GAUTAM ADANI

BIOGRAPHY
FULL NAME: GAUTAM SHANTILAL ADANI
BIRTH DATE: JUNE 24, 1962
PLACE OF BIRTH: AHMEDABAD, GUJARAT, INDIA
KNOWN FOR: FOUNDER AND CHAIRMAN, ADANI
GROUP

PRESIDENT, ADANI FOUNDATION

COLLEGE/ UNIVERSITY: GUJARAT UNIVERSITY, INDIA
PARENTS: SHANTILAL ADANI & SHANTI ADANI
MARITAL STATUS: MARRIED
SPOUSE: PRITI ADANI
CHILDREN: KARAN ADANI & JEET ADANI
NET WORTH: $ 54.7B (REAL TIME 10/1/23) FORBES
SOURCE OF WEALTH: INFRASTRUCTURE,

COMMODITIES, SELF MADE

 Adani’s career began in 1978 in Bombay (now Mumbai
), where he joined the diamond industry after dropping out of
school at the age of 16. In 1979 he began trading diamonds,
and by 1982 he had made his first million rupees. That same
year he returned to Ahmedabad to work at a plastic factory
operated by his brother Mansuklal. The family company
began importing polyvinyl chloride in 1983 to meet the
demands of its business. The union government’s relaxation
of import licenses in 1985 proved a boon for the company. As
its imports and exports continued to grow, the Adanis set up
partnership firms in 1988 to manage the flow and were later
aided by the Gujarat State Export Corporation.
 The business relationship between Adani and the state
of Gujarat grew increasingly cordial in the 2000s. Early in
the decade, Adani was one of the businessmen in the state
who came to the rescue of the embattled chief minister of
Gujarat , Narendra Modi, who was steeped in controversy
despite overseeing the state’s booming economy. Modi faced
criticism in particular for doing little to stop the killing of
more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, in the 2002 Gujarat
riots. In response to his handling of the riots, Modi came
under fire in 2003 from India’s powerful trade
association, the Confederation of Indian Industry, which
threatened to disinvest from the state of Gujarat.
 Adani, however, not only continued to invest in Gujarat
throughout the scandal, but he helped set up a new organization that
diluted the influence of CII in the state. Moreover, he was a founding
member of the biennial Vibrant Gujarat summit, which brought
together business leaders to encourage collaboration in investing in
Gujarat. The rapid industrialization in Gujarat, along with the state’s
business-friendly environment relative to the rest of India, became a
significant factor in Modi’s later rise to prime minister.

Modi, meanwhile, continued to favour Adani and his business

empire. After he was elected prime minister in May 2014, Modi flew to
New Delhi on Adani’s private jet.
 In July 2014 Adani received his first major reprieve from the new BJP-
led union government. He secured environmental clearances for the Adani
Group’s special economic zone in Mundra. Adani won contracts for all six
airports. His successful bid led to accusations of cronyism; however, the
government maintained that the process was transparent and the Adani
Group won fairly by bidding aggressively.
From 2020 to the end of 2022, as a large shareholder of his
companies, Adani’s net worth surged from about $10 billion to $125 billion. In
late 2022 Adani reached a deal to gain a controlling share of New Delhi
Television Ltd. , one of India’s most prominent news media companies.

In January 2023 a report from the activist short-selling research firm

Hindenburg Research alleged that the Adani Group had engaged in
significant stock manipulation and fraud.