Ann: Mt Bevan Joint Venture Update , page-15

India is facing a huge balance of payments crises with very serious implications for investments abroad, especially by government controlled firms.

Even if NMDC has the money and the appetite to go ahead with the MB project they would be refused permission by their government to do so. If you look at Legacy's announcement made today you can see that they had to approach City Bank for a loan of no more than 2.7 million Aussie dollars, a loan guarantied by NMDC.

Haw must know this and may be inclined to take as much advantage from the situation as possible. NMDC may have billions of rupees, but without being able to convert them into Aussie dollars it cannot be considered as a viable partner for the MB project. And if you cannot be a viable partner, here is some money and either get out or assume a minority interest. That seems to be imo a possible interpretation of what is going on.

http://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/india-s-unique-crisis-i-113082301158_1.html