Once in a Blue Moon Academia (OBMA)

  E20 Petrol in India: Green Transition or Greenwashed Cronyism? Posted on 25th September, 2025 (GMT 01:37 hrs) ABSTRACT This article critically examines India’s nationwide rollout of E20 petrol—a fuel blend of 80% petrol and 20% ethanol—framed as a green transition but marked by structural contradictions and political capture. While the policy promises reduced fossil fuel dependence and enhanced energy security, its hasty and opaque implementation has exposed ecological, economic, and democratic fault lines. Large-scale ethanol production, dependent on sugarcane and food grains, risks intensifying food-versus-fuel conflicts, groundwater depletion, monoculture expansion, and contested lifecycle emissions, undermining its environmental rationale. At the same time, the accelerated timeline has disproportionately benefited politically connected firms, notably those linked to Union Minister Nitin Gadkari’s family, fuelling charges of dynastic capitalism and greenwashed cronyism. C...

  Conscious Capitalism or Spiritual Washing? Vaiṣṇava Philanthro-Capitalism and the Case of Ajay Piramal Posted on 24th September, 2025 (GMT 04:49 hrs) ABSTRACT This article critically examines the intersection of religion, capitalism, and corporate power in contemporary India, using Ajay Piramal and the DHFL scandal as a case study to interrogate the concept of “conscious capitalism” and its spiritualized variants. It argues that ostensibly ethical and Vaishnava-aligned philanthropy—what may be termed “Vaishnava philanthro-capitalism”—often functions as a moral façade for systemic exploitation, environmental negligence, financial expropriation, and political cronyism. The piece highlights Piramal’s alleged expropriation of DHFL investors’ life savings, corporate entanglements, and use of Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) to intimidate dissent, juxtaposed against his projected image as a Paramavaishnava disciple of ISKCON’s Radhanath Swami. Drawing on en...