India is Fishing Again

@BigCatFinance: India is fishing again.
They invited four Chinese companies to participate in their super power project, resulting in millions of netizens leaving comments saying, "Don't go, absolutely do not go."
India's bidding is also quite interesting; they stated that enterprises from seven neighboring countries wanting to participate in Indian projects must obtain approval, and everyone knows who this is targeting.
This is India's largest thermal power plant bidding to date, reportedly exceeding $100 billion in scale. China's current round of massive power infrastructure construction looks incredibly impressive, and India wants to cross the river by feeling China's stones.
However, the major projects will definitely go to Indian companies; only things they can't handle, like high-voltage transformers, will be put up for bidding. Even though the orders are worth tens of billions of dollars, everyone is trembling. India's nickname as a "foreign investment graveyard" isn't for nothing; you do the work but still can't get paid.

Moreover, there is a glaring recent example: a 1 billion final payment was withheld, and instead, they demanded we pay them 2.7 billion in compensation.
In 2008, Shanghai Electric won an Indian project with a total contract value of over 9 billion. It was completed in 2015, but the Indians stubbornly refused to pay the 1 billion final payment.
Dragging it out until 2019, Shanghai Electric applied for arbitration to get their money. But unexpectedly, the Indians counterattacked, claiming that Shanghai Electric had severely breached the contract. Not only would they not pay the final payment, but they also demanded 2.7 billion in compensation.
What were their reasons?
1. They claimed the equipment had quality defects and the units frequently shut down, which not only lost them a lot of electricity sales revenue but also required paid repairs;
2. They claimed the commissioning of Unit 3 was severely delayed, causing a loss of $220 million in electricity revenue;
3. They claimed late delivery resulted in hefty penalty fees.
These costs added up to a claim of 2.7 billion.
Shanghai Electric must have been so angry they laughed, because this project had been operating stably for years, with massive amounts of money lining the Indians' pockets, yet now they were biting the hand that fed them.

Fortunately, the two parties had agreed to arbitration in Singapore, so an investigation was conducted.
The Singapore arbitration tribunal spent several years and finally issued a ruling this June, directly slapping India in the face.
1. The unit shutdowns were mainly due to India's poor management, substandard coal quality, and supporting facility defects;
2. The delay in commissioning Unit 3 was mainly due to multiple factors, including the Indian side's lagging on-site civil construction and supporting facilities, and insufficient cooperation from Indian personnel. India's so-called $220 million loss in electricity revenue was unfounded.
3. The delivery delays were caused by communication changes between the two parties and the Indian side's temporary adjustments to technical parameters; it cannot be determined that Shanghai Electric unilaterally breached the contract.
The arbitration was very clear: the primary responsibility lies with India, and there is no basis for demanding money from Shanghai Electric; not a single cent needs to be paid.
Although India was rebuffed, given their temperament—where not picking up money on the street is considered a loss—it will be extremely difficult for Shanghai Electric to recover that 1 billion final payment.

Actually, this is nothing new. India currently covets China's power, photovoltaic, and high-speed rail technologies and desperately wants to acquire them.
The most typical previous case was Baoding Tianwei Baobian Electric. They invested heavily in equipment and production lines, exported a full set of core technologies, blueprints, and processes, and even provided in-depth training for 300 Indian engineers. As a result, the Indians took the blueprints and engineers, started their own operation, and directly announced that they had also mastered UHV transmission technology. Although their UHV lines experience constant failures, we still feel that losing a few billion isn't a big deal; the greater loss is having the technology stolen by India.
Now India has cast its hook again. Who do you think would dare to go this time?