Bloomberg Originals

Modi Promised to Clean the Ganges. This Is What Happened

Modi

A decade-long Bloomberg News investigation into Prime Minister Narendra Modi's $4.5 billion Namami Gange initiative reveals that water quality has deteriorated across most of the 1,900-kilometer river system despite extensive infrastructure spending. Satellite data and independent chemical testing in key locations like Haridwar, Kanpur, and Varanasi indicate worsening turbidity, persistent sewage discharge, and dangerous levels of heavy metals that threaten public health and local ecosystems. Experts conclude that with only half of the allocated funds utilized by 2025 and ongoing industrial flouting of norms, the project's current trajectory is failing to achieve the stated goal of restoring the river to a safe state for bathing or agriculture.

The Billionaire Who Transformed India’s Telecom Market | Leaders with Francine Lacqua

Francine Lacqua, Sunil Bharti Mittal

Bharti Airtel founder Sunil Mittal navigated India's telecom sector through two disruptive eras, surviving Reliance's 2001 price war and the 2016 Jio disruption by securing $18 billion in capital and consolidating a ten-player market into three dominant operators. Beyond domestic dominance, Mittal expanded Airtel into a multinational entity across 16 African nations and pioneered sovereign connectivity by merging OneWeb and Eutelsat into a non-aligned Low Earth Orbit satellite constellation. Looking ahead, he advocates for tariff hikes to ensure industry sustainability while positioning Bharti Global to lead the evolution toward financial services and data centers in a shifting global trade landscape.

Why Is Everyone Leaving New Zealand?

In 2025 and early 2026, New Zealand experienced a historic surge in skilled emigration to Australia as a 30-plus demographic left established careers to pursue wages up to 40% higher abroad. This brain drain is driven by structural economic failures, including a collapsed housing bubble, severe capital misallocation in real estate, and inflation that outpaces wage growth across the domestic market. While the government seeks to retain talent and attract diaspora investment through productivity reforms, the exodus has already left over one million New Zealanders, or 20% of the population, living overseas.

Renee Montgomery on Her Move From WNBA Player to Owner | The Deal

Renee Montgomery, Alex Rodriguez, Jason Kelly

Following a strategic pivot from her playing career to executive leadership in 2020, Angel McCoughtry secured the Atlanta Dream's ownership by leveraging her playing history and high-profile connections to secure an active Vice President role with guaranteed decision-making authority. Operating under significant capital constraints, she has prioritized operational growth through an employee quadrupling, a temporary relocation to State Farm Arena, and strategic investments in name, image, and likeness ventures to stabilize the franchise's financial footing. Looking forward, McCoughtry identifies broadcast visibility on major networks and international market expansion as the critical drivers required to transition the WNBA from its historical stagnation into sustainable long-term growth.

Waymo’s Bet on a Driverless Future | The Circuit with Emily Chang

Emily Chang, Tekedra Mawakana, Amanda Bell

Waymo Co-CEO Takedra Mawakana outlines the company's rapid expansion to over 500,000 weekly autonomous trips and its deployment of 16 vehicles per minute in San Francisco, supported by a dual-leadership structure and a LiDAR-based safety system that records 68% fewer crashes than human drivers. Despite facing public skepticism and regulatory scrutiny regarding Chinese manufacturing partners and overseas remote operators, the firm defends its "superhuman safety" goal and hybrid commercialization strategy while licensing technology to competitors. Ultimately, Waymo aims to shift consumer expectations toward autonomous mobility as a standard, prioritizing consistent service quality and safety improvements over price competition while navigating labor dynamics with traditional ride-hailing services.

The World's Most Aggressive EV Push Isn't in China | Bloomberg Primer

Enacting an immediate overnight ban on new gasoline and diesel imports to address a severe balance-of-payments crisis, Ethiopia became the first nation to eliminate fossil fuel vehicle imports without a gradual phase-out. Driven by cheap hydroelectric power from the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and strategic partnerships with China, the country witnessed a rapid surge in electric vehicle adoption, raising the EV share of new registrations to over 60% in 2024. Despite these gains and early assembly operations, the transition faces challenges including high purchase costs relative to low national incomes, limited electricity access, and emerging regional security threats.