India's Adani Group opens giant container terminal in Sri Lanka
The Adani development at Sri Lanka's main seaport in Colombo is widely seen as a counter to the rival Chinese terminal and as a means for India to secure a foothold at the strategic facility.
The launch of the Adani-operated facility came a day after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi concluded a state visit to Sri Lanka during which he secured defence and energy deals with Colombo.
'The commencement of operations at CWIT (Colombo West International Terminal) marks a momentous milestone in regional cooperation between India and Sri Lanka,' billionaire chairman Gautam Adani, a key ally of Modi, said in a statement.
Sri Lanka lies at a key halfway point along the main east-west international maritime route and Colombo is a major transhipment hub for South Asia.
The company said it had completed 600 metres (660 yards) out of a final 1,400-metre long berth with a depth of 20 metres that is able to handle the largest container ships.
'Not only does this terminal represent the future of trade in the Indian Ocean, but its opening is also a proud moment for Sri Lanka, placing it firmly on the global maritime map,' Adani said.
The joint venture went ahead despite the Indian conglomerate withdrawing in December a request for a US government-backed $533 million loan for the construction.
The move followed an indictment in New York in November 2024, which accused the Adani Group of deliberately misleading international investors as part of a bribery scheme. Adani has denied any wrongdoing.
The other partners in the Adani port venture are Sri Lanka's publicly listed John Keells Holdings and the state-owned Sri Lanka Ports Authority.
Construction began in early 2022, with the first phase featuring eight automated ship-to-shore cranes and 18 gantry cranes.
There were no public statements from either side during Modi's visit about Adani's withdrawal from another venture, a $442 million wind power project in the north of Sri Lanka.
That withdrawal followed a decision by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake's administration to revoke a power purchase agreement with the Adani Group in order to negotiate lower energy prices.
Dissanayake's party had strongly criticised the deal as 'corrupt' and called for it to be renegotiated.
India's fuel demand up: India's fuel demand in March hit a 10-month high, rising 9.3% from the previous month to 20.91 million metric tons, oil ministry data showed on Monday. India is the world's third-largest consumer and importer of oil. The data is a proxy for the country's oil demand. BY On a yearly basis, March fuel demand was down 3.1% from 21.57 million tons in the same month last year, the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell's website showed. Sales of gasoline, or petrol, rose 10.6% to 3.5 million tons compared with last month's 3.2 million tons, and were 5.7% higher than a year earlier.
Diesel consumption rose nearly 10% month-on-month to 8.1 million tons in March. Cooking gas or liquefied petroleum gas sales increased 4.2% on an annual basis to 2.72 million tons, while naphtha sales fell almost 5% compared with last year to 1.08 million tons. On a monthly basis, LPG and naphtha sales rose 5.8% and nearly 14%, respectively.
Sales of bitumen, used for making roads, were 18.4% higher, while fuel oil use ticked up by 1.5% in March, in comparison with February. India's infrastructure output increased 2.9% year-on-year in February, its slowest pace in five months. India is considering a proposal to scrap import tax on US liquefied natural gas to boost purchases and help cut the trade surplus with Washington, government and industry sources said. 'Trade tensions might have an impact on oil demand growth, but for now I would still expect Indian oil demand to keep rising unless the world shifts into a recession,' UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo said.
Separately, India's central bank could tolerate a sharper depreciation of the rupee if China lets the yuan weaken to cushion the impact of US tariffs, multiple sources aware of the central bank's thinking said.
China and India compete in exports such as machinery, electronics, pharmaceuticals, chemicals and textiles and three people familiar with the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) thinking said the central bank had become increasingly focused on the yuan exchange rate over the last few months.
As well as making Indian exports less competitive, a weaker yuan could widen India's already large trade deficit with China.
'The RBI has been relatively hands-off (this year). The rupee is automatically adjusting based on how currencies are moving globally, so the hands-offs approach will mostly continue,' one of the sources said.
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He controversely implemented a "Muslim ban" and in 2019 appeared at a mass rally in support of Modi in Houston where he told the 50,000 strong crowd that the Indian leader was "one of America's greatest, most devoted and most loyal friends". Since Mamdani's primary win, Trump has repeatedly accused the Democratic Socialist of being a communist, with little to no push-back from the Democratic Party. "The Democrats have crossed the line," Trump wrote on Truth Social after his primary win. "Zohran Mamdani, a 100% Communist Lunatic, has just won the Dem Primary, and is on his way to becoming Mayor. We've had Radical Leftists before, but this is getting a little ridiculous." Later, during a dinner at the White House for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump reiterated to a reporter that Mamdani was a communist. "I think he's going through a little bit of a honeymoon right now, but he might make it. But, you know, it all comes through the White House. He needs the money through the White House. He needs a lot. He's going to behave... He better behave. Otherwise, he's going to have big problems," Trump said. "It's a philosophy [communism] this country is not ready for, and never will be," he added. Why is The New York Times so afraid of Zohran Mamdani? Read More » Manan Ahmed, a professor of history at Columbia University said that amid the alliance between pro-Trump and Hindutva forces the attacks served what he called a global fascist movement. "The Hindutva support for Trump, and Trump's focus on Zohran as a communist or as a socialist or as anti-Israel means that the Hindutva interest in Zoran goes up," he said. As well as anti-leftist sentiment, he said there was a constellation of interests in which Mamdani's candidacy had became fertile ground for right-wing figures and groups - including the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the Hindu America Foundation (HAF), Trump and Modi - to advance their agenda such as anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim sentiment. He said that BJP or Hindutva groups had a history of attacking prominent figures from the diaspora whose politics contrast with the divisive type of politics they are invested in, as a means to "shape the cultural conversation on both ends". He cited figures like the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, who faced attacks by UK-based versions of BJP and Hindutva groups. He pointed to similiar dynamics in the US where both former US vice-president Kamala Harris (who is half-Indian) and Seattle Assembly councilwoman Kshama Sawant, who spearheaded a resolution to ban caste discrimination in the city, have been subject to attacks. Sawant was also denied a visa to India earlier this year. Ahmed added that the reason that support against Mamdani could be "operationalised so quickly" is because the Hindutva infrastructure in the US has been established for a while. "That's the reason someone in New Jersey can hire a plane to fly a banner," he added. According to Ahmed, far-right ethnonationalists don't want a candidate who may challenge them "If you are on the left of progressive politics, you get targeted," he said. "Obviously, if it is a Muslim subject, they have added language, but that language can be just as easily tailored if the person is not Muslim. "That's why it's important to understand the relationship between the ADL and the Hindutva ecosystem. The ADL can target a Jewish person who takes an anti-zionist stance just as easily as the ADL can target a Palestinian or someone who's taking a stance for Gaza, even if they're not Jewish." Punjabi and Sikh support Fahd Ahmed, the executive director of community social justice organisation Desis Rising Up and Moving (Drum), told MEE that he didn't believe that Hindutva supporters will have much influence on electoral politics in New York due to the demographic make-up of the city. He said the number of Indian Hindus who formed the working-class South Asian communities in New York City was "limited" and those who did exist were in neighbourhoods that are further out such as Flushing and Fresh Meadows. Ahmed added it was important to distinguish between Indian Hindus - who were influenced by right-wing politics - and Hindus from other cultures who were not. "We have lots of Hindu members who are from Guyana, Nepal, and even from Bangladesh," Ahmed said. "All of those people have been very deeply involved in supporting Zohran, doing work on the ground, knocking doors, making calls, talking to their neighbours, talking to their co-workers, and things like that." 'They have their own hesitations around Hindutva forces' - Fahd Ahmed, Desis Rising Up and Moving (DRUM) He said that Indian New Yorkers, who were largely Punjabi and Sikh, were also supportive of Mamdani. "They have their own hesitations around Hindutva forces, coupled with Zohran himself being partially of Punjabi origin. He was involved in the taxi workers' strike, so the enthusiasm for him in that community where people know him is pretty high." Ahmed added that young professional Indian Hindus who had moved to New York and were living in hip parts of Brooklyn or Manhattan were also supportive of Mamdani and had volunteered with Drum. "They're not a very large number, but they turned out for the election at pretty high rates. I think it's fair to say that they turned out in support of Zohran." Overall, he said Hindutva forces were largely present outside of New York City in New Jersey, Long Island and Westchester, which is why he hadn't seen much right-wing mobilisation for the primary election. As we edge close to the November election, Ahmed said Mamdani's Muslim and Indian heritage, along with his strong pro‑Palestine positions and criticism of Hindu nationalism, rendered him an outlier in the race and a major target. "Whether it's Zionist or Hindutva forces, they want to make sure that they're never critiqued," he said. "Having somebody in office that is doing that is a threat to them."
