Anil Agarwal on Governance

Vedanta's environmental and human-rights record drew sustained criticism. An Indian Supreme Court committee in 2004 cited thousands of tons of arsenic-bearing slag dumped near a Tamil Nadu factory; another in 2005 alleged forced displacement of indigenous families in Odisha for bauxite, with the Church of England selling its shares in protest. In Zambia, Vedanta was sued by 2,000 residents over Kafue River pollution from its copper mine.

In May 2018, protests against Sterlite's Thoothukudi (Tuticorin) copper smelter on environmental grounds culminated in police opening fire, killing 13 people. The Justice Aruna Jagadeesan Commission later found no specific evidence directly linking Sterlite to instigating the violence, but the episode damaged Vedanta's social license and led to the smelter's closure.

Agarwal pushed back on the 'not environment-friendly' perception, arguing that Western critics preferred India as a buyer of their goods and services rather than as a producer. He cited Vedanta's FTI Consulting Disclosure Index 2016 ranking among India's top five companies as evidence of governance quality — a counter-narrative to the Supreme Court committee findings and Odisha displacement allegations.

Asked how he manages complexity across metals, oil and multiple geographies, Agarwal's answer was deliberately unfashionable: keep the business simple, trust people and empower them. He installs strong operating leaders, gives them room and authority, and refuses to let organizational structures grow complicated — a stance BCG interviewer Janmejaya Sinha called a profound statement on complexity management.

Despite Vedanta's portfolio diversity — zinc, lead, silver, copper, iron ore, aluminium, power, oil and gas across multiple continents — Agarwal has insisted on operational simplicity: strong leaders in the field, a flat structure, and trust as the operating system. The discipline of refusing to add organizational complexity has been, in his view, the precondition for surviving commodity cycles.