Spooks and spies, past and present

CORPORATE espionage in India is hardly new. These underlings in the bureaucracy are regularly bribed by fixers and agents—often for ridiculously small sums of money—for leaking privileged “classified” information to privately owned business groups whose representatives, on occasions, bid against one another to be the first to gain access to information about government decisions and policies that could give them competitive advantage. We will also launch an internal probe to investigate the matter and in the meanwhile are extending full cooperation to the authorities.” “incentives” to steal secret documents One can highlight the instance of the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas and India’s biggest private corporate entity, RIL, which is engaged in oil and gas exploration among other activities, to illustrate how there is considerable interest in getting to know the government’s thinking on various legal disputes and policy issues. The company says gas output has come down because of “geological surprises” but sections within the government, including the office of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, have alleged that the private contractor did not dig enough wells nor explore the entire area it was supposed to explore as a consequence of which gas production has fallen way below anticipated levels. Media reports claimed that among the documents stolen from the Petroleum Ministry were a two-page note on the national gas grid for inclusion in the Finance Minister’s Budget speech, a letter from Nripendra Mishra, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, documents on ONGC Videsh’s plans on oil and gas exploration outside India and a paper on “opportunities in Sri Lanka”.