GEORGE SOROS'S $50 MILLION INDIA PLAN SURFACES IN STRATEGY DOCUMENT

Internal strategy documents accessed by The Sunday Guardian show that a pledge of up to US$50 million, approximately Rs 455 crore at current exchange rates, was earmarked for work in India by the Open Society Foundations headed by controversial billionaire George Soros under the Asia Pacific Regional Office Executive Strategy that was built for 2021-24.

- ABHINANDAN MISHRA

The Asia Pacific Regional Office functions as the regional arm of the Open Society Foundations for the Asia-Pacific region. It develops strategic plans, allocates regional funding and coordinates grant-making and programmatic activities across the region. The strategy document accessed by this newspaper forms part of that regional planning framework.

The document states that George Soros pledged up to US$50 million for work in India under an initiative titled "Endow Lasting Power in India." The strategy indicates that the funding would be deployed in collaboration with the Economic Justice Program to use impact investment for building sustainable infrastructure for open society advocates and strengthening independent media.

The Economic Justice Program is a thematic program within the Open Society Foundations that focuses on economic justice and equitable development. It combines grant making with impact investment approaches aimed at building financially sustainable institutions aligned with open society principles. In this context, its involvement suggests that the India allocation was designed not only as traditional grant support capital-backed, long-term ecosystem financing.