IN INDIA, DEATH TO GLOBAL BUSINESS: How a violent--and spreading--Maoist insurgency threatens the country's runaway growth

On the night of Apr. 24, a group of 300 men and women, armed with bows and arrows and sickles and led by gun-wielding commanders, emerged swiftly and silently from the dense forest in India's Chhattisgarh state. The guerrillas descended on an iron ore processing plant owned by Essar Steel, one...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Bloomberg businessweek (Online) 2008-05 (4084), p.44
Main Author: Kripalani, Manjeet
Format: Magazinearticle
Language:English
Subjects:
Economic development
Economic impact
International
Manufacturers
Rebellions
Terrorism
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Summary:On the night of Apr. 24, a group of 300 men and women, armed with bows and arrows and sickles and led by gun-wielding commanders, emerged swiftly and silently from the dense forest in India's Chhattisgarh state. The guerrillas descended on an iron ore processing plant owned by Essar Steel, one of India's biggest companies. There the attackers torched the heavy machinery on the site, plus 53 buses and trucks. Press reports say they also left a note: Stop shipping local resources out of the state--or else. The assault on the Essar facility was the work of Naxalites--Maoist insurgents who seek the violent overthrow of the state and who despise India's landowning and business classes. The Naxalites have been slowly but steadily spreading through the countryside for decades. Few outside India have heard of these rebels, named after the Bengal village of Naxalbari, where their movement started in 1967. Not many Indians have thought much about the Naxalites, either. The Naxalites mostly operate in the remote forests of eastern and central India, still a comfortable remove from the bustle of Mumbai and the thriving outsourcing centers of Gurgaon, New Delhi, and Bangalore. Yet the Naxalites may be the sleeper threat to India's economic power, potentially more damaging to Indian companies, foreign investors, and the state than pollution, crumbling infrastructure, or political gridlock.
ISSN:0007-7135
2162-657X