Essar Group and the Ruia family once controlled the corporate environment in India. They were present in all industries, including steel, power, ports, shipping, IT, and telecom. Essar was likely India's third largest corporate behemoth in early 2002, after the formidable TATA empire and the unstoppable Reliance Industries. The financial world was awash with praise for Ruias. Banks from both domestic and foreign countries lined up to offer lines of credit to projects sponsored by the Ruias. They were also the focus of the foreign direct investments going to India. The wind was knocked out of Ruias' sails starting in 2010 when a series of outside factors—the CAG reports on 2G and Coalgate, which in turn led to Supreme Court orders cancelling the telecom licences and coal block allocations, a sudden UPA II policy reversal restricting natural gas supply to the steel sector, and a cyclical decline in the global steel market—took place. Essar lost Rs 2,000 crore annually as a result of having to acquire costly gas from the spot market since the long-term gas supply arrangement for its 10 million tonnes per year Gujarat sponge steel factory was not available. The Rs 40,000 crore plant overnight lost its commercial viability, resulting in defaults on bank loans. To make matters worse, steel prices around the world plunged to crisis levels.