Sun TV

Electoral Bonds: Many Owners of Big Media Are Also in List of Heftiest Political Donors

Owners of many large and influential news television networks, radio stations, newspapers, magazines, portals and OTT have emerged as political donors. Questions about media being an effective ‘fourth pillar of democracy’ have sprung up as its ties with big business and now political funding have been partially unveiled.

New Delhi: Significant groups who have shown up as electoral bond donors have a strong foothold in the media world. If pharma companies, infra companies and mining groups stick out in the list, so does big media.

Large sections of news media, often termed the fourth pillar of democracy and expected to function as a watchdog, have passed into the hands of India’s largest corporate groups. Advertisement-driven media has been compromising its independence gradually over the years.

However, the pattern emerging, of big media owners, who are also big business, now also some of the largest donors of hefty amounts to political parties, anonymously takes the problems of independence to another level.

The Wire explores some of the linkages between media, big business and political funding the SBI and EC data has revealed. Electoral bonds could be pointers to how the information ecosystem of our country is greatly influenced by whom it is meant to interrogate.

Qwik Supply Chain Private Limited: Rs 410 Crore

As reported by The Wire on March 15, Qwik Supply Chain Private Limited, a Mumbai-based company which bought electoral bonds worth Rs 410 crore, has strong links with Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance group. According to the company information available on Zauba Corp, the company’s two present directors are Vipul Pranlal Mehta and Tapas Mitra. According to Zauba Corp, Tapas Mitra, is also the director of Reliance Oil and Petroleum, Reliance Eros Productions, Reliance Photo Films, Reliance Fire Brigades, Ral Investment Private Limited, Reliance First Private Limited, Reliance Polyester, among others.

As per the data on the EC’s website, Qwik Supply Chain made its first purchase of bonds on January 5, 2022. The second batch of purchases took place five days later, on January 10. This was followed on November 11, 2022 and a year later on November 17, 2023. All electoral bond purchases were made in bonds of denomination of Rs 1 crore each.

The Reliance media footprint with CNBC-TV18 on television screens has fast morphed onto multiple levels of media. As per Reliance Industries, they are “one of India’s largest media houses, with an omni-channel presence, bringing authentic news and wholesome entertainment to diverse Indian audiences.”

Network18 Media & Investments (Network18) is India’s “only Media & Entertainment conglomerate with presence across the full spectrum of content genres – news, entertainment, sports, movies, and live entertainment.” They speak of being committed to more investments in News18.com, Moneycontrol.com, and Voot (an over-the-top or OTT media service). Jio Cinemas with the popular cricket streaming has further strengthened its dominance over the infotainment universe.

Of late, this group is said to be preparing for an even larger media footprint. On February 28, Reliance Industries, Viacom18 Media and The Walt Disney Corporation have entered an agreement to form a joint venture “that would merge the television and digital streaming businesses of Viacom18 and Star India and create an entertainment giant in India.” A joint statement put the valuation at approximately $8.5 billion.

There have been concerns about this becoming a monopoly. Variety magazine wrote that “a combination of the two – which include rival streaming platforms, India’s leading pay-TV platform and over 100 linear TV channels – has the potential to substantially re-shape the Indian media and entertainment scene and command a 40% market share.” The new venture “will have over 750 million viewers across India and will also cater to the Indian diaspora across the world,” the companies said.

‘Laxmidas Vallabhdas Asmita Mercha’: Rs 25 Crore

Individuals have also bought electoral bonds. Of the total of 374 individuals who have bought bonds worth Rs 384 crore, as per BusinessLine, Lakshmi Mittal topped the list, but at number two is Laxmidas Vallabhdas Asmita Mercha, as per the SBI list, one of two persons who has bought bonds worth Rs 25 crore each. Assumed to be a mis-spelling for Laxmidas Vallabhdas Merchant, who is Group Controller of Reliance Industries Ltd and listed as a director with Reliance Life Sciences, and many more Reliance companies. The Reporter’s Collective has identified at least six of the companies he is director in, which enabled Reliance to takeover the media group, Network 18. Asmita Merchant is “related to” Laxmidas V. Merchant, as per public information available, analysed by the Collective.

The bonds bought by this individual donor were of Rs 1 crore each; all 25 bonds purchased on the same date, November 17, 2023.

In another instance of how different business groups exercise indirect hold over media groups, a company, Media Matrix Worldwide, in which the Reliance group has a small stake owns MN Media Ventures which purchased electoral bonds worth Rs 5 crore in November 2022, and also NexG Devices which spent Rs 35 crore on bonds in May 2019 and November 2022.

One of the board members of NexG Devices is Surendra Lunia, former Mukesh Ambani associate who sold his 29.18% stake in NDTV held by Reliance to the Adani group. This allowed the Adani group to do a hostile takeover of NDTV last year.

Now, Lunia also serves as a board member in Infotel Business Solutions, Infotel Enterprises, and Mankind Pharma which together with NexG made donations worth Rs 79 crore through electoral bonds.

Sun TV network: Rs 10 Crore

In its sealed cover declarations to the Election Commission, which were made public on Sunday, March 17, the DMK has declared that it received Rs 10 crore in donation from Sun TV Network Limited. This was received, it said, between April 5, 2021 and January 11, 2022. This was part of a haul of Rs 306 crore in this span of time.

Tamil Nadu-based Sun TV was founded by Kalanithi Maran in 1993. Two radio stations run by this mega media house, bought Rs 7 crore worth of electoral bonds on April 3, 2021. Kal Radio Limited and South Asia FM Limited purchased bonds worth Rs 3.5 crore and Rs 3.5 crore, respectively in different denominations. Sun distribution network bought three bonds of Rs 1 crore each on the same day. Assembly elections for Assam, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal were being held at the time. Incidentally, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry voted three days after these bonds were bought.

Sun TV has 35 TV channels in six languages. It claims to reach 140 million Indian households and also has a footprint across 27 countries. It has 69 FM radio stations, three daily newspapers and six magazines. It is one of the largest DTH (Direct To Home Satellite TV) service providers in India. It has a film division called Sun Pictures. The group also owns the SunRisers Hyderabad team in the Indian Premier League (IPL) & SunRisers Eastern Cape in the South Africa T20 League.

Megha Engineering: Rs 966 Crore

One of the top two donors through electoral bonds was Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd, which incidentally also owns, albeit indirectly, one of the biggest television news networks TV9Bharatvarsh. The Hindi news channel is owned by Associated Broadcast in which the infrastructure giant is a majority stakeholder.

The channel is known for its pro-government coverage, and has mostly underplayed the coverage of the electoral bonds. According to the ECI data, Megha Engineering spent Rs 966 crore on electoral bonds between April, 2019 and January 2024. The figure may be higher if we include its unpublished donations in 2018-19.

Media groups owned by corporate groups often function as either a prestige project or a lobbying and a pressure group for its original business interests. By now, it is public knowledge that Megha Engineering has bagged multiple central and state infrastructure projects running into thousands of crores over the last few years.

In one of its recent stories, the News Minute described how electoral bonds was covered in TV9 Bharatvarsh:

Take TV9 Bharatvarsh, where Samajwadi Party spokesperson Sunil Sajan said “no big journalist” was speaking about electoral bonds or whether central agency action had influenced their purchase. “Aayega toh Modi hi, par kaise aayega Modi?” he asked. (“It will be Modi who wins, but how will he win?”). In response, anchor Gaurav Agrawal turned the discussion around to ask panellists how Modi might win the upcoming polls.

Sanjiv Goenka Group: Rs 609 Crore

The companies associated with industrialist Sanjiv Goenka that have spent hugely on electoral bonds, too, have a large media footprint. The Sanjiv Goenka group donated Rs 709 crore – Rs 609 crore through electoral bonds and Rs 100 crore through electoral trusts – in political funding since May 2019.

ECI data reveals that the Sanjiv Goenka group bought electoral bonds through its five companies – Haldia Energy Ltd, Dhariwal Infrastructure Ltd, Philips Carbon Black Ltd, known as PCBL from 2022 onwards, Crescent Power Ltd, and RPSG Ventures.

RPSG Ventures that spent Rs 3 crore in electoral bonds directly owns Open, an English weekly magazine, Editorji, a digital news platform, and Fortune India. The last few years have seen Open taking a decidedly pro-BJP stand. The Open Media Network removed its political editor Hartosh Singh Bal, who was critical of the Narendra Modi government. Its former editor Manu Joseph had then claimed that Sanjiv Goenka had told him that Bal’s views was “making a lot of political enemies” for the business group.

Besides these news platforms, the group also owns lifestyle magazines like Esquire, and the to-be-launched Hollywood Reporter.

Yet another curious case is of the Goa-based influential business group Dempo Industries. The company, along with its subsidiaries, spent Rs 1.5 crore on electoral bonds. The company, which has interests in ore mining, shipbuilding, food processing and other things owns the Navhind Times, a leading daily in Goa and Navprabha, a Marathi daily.

Interestingly, the company is also under the scanner of the Enforcement Directorate.

Sun TV’s Kalanithi Maran, Wife Kavery Were India’s Highest-Paid Executives in 2019-20

Mukesh Ambani kept his annual salary from his flagship firm Reliance Industries capped at Rs 15 crore for the twelfth consecutive year.

Chennai: Sun TV’s promoters Kalanithi Maran and his wife Kavery Kalanithi Maran continued to be the highest paid executives in the country in 2019-20. The couple took Rs 175 crore in 2019-20.

Kalanithi Maran, who founded the company in 1993, is the executive chairman of Sun TV, while his wife Kavery Kalanithi is the executive director. The couple took a salary of Rs 13.87 crore and Rs 73.63 crore as ex-gratia or bonus each in 2019-20, aggregating to Rs 87.50 crore each.

The owners had decided to keep their salaries at the current level three years ago.

Mukesh Ambani kept his annual salary from his flagship firm Reliance Industries capped at Rs 15 crore for the twelfth year on the trot in the fiscal ended March 31 and decided to forego the entire remuneration from the current year in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Also read: With Discharge of Maran Brothers, CBI’s Abysmal Conviction Record Continues

Ambani has kept salary, perquisites, allowances and commission together at Rs 15 crore since 2008-09, forgoing over Rs 24 crore per annum. RIL’s non-executive directors, including Nita Ambani, got Rs 1.15 crore each as commission, besides sitting fees. The commission is lower than Rs 1.65 crore paid in the previous fiscal. The commission was Rs 1.5 crore in 2017-18 and Rs 1.3 crore in the year prior to that.

The other highest paid executives of Sun TV are its Managing Director R. Mahesh Kumar who took Rs 1.78 crore, including salary of Rs 1.16 crore and Rs 0.62 crore as ex-gratia or bonus, followed by Maran’s daughter and company’s executive director Kaviya Kalanithi Maran, who took Rs 1.22 crore, including a salary of Rs 0.80 crore and Rs 0.42 crore as ex-gratia or bonus.

Sun TV’s standalone total income was Rs 3,653.35 crore in 2019-20 as against Rs 3,883.22 crore. Profit before tax was Rs 1,797.88 crore as against Rs 2,135.94 crore.

Outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic and consequent lockdown has impacted the regular business operations of the company.

Company expects that the revenue for the company arising from the increased DTH subscriber base in South India would maintain a positive momentum in the coming years. This may be achieved by the drive initiated or to be initiated by the government towards digitalisation and addressability for cable television which would help Sun TV Network, being the largest regional television network, to be one of the major beneficiaries of the recent growth in the DTH space.

Recently, the management during the investors call said that revenues are close to 75% of the pre-COVID-19 levels.

Speaking to investors recently, S.L. Narayanan, Group CFO, Sun TV Network said, “if you look at July and the fill levels in August are pretty encouraging. I think we can just say approximately, we are close to 75% of the pre-COVID-19 levels in terms of the revenues. So if things stabilise and if the market really opens up, we are very confident of what we have committed to you, that I think in terms of overall decline, it could be restricted to 15-20%.”

In some of the markets, especially Tamil Nadu, the retail segment has not really opened up, which is a significant contributor to the revenue. FMCG continues to be a significant contributor in terms of the overall revenue factor at around 55%.

Subscription revenue in Q1 grew by 18% to Rs.442.25 crore from Rs 375.95 crore, a year ago. “It is really going to be the saving grace for this year,” said Narayanan, adding that Sun will continue to invest in content to increase the subscription revenues at a very high level. There is substantial headroom to raise prices in the subscription business.

Company’s net cash rose to Rs 3,000 crore in June from about Rs 2,800 crore in March.

By arrangement with Business Standard.

Charges in Telephone Case ‘Lame and Shame’, Maran Brothers Tell High Court

Charges have been framed by a CBI court based on the investigating officer’s opinion and not on materials available on record, contended senior counsel Neeraj Kishan Kaul who appeared on behalf of Dayanidhi Maran.

Chennai: Former communication minister Dayanidhi Maran and his elder brother Kalanidhi Maran told the Madras high court on Friday that charges framed against them in a case of alleged setting up of illegal telephone exchanges were “lame and shame” and wanted them to be quashed.

The CBI court here on August 30 framed charges and ordered trial of Dayanidhi Maran and six others in the case of “illegal” telephone exchanges, allegedly set up to benefit the Sun TV Network of his brother Kalanithi Maran during 2004-06.

The petitions seeking quashing of charges came up when the trial was slated to commence Friday at the CBI court.

Kaul argued that the restriction to have only three connections would apply only to MPs as per the Salaries and Allowances of Members of Parliament Act and not to a Cabinet minister.

“There is no statutory bar for a minister to have more than three telephone service connections,” he argued.

The former minister did not have 764 telephone connections as alleged by the CBI, and even if he had, there was no statutory bar against it, he said.

“In the entire charge-sheet, there is no single word saying that the connections were used by the minister. The CBI has only said that it could be used, or can be used,” Kaul said.

All the accused who are facing trial, except officials of the BSNL, have moved the Madras High Court, seeking to quash the charges framed by CBI in the illegal telephone exchange case.

Kaul also contended that there was no evidence to prove that such connections were used, adding, “telephones cannot be used for broadcast. There is absolutely no evidence to prove that the lines were used for programmes of Sun TV.”

On the charge of forgery,the counsel said the prosecution failed to explain it and which documents were forged.

Arguing on behalf of Kalanidhi Maran, senior counsel Amit Desai said Kalanidhi has been arraigned as an accused as he is the chairman of the Sun Network.

“The CBI has alleged vicarious liability by designation. But such liability cannot be automatically included when the statute does not provide for it. Both in the Indian Penal Code and Prevention of Corruption Act, there is no scope for vicarious liability,” Desai said.

Apart from the two, then additional private secretary to Dayanidhi was represented by senior counsel P Wilson and the chief technical officer of Sun TV S Kannan, by senior counsel A R L Sundresan.

The judge directed the CBI to file its counter petition and posted the matter to October 3.

The charges date back to the time when Dayanidhi Maran, a grandnephew of late DMK chief M Karunanidhi, was the Union minister for telecommunications and information technology in the UPA-1 government.

The CBI has alleged he misused his official position and got private telephone exchanges installed at his various residences here which were used for business transactions of the Sun Network.

The high court had on July 25 held there were ‘heaps’ of material evidence against the accused and had directed the special court to frame charges and conclude the trial within a year.

The bench had given its order on a CBI plea, challenging the discharge of the accused by Special Judge S Natarajan on March 14 this year.

(PTI)

SC Asks Former Union Minister Maran to Face Trial for ‘Illegal’ Telephone Exchanges

The CBI has alleged that Dayanidhi misused his official position and got private telephone exchanges installed at his residences in Chennai, which were then used for Sun Network’s business transactions.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court today dismissed former union telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran’s plea and asked him to face trial in the case connected to the alleged setting up of “illegal” telephone exchanges to benefit his brother Kalanithi Maran’s Sun TV Network.

Maran had challenged the Madras high court’s July 25 decision setting aside a CBI court order discharging him in the case.

A bench of justices Ranjan Gogoi, R. Banumathi and Navin Sinha said that it was not inclined to interfere in the matter and that all the allegations could be dealt with during the trial.

The case relates to when Dayanidhi, a grandnephew of DMK chief M. Karunanidhi, was minister for communications and information technology in the UPA-1 government.

The CBI has alleged that he misused his official position and got private telephone exchanges installed at his residences in Chennai. These were used for Sun Network’s business transactions.

According to the CBI, over 700 high-end telecommunication lines were installed at Maran’s residences in the Boat Club and Gopalapuram areas of the city for which bills were not raised, causing a loss of Rs 1.78 crore to the exchequer.

The special CBI court had on March 14 discharged the Maran brothers and five other accused, holding that there was no prima facie case against them.

The other accused are former BSNL general manager K. Brahmanathan, former deputy general manager M.P. Velusamy, Dayanidhi Maran’s private secretary Gauthaman and some Sun TV officials.

Allowing the CBI’s appeal against their discharge, the Madras high court had directed the special court to frame charges and conclude the trial within a year from the date of receipt of the copy of the high court order.

Kalanithi Maran, a billionaire businessman, is the chairman and founder of the Sun Group, which owns several media houses.

Security Clearance to Sun TV May Compromise Economic Security

The AG was approached by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry to seek the opinion after the Home Ministry denied security clearance to the network

New Delhi: Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi’s opinion favouring security clearance to Sun TV has raised concerns among Home Ministry officials as they fear it might compromise the country’s “economic security”.

The charges of money laundering are viewed very seriously across the world as it directly affects economic security of any country and Sun TV’s promoters Kalanithi Maran and his brother former Union minister Dayanidhi Maran, facing a probe of similar nature, official sources said here today.

Economic security is not different from national security as defined by the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

The Home Ministry took the decision at the highest level after careful considerations of relevant provisions of the UAPA vis-a-vis the offences being probed against the Maran brothers, the sources said.

They said the Ministry will stick to its position but remained non-committal whether it would review the decision if a fresh request comes from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting along with the AG’s opinion.

“We do not give licences. We only give security clearances. The I&B Ministry is free to take a call depending on the AG’s opinion,” a source said.

The AG has supported grant of security clearance to 33 channels of Sun TV network, saying the corruption and money laundering cases being investigated against the Marans cannot be ground to deny it.

The Maran brothers are facing a CBI probe over alleged allotment of 300 high-speed BSNL telephone lines to their installations. There are two other pending criminal probes against Sun TV Network and Kalanithi Maran — CBI’s Aircel- Maxis case and an Enforcement Directorate case of money laundering.

The AG was approached by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry to seek the opinion after the Home Ministry denied security clearance to the network.

In his opinion, the Attorney General has said that security clearance can be granted as agencies are probing cases related to corruption and not security. Hence, he said, corruption cases cannot be the ground to deny security clearance.

The I&B Ministry issues broadcasting licences for which companies require a security nod from MHA. The network had applied to the I&B Ministry for renewing its broadcasting licence for 10 years for which it needed the MHA nod.

Get Wired 9/6: Appointing Judges, Sun TV Shadowed, Nepal’s New Constitution and More

CBDT closing in on ex-UPA Minister

Source: bixnews

The Central board for Direct Taxes (CBDT) is probing details of people whose name has been linked to Swiss accounts in the details revealed by the French government. Among the hundreds of names, special attention is being paid to the account of ex-UPA Minister Preneet Kaur, who had earlier said that she had no Swiss account. Fresh notices have been sent to her, and her husband, Congress MP Amarinder Singh, by tax authorities. Their son Ranindr Singh is also being questioned and the CBDT has approached the Swiss authorities for details of bank accounts maintained by the family.

The executive appoints judges, govt tells SC

Source

In the case examining the validity of the law establishing the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC), the government through Attorney General Mukul Rohtagi told a constitutional bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Justic K S Khehar that the President’s role in the appointment of judges was merely ceremonial and that the decision is supposed to be made by the Council of Ministers and the Prime Minster. Rohtagi argued that under the Collegium system, judges appointed judges, something that was never thought of as a judicial function by the framers of our Constitution. The SC had, in 1993, effective introduced the collegiate system through a judgment, and the system was in place until the amendments to the Constitution that introduced the NJAC.

Sun TV under solar eclipse as govt refuses clearances

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has refused to grant security clearances to 33 channels run by the Sun network of the Maran family. The decision was taken following criminal charges against the Marans made by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate. Earlier, a similar decision of the MHA was set aside by the Madras High Court which stated that if clearances were not being granted for security reason, the clearances of the broadcaster must be cancelled, not the distributor. The decision of the MHA has resulted in a collapse in the share value of the Sun Group. The stock ended the day, down by nearly 22 per cent.

RSS calls for the Indian-ization of education

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) general secretary Krishna Gopal has called for a complete overhaul of the Indian education system, claiming that it needs to be infused and assimilated with Hindu thought and culture. Gopal was addressing a conference of the Hindu Education Board, an affiliate of the RSS, which was attended by HRD minister Smriti Irani, railway minister Suresh Prabhu and minister of state for finance Jayant Sinha. Irani also spoke at the event saying any attempt made in the direction of reviving education in India is seen as saffronization in India. We are ashamed of our culture, while the rest of the world applauds it, she claimed.

Surya namaskar out of Yoga day

Surya Namaskar sculpture. Source: Wikimedia Commons

The government has dropped the Surya Namaskar from the asanas that are to be performed as part of the International Yoga Day celebration drills on June 21, after sustained pressure by Muslim groups such as the All India Muslim Personal board, against what they called the enforcement of ‘Hindu religious practices’ upon the minorities. Asaduddin Owaisi, chief of the AIMIM party said that the Surya Namaskar essentially involved praying to the sun, and Muslims were not allowed to pray to anyone but Allah. Owaisi also asked why children were being put through physical strain on a day when Muslims will be observing a fast in the month of Ramazan.

New CVC, CIC appointments

KV Chowdary, former chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), has been appointed the new central vigilance commissioner. Vijai Sharma has been named the new chief information commissioner. A 1978 batch Indian Revenue Service officer, Chaudhary is currently serving as advisor to the Supreme Court-appointed special investigation team on black money, and is the first non-IAS to head the Central Vigilance Commission. Vijai Sharma is a 1974 batch IAS and by protocol was the senior most information commissioner to be next in line. The prolonged vacancy of these posts was being criticised by the opposition. But the appointments came only after the SC lifted its ban on a five month stay on them due to complaints of lack of transparency in the process.

Drone Invigilators for Chinese university exams

Chinese universities have devised a novel means in drone cameras for conducting their annual entrance tests. Also known as high-tech radio surveillance trucks, these were deployed at schools across the country to curb the menace of cheating through smartphones and other sophisticated methods. The drone is designed to catch radio signals that could indicate cheating students.

Streaming soon, Apple Music and radio stations

WWDC ’15 logo. Credit: Apple

After Spotify, Google and Amazon, next to hit the crowded online music industry is Apple, which unveiled its online streaming service on Monday at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco introduced by rapper Drake. Apple Music was built by the same team behind the Beats Music service that Apple acquired in 2014. It is set to launch in 100 countries later in June, initially available on iOS, Mac and Windows, with an Android version following in autumn. It has a three different services to provide; an online catalogue of music and videos that can be streamed on demand, a 24 hour radio station and a cross between Soundcloud and Facebook that allows fans to follow music updates and posts of their favourites. Designed with the intention of reducing fragmentation and chaos of online music service, the launch comes as a move from Apple to re-exert its dominance in digital music.

Federal structure, mixed electoral system for Nepal’s new constitution

Nepal may finally see some relief in its nearly decade long struggle for a constitution. The Nepali Congress, Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist), United Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) and the Terai-based Madhesi Front on Monday agreed in principle to having a federal structure with eight Provinces and a mixed electoral system under a new Constitution for the Himalayan nation. The parties assigned the federal commission the authority to fix boundaries of the proposed Provinces and their naming to the Federal Assembly. Also, in the agreed upon mixed electoral system , 60 per cent of the lawmakers would be elected directly through the first-past-the-post system, and the remaining 40 per cent under the proportional electoral system.

Global diabetes 45% higher since ’90; India, China record major increases

British medical journal The Lancet reported a 45% rise in the prevalence of diabetes worldwide from 1990 to 2013. Nearly all the rise was in Type 2, which is usually related to obesity and is the most common form of the disease. While the problem has been commonplace in ‘rich countries’ for several decades, directly tied to increase in rate of obesity, ‘poorer countries’ have now also begun to follow the trend, with major increases observed in China, Mexico and India. The report notes that though communicable diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis may have seen a decline in recent times, the governments of developing countries face a new challenge in investing in expensive treatment to tackle chronic diseases such as cancer and diabetes which are fast on the rise.

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