India spy agency says Greenpeace endangers economic security – by Sanjeev Miglani (Reuters India – June 12, 2014)

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NEW DELHI – (Reuters) – India’s domestic spy service has accused Greenpeace and other lobby groups of hurting economic progress by campaigning against power projects, mining and genetically modified food, the most serious charge yet against foreign-funded organizations.

The leak of the Intelligence Bureau’s report comes as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s new administration seeks way to restore economic growth that has fallen to below 5 percent, choking off investment and jobs for millions of youth entering the workforce.

Greenpeace denied it was trying to block economic expansion, saying the allegations were an attempt to silence dissent and that it stood for sustainable growth.

The government report is likely to intensify the debate over whether Asia’s third largest economy will pursue the path of fast growth under the Modi administration or try a more balanced strategy that the previous government sought.

It has also turned the spotlight on the role of foreign funded organizations, some of whom said they feared a crackdown by the new regime, seen as more friendly to business.

“A significant number of Indian NGOs funded by donors based in US, UK, Germany and Netherlands have been noticed to be using people-centric issues to create an environment, which lends itself to stalling development projects,” the Intelligence Bureau said.

These included coal-fired power projects, genetically modified organisms, mega industrial projects including South Korean firm POSCO’s steel plant and Vedanta’s bauxite project both in Odisha, hyro-power projects in Arunachal Pradesh, the strategic state on the border with China.

Together, the cancellation, disruption or delay to these development projects had clipped gross domestic product growth by 2 to 3 percent a year, according to an excerpt of the report seen by Reuters.

MODI PROMISES DEVELOPMENT PROGRESS

Greenpeace alone was leading a “massive effort to take down India’s coal-fired power plant and coal mining activity,” it said.

Dozens of projects have stalled in recent years because of local opposition, environmental hurdles and land acquisition difficulties. Modi, campaigning on a platform of development, promised to cut red tape and implement projects that have been approved.

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