NEW DELHI: Funding by US Agency for International Development (USAID), which has been under attack from the Trump administration for promoting a “left, liberal and woke” agenda abroad, has come under ED’s scanner in connection with an ongoing probe against hedge fund operator George Soros.
ED, which was probing three Bengaluru-based companies for alleged breach of Foreign Exchange Management Act in receiving Rs 25 crore from Soros Economic Development Fund, has found that one of those, ASAR Social Impact Advisors, also received Rs 8 crore from USAID as foreign inward remittance in 2022-23.
Montek, Prabhu trustees of think tank cited by Soros-funded company
The three companies received Soros’s funds between 2021 and 2024. Sources said ASAR explained that the USAID funding was reimbursement for the services it provided to a Delhi-based public policy think tank, Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), which, according to its website, is focused on “understanding global challenges and implications for India’s development”.
CEEW has former deputy chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Suresh Prabhu, who served as a minister in the first Modi govt, as its trustees.
ASAR officials were unable to explain the nature of services provided to CEEW and how USAID came into the picture. ASAR and CEEW did not respond to TOI’s queries on the ED probe.
Sources identified Rootbridge Services Pvt Ltd and Rootbridge Academy Ltd as the other two Bengaluru-based companies that had received funding from SEDF, which is the impact investment arm of Open Society Foundations, one of the several entities founded by Soros.
ED is looking for the motive and purpose of these payments made by USAID. Sources said Open Society Foundations was placed under ‘prior reference category’ by the home ministry in 2016 on account of “undesirable activities” – a categorisation which required it to seek prior sanction from the ministry in order to contribute funds to any Indian non-profit organisation.
With regard to ASAR and the two other Bengaluru-based entities, ED probe will also look into whether OSF complied with the mandatory requirement. The agency is also probing Soros’s funding of Indian civil rights organisations, think tanks and other entities in the garb of foreign direct investments.
