ArcelorMittal boss Lakshmi Mittal may be based out of the United Kingdom, but appears to have his share in the happenings in the sub-continent. As more information trickles down the public domain about the Electoral Bonds, new revelations and configurations are also coming to fore.
Mittal Donates Rs 35 Crore
While a lot of known and unknown entities made it to the list of top institutional donors, when it comes the individual donors, the name on top is perhaps more than familiar. Lakshmi Niwas Mittal, one of the richest men on the planet, with a net worth of over USD 16 billion or Rs 1.3 lakh crore, according to reports, bought bonds worth, and therefore donated an amount of Rs 35 crore.
Mittal alone amounts for over 9 per cent of the entire sum donated by individual donors.
Deals Bagged by AM/NS
Incidentally, ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India (AM/NS India), which is a joint venture between Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal and Tokyo-based Nippon Steel bagged a contract worth Rs 1,600 crore from the Gujarat state government and also signed an MoU in 2024. In addition, the company also got a contract to make three 350-ton converters equipped with sublance-based BOF process control at the Hazira plant, again in Gujarat.
The company took up a project (with Greenko) to expand a solar and wind capacity by a nominal 975 MW and other energy facilities in Andhra Pradesh. The deal is said to claimed to be worth USD 0.6 billion.
Lakshmi Mittal, according to Forbes, currently ranks 108th on the list of the world's richest.
Other names in the list of top individual donors include Inder Thakurdas Jaisinghani, with Rs 14 crore. Jaisinghani is the head of Polycab India, one of the biggest names of wire and cable manufacturing. Another name, is Laxmidas Vallabhdas Merchant, reported to linked to linked to Reliance Companies. This is similar to Qwik Supply chain, one of the largest institutional donors, with ambiguous links to Reliance.
The Donor-Gainers
The data was transferred by the State Bank of India to the Election Commission of India on 14 March. The central election body declared the transfer of the information before the deadline of March 15.
Many name that came to the fore including Santiago Martin's Future Gaming's and Megha Engineering, both these companies either were troubled by law enforcement agencies, like in the case of Santiago Martin or bagged contracts from public institutions, like in the Megha Engineering, whose subsidiary, Olectra buses, that manufactures electric buses are plying on the streets of Indian cities, including Mumbai, as a part of the Green transition.
