The Reporters' Collective

26/10/2025

Rice trader Prem Chand Garg,  dogged by decades of legal woes,  has emerged as a key partner in India’s rice export promotion efforts. Accused in multiple high-profile cases, including a Rs 979 crore bank fraud conspiracy by the CBI, illegal gold smuggling evading Rs 17 crore in duties, and a seven-year conviction for exporting illegally mined iron ore worth Rs 2,500 crore, Garg faces ongoing probes in India and Nigeria for a $4.2 million fraud. Despite these sub-judice matters, which he claims exoneration in most, Garg leads the Indian Rice Exporters’ Federation (IREF), a non-profit he founded in August 2023.

The Commerce Ministry, under Piyush Goyal, has partnered with IREF to co-host the Bharat International Rice Conference on October 30-31, 2025, in Delhi—set to draw 1,000 foreign delegates and inaugurated by PM Narendra Modi. Goyal hails the event as shaping rice trade for the next five years. IREF, described by the ministry as a national apex body for exporters, millers, and stakeholders, will represent India’s rice sector globally. Additionally, Garg serves on the board of the government’s Non-Basmati Rice Development Fund, where amended rules now mandate private traders to register exports and pay fees per tonne.

Corporate filings reveal IREF’s shares are held by six companies tied to Garg’s family and former associates, including sons Aditya and Devashish’s firms, Vi Exports and Vi Farm Organics. Aditya’s Vi Exports, launched in 2020, has rapidly expanded into rice shipping via Singapore entities, claiming to have handled thousands of tonnes amid the family’s rising influence. While legally distinct, these ties raise questions about potential synergies.

Read the report by , Mayank Aggarwal, and .recluse through the link in our BIO.

Such accountability journalism requires immense resources and time. Please support the journalists who undertake such rigorous work. 

To donate, copy paste this link or visit the Support Us page in our bio.
http://reporters-collective.in/support-us.

26/10/2025

Rice trader Prem Chand Garg, dogged by decades of legal woes, has emerged as a key partner in India’s rice export promotion efforts. Accused in multiple high-profile cases, including a Rs 979 crore bank fraud conspiracy by the CBI, illegal gold smuggling evading Rs 17 crore in duties, and a seven-year conviction for exporting illegally mined iron ore worth Rs 2,500 crore, Garg faces ongoing probes in India and Nigeria for a $4.2 million fraud. Despite these sub-judice matters, which he claims exoneration in most, Garg leads the Indian Rice Exporters’ Federation (IREF), a non-profit he founded in August 2023.

The Commerce Ministry, under Piyush Goyal, has partnered with IREF to co-host the Bharat International Rice Conference on October 30-31, 2025, in Delhi—set to draw 1,000 foreign delegates and inaugurated by PM Narendra Modi. Goyal hails the event as shaping rice trade for the next five years. IREF, described by the ministry as a national apex body for exporters, millers, and stakeholders, will represent India’s rice sector globally. Additionally, Garg serves on the board of the government’s Non-Basmati Rice Development Fund, where amended rules now mandate private traders to register exports and pay fees per tonne.

Corporate filings reveal IREF’s shares are held by six companies tied to Garg’s family and former associates, including sons Aditya and Devashish’s firms, Vi Exports and Vi Farm Organics. Aditya’s Vi Exports, launched in 2020, has rapidly expanded into rice shipping via Singapore entities, claiming to have handled thousands of tonnes amid the family’s rising influence. While legally distinct, these ties raise questions about potential synergies.

Read the entire report by Ayushi Kar, Aggarwal, Nitin Sethi and Harsh*tha Manwani here:
https://www.reporters-collective.in/trc/govt-partner-to-promote-rice-trade-alleged-scamster
Such accountability journalism requires immense resources and time. Please support the journalists who undertake such rigorous work.
Donate to The Reporters' Collective.
https://www.reporters-collective.in/support-us

A trader prosecuted for forgery, embezzlement, criminal conspiracy, smuggling, illegal exports,and a Rs 1,000 crore bank fraud becomes the Indian Commerce Ministry’s face for rice exports. The government collaborates with the non-profit he leads to promote trade. Nominates him to a crucial rice ex...

16/10/2025

The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Telangana has officially confirmed allegations of voter data misuse by the state government—a story first reported by The Reporters’ Collective

Voter data, including names, photographs, and Electors’ Photo ID Cards (EPIC), was accessed and used beyond its original purpose.

The issue traces back to 2015, when the ECI approved access for Telangana and Andhra Pradesh governments to link voter IDs with Aadhaar on state-managed servers. A Supreme Court order ended the linking that year, but the ECI did not require data deletion, allowing it to remain with the states.

By 2019, Telangana integrated this data into its Pensioner Life Certificate Service (PLCS), a facial recognition tool for verifying pension eligibility. Developed with Hyderabad-based Posidex Technologies, the system used EPIC data via API for demographic and photo comparisons, affecting 2.16 million voters.

This confirmation underscores gaps in data oversight post-ECI approvals. As the report is now public, it raises questions about protecting electoral privacy in digital governance.

Read the report by through the link in our BIO

Such accountability journalism requires immense resources and time. Please support the journalists who undertake such rigorous work.

To donate, copy paste this link or visit the Support Us page in our bio.
http://reporters-collective.in/support-us.

16/10/2025

The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Telangana has officially confirmed allegations of voter data misuse by the state government—a story first reported by The Reporters’ Collective
Voter data, including names, photographs, and Electors' Photo ID Cards (EPIC), was accessed and used beyond its original purpose.

The issue traces back to 2015, when the ECI approved access for Telangana and Andhra Pradesh governments to link voter IDs with Aadhaar on state-managed servers. A Supreme Court order ended the linking that year, but the ECI did not require data deletion, allowing it to remain with the states.

By 2019, Telangana integrated this data into its Pensioner Life Certificate Service (PLCS), a facial recognition tool for verifying pension eligibility. Developed with Hyderabad-based Posidex Technologies, the system used EPIC data via API for demographic and photo comparisons, affecting 2.16 million voters.

This confirmation underscores gaps in data oversight post-ECI approvals. As the report is now public, it raises questions about protecting electoral privacy in digital governance.
Read the report by Ayushi Kar here: https://www.reporters-collective.in/trc/telangana-official-confirms-voter-data-illegally-used

Such accountability journalism requires immense resources and time. Please support the journalists who undertake such rigorous work.
https://www.reporters-collective.in/support-us

ECI allowed the Telangana government to access voter data to link with Aadhaar. When it was stopped, ECI did not ask the state government to delete the data. Telangana worked with private companies to put it to other uses

15/10/2025

Our latest investigation reveals how the Indian government’s environment ministry, along with other departments and institutes, facilitated the opening up of protected forests and sanctuaries in Assam’s Baghjan region, near Dibru Saikhowa National Park.

The Oil India Limited’s (OIL) project has been facing environmental and community concerns. The requirement of conducting public hearings, a critical step for local input, was also waived off by the union government due to “unruly” local opposition. It is one of the many exceptions, concessions, and ignored procedures in this project.

Experts fear this could open a Pandora’s Box and set a template for others to follow. What is also interesting in this investigation is the shoddy role of the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), which is the country’s apex wildlife institute.

Read our latest investigation by through the link in our BIO

We are able to publish these detailed and evidence-based reports only because of the generous and consistent support from our supporters. Every bit of your support keeps us alive and encourages us.

Please continue to support us.

To donate, copy paste this link or visit the Support Us page in our bio.
http://reporters-collective.in/support-us.

15/10/2025

Oiling the wheels
How India’s green ministry bent backwards to facilitate an oil extraction project in a protected area in Assam despite several environmental concerns.

Experts fear concessions, exceptions, and ignorance of procedures in this case could open a Pandora’s Box and create a template for others. It is no surprise that three similar cases related to other wildlife protected areas are already in the pipeline.

Read this detailed investigation by Meenakshi Kapoor here: https://www.reporters-collective.in/trc/ministry-bending-backwards-to-facilitate-oil-extraction

We are able to publish these detailed and evidence-based reports only because of the generous and consistent support from our supporters. Every bit of your support keeps us alive and encourages us.

Please continue to support us. Donate Today.
https://www.reporters-collective.in/support-us

The exceptions to the usual scrutiny procedures could open doors for other companies to seek similar concessions

12/10/2025

In a startling breach of protocol, the Election Commission of India (ECI) failed to deploy its advanced de-duplication software during Bihar’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls, allowing lakhs of suspect duplicates and over a crore of erroneous entries to slip into the final list. This revelation, uncovered by The Reporters’ Collective, exposes systemic lapses that could undermine the integrity of upcoming elections in the state.

The software, honed since the 2016 National Electoral Roll Purification (NERP) initiative, uses machine learning to flag similarities in names, relatives, ages, addresses, and even EPIC photos. Integrated into the ERONET platform by 2018, it was routinely activated for polls—like the 2024 Lok Sabha elections—successfully purging fakes in states such as Rajasthan and Maharashtra. Yet for Bihar’s SIR, a high-stakes 30-day sprint announced with tech-savvy fanfare, ECI sidelined it entirely.

Top ECI officials in Delhi and four Bihar Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) confirmed to reporters Ayushi Kar and Vishnu Narayan that no access was granted to state teams, nor were suspect lists shared for verification. Focus shifted to frantic document collection amid public backlash, leaving manual booth-level checks as the sole safeguard—woefully inadequate for a 7.7 crore-strong electorate.

The fallout? The finalised rolls for Bihar’s 243 assembly seats harbour 14.35 lakh suspect duplicates, including 3.4 lakh exact matches across demographics. Worse, 1.32 crore voters from diverse backgrounds were bizarrely clustered—up to 650 per household—at phantom addresses, hinting at mass fraud.

We could not have done it alone. We are a determined team, but we face a severe financial crunch. This project became possible due to your generous donations, support, and suggestions. Please support us so that we can continue our investigation into the poorly-conducted SIR and seek accountability from the powerful.  

Please continue to support us.

To donate, copy paste this link or visit the Support Us page in our bio.
http://reporters-collective.in/support-us.

10/10/2025

Bihar’s total voters now stand at 7.42 crore, after the deletion of 68.66 lakh voters, and the addition of 21.53 lakh voters. The State goes to the polls in two phases on November 6 and 11.  

Our latest analysis of the final published electoral roll for the 243 assembly constituencies shows there are more than 14.35 lakh suspect duplicate voters - those who have two different voter IDs but with the same names, the same name of a relative, and an age difference of 0-5 years. Of these, about 3.42 lakh duplicates were those where the ages on both voter IDs matched perfectly.

The analysis by The Reporters’ Collective and an independent team of experts reveals that around 1.32 crore voters are registered on dubious and non-existent addresses.

Read the report by and through the link in BIO.

We could not have done it alone. We are a determined team, but we face a severe financial crunch. This project became possible due to your generous donations, support, and suggestions. Please support us so that we can continue our investigation into the poorly-conducted SIR and seek accountability from the powerful.  

Please continue to support us.

To donate, copy paste this link or visit the Support Us page in our bio.
http://reporters-collective.in/support-us.

07/10/2025

On September 30, the final electoral roll for Bihar was released by the ECI. Compared to the pre-SIR electoral roll, there has been a deletion of 68.66 lakh voters.

Bihar’s total voters now stand at 7.42 crore, after the deletion of 68.66 lakh voters, and the addition of 21.53 lakh voters. The State goes to the polls in two phases on November 6 and 11.  

Our latest analysis of the final published electoral roll for the 243 assembly constituencies shows there are more than 14.35 lakh suspect duplicate voters - those who have two different voter IDs but with the same names, the same name of a relative, and an age difference of 0-5 years. Of these, about 3.42 lakh duplicates were those where the ages on both voter IDs matched perfectly.

The analysis by The Reporters’ Collective and an independent team of experts reveals that around 1.32 crore voters are registered on dubious and non-existent addresses.

Read the report by and through the link in BIO.

We could not have done it alone. We are a determined team, but we face a severe financial crunch. This project became possible due to your generous donations, support, and suggestions. Please support us so that we can continue our investigation into the poorly-conducted SIR and seek accountability from the powerful.  

Please continue to support us.

To donate, copy paste this link or visit the Support Us page in our bio.
http://reporters-collective.in/support-us.

07/10/2025

On September 30, the final electoral roll for Bihar was released by the ECI. Compared to the pre-SIR electoral roll, there has been a deletion of 68.66 lakh voters.
Bihar’s total voters now stand at 7.42 crore, after the deletion of 68.66 lakh voters, and the addition of 21.53 lakh voters. The State goes to the polls in two phases on November 6 and 11.
Our latest analysis of the final published electoral roll for the 243 assembly constituencies shows there are more than 14.35 lakh suspect duplicate voters - those who have two different voter IDs but with the same names, the same name of a relative, and an age difference of 0-5 years. Of these, about 3.42 lakh duplicates were those where the ages on both voter IDs matched perfectly.
The analysis by The Reporters’ Collective and an independent team of experts reveals that around 1.32 crore voters are registered on dubious and non-existent addresses.

Read the story by Ayushi Kar and Vishnu Narayan here:
https://www.reporters-collective.in/trc/ecis-final-voter-list-for-bihar

We could not have done it alone. We are a determined team, but we face a severe financial crunch. This project became possible due to your generous donations, support, and suggestions. Please support us so that we can continue our investigation into the poorly-conducted SIR and seek accountability from the powerful.
https://www.reporters-collective.in/support-us

In 243 assembly constituencies, analysis shows at least 14.35 lakh suspect duplicate voters and 1.32 crore voters of different families, castes and communities bundled and registered at dubious and fictitious addresses

06/10/2025

Our team investigated how the Rajasthan government floated a tender for the procurement of 3,200 MW of power from coal-based thermal plants that any company sets up within the state boundaries.

What is wrong with it? To start with, the tender has been put out without the mandatory approval from the Rajasthan Electricity Regulatory Commission (RERC). Moreover, India’s apex power planning body, the Central Electricity Authority, has held that considering Rajasthan’s current thermal capacity, only about 1,905 MW of additional capacity needs to be procured by 2035-36. Rajasthan, however, disagrees with this and is contesting it.

Also, Adani Power Ltd seems best-placed to bag it. It is already in the preparatory stage of expanding its 1,320 MW Kawai Thermal Power Plant in Rajasthan - by exactly 3,200 MW. What is interesting is that the tender stipulates that the entire capacity must be based in Rajasthan. Another point secured.

The icing on the cake is that Adani Power has already placed orders for essential equipment for thermal power plants.

Is this the first time that a tender is being tailor-made for Adani? No

Last year, the Rajasthan government issued a tailor-made tender, which could have specifically provided an advantage to the Adani Group. The tender was nixed after our investigation and criticism from the experts and other stakeholders that followed.

Read our latest investigation by through the link in our BIO. 

We are able to publish these detailed and evidence-based reports only because of the generous and consistent support from you, Indian Citizens. We only run on donations and your support has kept us going.

To donate, copy paste this link or visit the Support Us page in our bio.
http://reporters-collective.in/support-us.

06/10/2025

Our team investigated how the Rajasthan government floated a tender for the procurement of 3,200 MW of power from coal-based thermal plants that any company sets up within the state boundaries.
What is wrong with it? To start with, the tender has been put out without the mandatory approval from the Rajasthan Electricity Regulatory Commission (RERC). Moreover, India’s apex power planning body, the Central Electricity Authority, has held that considering Rajasthan’s current thermal capacity, only about 1,905 MW of additional capacity needs to be procured by 2035-36. Rajasthan, however, disagrees with this and is contesting it.
Also, Adani Power Ltd seems best-placed to bag it. It is already in the preparatory stage of expanding its 1,320 MW Kawai Thermal Power Plant in Rajasthan - by exactly 3,200 MW. What is interesting is that the tender stipulates that the entire capacity must be based in Rajasthan. Another point secured.
The icing on the cake is that Adani Power has already placed orders for essential equipment for thermal power plants.
Is this the first time that a tender is being tailor-made for Adani? No
Last year, the Rajasthan government issued a tailor-made tender, which could have specifically provided an advantage to the Adani Group. The tender was nixed after our investigation and criticism from the experts and other stakeholders that followed.
Read our latest investigation by Aggam Walia here: https://www.reporters-collective.in/trc/rajasthan-govt-tender-spot-for-adani

We are able to publish these detailed and evidence-based reports only because of the generous and consistent support from you, an Indian Citizen. We only run on donations and your support has kept us going.
Please support us by donating today.
https://www.reporters-collective.in/support-us

Yet again, the Rajasthan government tailors a power procurement tender that favours the Adani group