The prestigious Science Museum in London has indicated it will continue its association with the Adani Group, even as the pink newspapers in the UK have taken a grim view of the Indian conglomerate. In 2021, Gautam Adani had signed a sponsorship deal with the Science Museum for a new cutting-edge gallery which is set to open later this year.
The sponsorship deal had invited criticism from activists and academics who questioned the appropriateness of Science Museum accepting money from Adani which earns significant revenues from coal plants.
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A spokesperson for Science Museum told Moneycontrol: “Adani Green Energy is the title sponsor of a landmark new Energy Revolution gallery at the Science Museum in London which will examine how the world can undergo the fastest energy transition in history to curb climate change. The Gallery, which opens in late 2023, will explore the latest climate science and the energy revolution needed to cut global dependence on fossil fuels and achieve the Paris (Agreement) targets to limit global warming.”
Just days ago, the UK media was busy reporting the resignation of Lord Jo Johnson, a former UK cabinet minister and brother of Boris Johnson, from his position as a board member of an investment bank linked to the Adani Group.
The statement by Science Museum will go a long way in showing confidence in the Adani Group and its promoter Gautam Adani.
Prominent figures in business and politics active in the UK-India corridor are keeping a close watch on the Adani Group due to its large footprint in the Indian economy and the expanding presence in the UK. “I think the company’s share prices needed some correction and that correction has taken place. Adani’s personal wealth has gone down, but it was widely known that share prices did not reflect the real value of the group,” said a London-based investment banker who did not wish to be named.
As mentioned earlier, the resignation of Lord Johnson, himself a former investment banker, didn’t go unnoticed especially in the Financial Times where he worked as its India correspondent before joining politics.
In May 2022, as part of the UK-India Artificial Intelligence collaboration, a Chevening-Adani Scholarship programme was announced that would see 15 Indian students take AI masters courses in the UK. The announcement was made when Boris Johnson met Adani in Ahmedabad. The scholarships will be jointly funded by the Adani Group and Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO). This joint initiative showed a deepening of ties and high comfort between the Indian conglomerate and the UK government as Chevening is a flagship scholarship programme.
London-based asset managers seem to be adopting a wait-and-watch strategy towards the Adani Group. In the short-term, they are hoping that the company is not susceptible to any damaging investigations by agencies in India, and medium- and long-term expectation is that regulators like SEBI and RBI give a clean chit to the group. “The developments have been unnerving, no doubt, but it is too early to speculate,” said another banker who travels regularly between India, Dubai and the UK.
The company has a significant presence in several countries from coal mines to airports and ports to food processing.
It was in October 2021, during the Global Investment Summit in London that Adani announced a commitment of $70 billion to “energy transition via solar, wind and H2 (hydrogen).” Around the same period when the company’s association with Science Museum was made public, Sir Ian Blatchford, the director and chief executive of Science Museum had defended the sponsorship saying: “Adani Green Energy is an example of an energy sector business bringing expertise and investment to renewables at scale.”
Adani Group’s sponsorship of the Science Museum follows similar deals by energy companies like Shell, British Petroleum, Equinor and reflects the strategy to appear as part of the solution towards building an alternative green model.
Just like Shell and British Petroleum, Adani’s association with the Science Museum had its own share of controversies. Two board members of the Science Museum Group Jo Foster and Hannah Fry had resigned in November 2021 to protest the Adani sponsorship. In July 2022, over 400 teachers wrote to the Science Museum saying that they won’t get students to visit the Energy Revolution Gallery sponsored by Adani. In August 2022, around 1,000 tickets for the Science Museum’s ‘India Lates’ event went unused as groups declared a boycott due to its association with the Adani Group.
The Science Museum, however, maintains that it relies on external funding to be able to carry on the work of educating various stakeholders on science and environment.
“The Science Museum Group achieves public good for a wide and diverse audience with the sponsorship it receives. External funding has been vital to the transformation of our five museums, creating inspiring, free spaces where millions of visitors can immerse themselves in authentic stories about science, engineering, mathematics and more. Since 2011, we have benefited from more than £150 million in fund-raised income, donated by visitors, individual donors, charitable trusts, research councils, foundations, and businesses who share a passion for our mission to inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,” concluded the statement by the Science Museum, who say they themselves are committed to achieve net zero by 2033.
The Science Museum was founded in 1857 and is one of the most visited tourist attractions in London.
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