Vedanta - a man is known by the company he keeps

The more I learn of the Indian mining major, Vedanta, the more I am convinced that it is a company whose designs and values are suspect. There are many such companies in India, of course, but the Vedanta group has set, by itself, a rather dubious standard of 'rape and run'. The group companies include Sterlite, Madras Aluminium, Bharat Aluminium and Vedanta Alumina.

Over the last few months I have been exposed to a fair amount of data, videos and photographs put together by a number of civil rights groups, committed non-profits and intrepid individuals and am convinced of the abuse of this management's power and money in its operations in Orissa and elsewhere in India. I have seen and read extensively of collosal, shocking air pollution with fly ash, of thousands of people affected by multiple skin diseases, of the use of State police to force poor people to vacate large areas of lands that the group wants acquired for mining, expansion or new development and of mass destruction of tree cover. This is the classic example of the company that Micheal Moore termed the alter ego, in some sense, of the psychopath - single minded pursuit of profits to the detriment of all else.
The final nail in the coffin was the decision of the Orissa Government to 'sell' a sacred hill for mining bauxite, to this company, a decision that regrettably was endorsed by the Supreme Court, which has often taken the side of environment and traditional heritage in its history. This hill - the Niyamgiri hill - is sacred to the Kondh people and they have fought a courageous battle that, in many ways, is only beginning.

Very interestingly, this is one environmental battle that is being fought in the financial services sector: a number of investors - mutual funds, charitable trusts, pension funds - are either dumping their Vedanta stock after learning of the company's activity or refusing to buy. These include Norway's Government Pension Fund (also called the oil fund), the Church of England, Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust and the Martin Currie Investment Trust.
Hence, here's a request: please read to learn about Vedanta. If you don't like what you see, and you manage a fund, do the right thing. Write to the Mutual Fund Managers you know or those who manage some of your money about this company, requesting them to avoid buying or holding onto the stock of a criminally negligent company.