power. Besides, it has invested Rs 20,000 crore in commissioning over 4,000 MW of renewable projects.
Adani Group supplies coal to over 4,300 MW of state thermal plants.
It also operates high-voltage transmission lines, a dry port container terminal in Kishangarh, and two edible oil manufacturing plants in Alwar and Bundi.
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No govt protection, claims actress who accused CPI(M)'s Mukesh of sexual abuse
Kochi (PTI): A 51-year-old Malayalam actress who had levelled sexual abuse allegations against several male actors, including CPI(M) MLA M Mukesh, on Friday said she was not keen on pursuing her complaints due to "lack of support and protection from the Kerala government".
The complainant also alleged "carelessness" on the part of the state government and said she was "mentally exhausted" and therefore, not keen on taking the complaints forward.
"I would like to tell everyone that due to the government's carelessness and lack of protection for a woman who has come forward like this, I have suffered more than I can handle. I am mentally exhausted. They are not helping or protecting a woman.
"Therefore, I do not want to pursue the cases. It is not because I have compromised with anyone," she told reporters.
She claimed that she was made an accused in a POCSO case following her complaints against the actors, also including Maniyanpilla Raju and Idavela Babu, and the government did nothing to protect her.
"I am innocent. I want justice. I want the POCSO case against me to be probed thoroughly and quickly. If I commit suicide, the government will be responsible for it," she said.
The Muvattupuzha police had registered the case under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, against the woman actor based on a complaint lodged by her relative.
According to the police, the incident occurred in 2014. The relative has alleged that she was a minor at the time of the incident and that the actor was running a sex racket.
The actor had vehemently denied the allegations and claimed that the woman relative owed her some money, and these allegations were to shift attention from her complaint against the high-profile actors.
The actress' allegations against the actors came in the wake of the disclosure of the Justice Hema Committee report which revealed instances of harassment and exploitation of women in the Malayalam cinema industry, prompting calls for action against the guilty.
The Justice Hema Committee was constituted by the Kerala government after the 2017 actress assault case.
The complete report was placed before the Kerala High Court which directed that it be handed over to the special investigation team (SIT) that was constituted to probe complaints of sexual abuse in the film industry.
Subsequently, 26 FIRs were registered by the SIT in connection with the revelations in the report.
