The Quint Uncovers: Our Best Investigative Reports From 2017

Here is a recap of the most important stories uncovered by The Quint.

From politics and scams to health and education, nothing could be taken on the face of it in 2017. In an attempt to bring out the whole picture, The Quint dug deep into several such stories.

Chopper Scam World Exclusive: ‘I Never Bribed SP Tyagi,’ says Haschke

In an exclusive telephonic interview with The Quint, Guido Haschke, the alleged middleman in the AgustaWestland VVIP Chopper scam, denies paying a bribe to former Air Force Chief SP Tyagi. (Photo: Lijumol Joseph/The Quint)

In his first ever telephonic interview to any media organisation, Guido Haschke, the alleged middleman in the Rs 3,600-crore AgustaWestland chopper scam, told The Quint that no bribe was ever paid, or asked for, by former Air Force Chief SP Tyagi.

No money was ever paid by me or my partner (Carlo Gerosa) to Air Chief Marshal Tyagi. He has never been paid a single penny nor did he ever ask for money, directly or indirectly.

Guido Haschke to <b>The Quint</b>

Read the full story.

The Hidden Costs of Ryan International School’s Success: Part 1

The Ryan International School murder case in Gurugram brought the question of children’s safety to the fore. (Photo: PTI)

In a multi-part series, The Quint explored the explosion of the privately-run Ryan ‘International’ Schools over the past few decades, and what it means for quality of education, safety of children, fair play by the administration and other factors.

We discovered that the even though it has humble origins, the group saw exponential growth on the back of lakhs of supportive parents.

In a little over 40 years, the Pintos established over 180+ K-12 English-medium schools in India and five in West Asia. These include the prestigious Ryan schools and the St Xavier’s chain of schools as well. It employs 18,000 faculty members, who educate 2,70,000 students. A total of 30,000 students graduate from Ryan schools annually, and the group opens four to five new schools a year.

Read Part 1, 2 and 3.

Vibrant Gujarat Investments? RTI Shows They Don’t Want You to Know

The government stonewalling RTI queries could indicate that maybe the government’s numbers are not as vibrant.(Photo: Saumya Pankaj/The Quint)

"What are the actual investments made in the Vibrant Gujarat summits over the years?” I thought to myself in the morning meeting when it was decided we would file RTIs to get the exact number.

The Quint filed RTIs to Gujarat government departments to get the magic number. Why is this important? Because, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fought and won the 2014 Lok Sabha elections by campaigning on the Gujarat model of development. The Vibrant Gujarat summits are one of the key features of this model.

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Exclusive: Data Doesn’t Lie, CBSE Caught Cheating Yet Again

(Photo: The Quint)

CBSE Class XII results of 2017, accessed and analysed by data scientists, conclusively demonstrated that the board had unfairly and unequally spiked the marks of its students yet another year, following a decade-long tradition of tampering with students’ marks to appear high-scoring.

This happened after the CBSE and 31 other school boards agreed to do away with the practice of bumping up or spiking students’ marks to show higher scoring results from 2017.

Is it fair to put students scoring 95 on par with students scoring less? Especially when college admissions hinge on as little a difference as half a percent.

Read the full story.

PM Modi’s Seaplane Flew in From Karachi to Take Him to Dharoi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi waves to the crowd as he boards a seaplane on the Sabarmati river front in Ahmedabad on Tuesday. (Photo: PTI)

While Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused Congress leaders of holding a "secret meeting" with some Pakistani officials, The Quint uncovered that a seaplane used by him on Tuesday, 12 December, was "near Karachi" on 3 December before it flew into Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji airport at 7:45 pm that evening.

Other than the flight path and origins of the plane, there were other questions regarding the seaplane, like were security norms breached when the particular aircraft was requisitioned?

Read the full story.

Modi@3: Only 1/10th of Ganga Clean-Up Budget Spent So Far

(Photo: iStock)The young and the old celebrate together the confluence of ignorance towards filth and religious fervor with a dip into the Ganga.

The Quint carried out an investigation to see how the Rs 20,000 crore project to clean the Ganga, Namami Gange, fared on the ground. Data from the Ministry of Water Resources showed dangerously slow progress for the project.

The report received a response from the Ministry of Water Resources, which was published and later responded to by The Quint.

Read the full story.

Exclusive: Greedy Doctors of Death and an Urban ‘Hospital Bazaar’

Chanchal Singh’s son died before she could ever see him.(Photo Courtesy: Devendra Singh)

The Quint travelled to Agra to investigate medical care facilities in various hospitals located in the Trans Yamuna colony. In the past, several deaths of new born have been reported in these hospitals. On a 1.8 km stretch, more than 46 private hospitals put the lives of their patients at risk by compromising on qualification and flouting norms.

Here, we discovered greedy hospital authorities refusing to refer patients even when they turn critical. A BSc graduate who treats patients and signs prescriptions. A hospital functioning out of a building still under construction. In short, human lives at risk. All while the authorities look away.

Read the full story.

India Spends Just 0.3% of Its Environment Budget on Research: RTI

The ministry has rubbished studies of deaths due to pollution, even as it has failed to commission any study of its own on this big question.(Photo: Harsh Sahani/The Quint)

Of 8,00,000 deaths in South East Asia due to pollution in 2012, 6,20,000, or a massive 77% were from India, according to a WHO 2016 report. A Greenpeace report says 3,300 Indians died everyday in 2015 due to pollution, taking the number to 12 lakh in the year.

To seek answers on how seriously the Ministry of Environment was taking pollution and deaths associated with it, The Quint filed RTIs to find out if the government has conducted any research on deaths due to, or closely related to, pollution.

Read the full story.

While Deaths Mount, Ministry Cites Lack of Data to Tackle Floods

The Quint filed RTIs to find out what the Centre is doing to contain the loss of life and property due to urban flooding. (Photo: The Quint/Susnata Paul)

The Quint filed Right to Information (RTI) applications to ascertain whether guidelines issued by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to tackle urban flooding were being followed, six years after they were released.

The response revealed that the Ministry of Urban Development, the nodal agency, seriously lags behind in terms of city flooding preparedness.

For starters, the Ministry of Urban Development needs to have data in hand to reduce the impact of urban flooding. However, in response to The Quint’s RTI query, the committee responsible admits that there is no reliable data for the assessment of the flood situation.

The nodal agency doesn’t have records of states and cities which have experienced urban flooding. A query seeking the names and number of places that have faced urban flooding from 2010 to 2016 garnered the response: “The respective department has no data maintained in this regard.”

Read the full story.