Gautam Shantilal Adani is an Indian billionaire industrialist who is the chairman and founder of the Adani Group -- an Ahmedabad-based multinational conglomerate involved in port development and operations in India. Adani is the president of the Adani Foundation, which is primarily led by his wife, Priti Adani. He founded the Adani Group in 1988 and diversified his business into resources, logistics, energy, agriculture, defence and aerospace, amongst others. According to Forbes, his net worth is estimated to be around $15.7 billion as of October 2019. He has a 66% stake in Adani Ports & SEZ Limited, 75% stake in Adani Enterprises, 73% stake in Adani Power, 75% stake in Adani Transmission. In 2019, he was ranked as the 3rd most powerful person in India by India Today. He was also declared the 2nd richest man in India by Forbes in 2019.
Early life
Gautam Adani was born on 24 June 1962 in a Jain family to Shantilal and Shanti Adani in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. He has 7 siblings and his parents had migrated from the town of Tharad in the northern part of Gujarat. His father was a textile merchant. He was educated at Sheth Chimanlal Nagindas Vidyalaya school in Ahmedabad. He enrolled in a bachelor's degree in commerce at Gujarat University, but dropped out after the second year. Adani was keen on business, but not his father's textile business.
Career
In 1978, as a teenager, Adani moved to Mumbai to work as a diamond sorter for Mahendra Brothers. He worked there for 2-3 years before establishing his own diamond brokerage firm at Zaveri Bazaar, Mumbai. In 1981, his elder brother Mansukhbhai Adani bought a plastics unit in Ahmedabad and invited him to manage the operations. This venture turned out to be Adani's gateway to global trading through polyvinyl chloride imports. In 1985, he started importing primary polymers for small-scale industries. In 1988, Adani established Adani Exports Limited, now known as Adani Enterprises Limited – the holding company of the Adani Group. Originally, the company dealt in agricultural and power commodities. In 1991, the economic liberalization policies turned out to be favorable for his company and he started expanding the businesses into trading of metals, textiles, and agro products. In 1993, the Government of Gujarat announced managerial outsourcing of the Mundra Port and in 1995, Adani got the contract. In 1995, he set up the first jetty. Originally operated by Mundra Port & Special Economic Zone, the operations were transferred to Adani Ports & SEZ Limited. Today, the company is the largest private multi-port operator. Mundra Port is the largest private sector port in India, with the capacity of handling close to 210 million tons of cargo per annum. In 1996, the power business arm of the Adani Group – Adani Power Limited was founded by Adani. Adani Power holds thermal power plants with a capacity of 4620 MW, the largest private thermal power producer of the country. In 2006, Adani entered the Power generation business. From 2009 to 2012, he acquired Carmichael Coal in Queensland and Abbot Point Port in Australia. In May 2020, Adani won the world's largest solar bid by the Solar Energy Corporation of India worth $6 billion. The 8000 MW photovoltaic power plant project will be taken up by Adani Green; and Adani Solar will establish 2000MW of additional solar cell and module manufacturing capacity.
Personal life
Gautam Adani is married to Priti Adani. He likes to read, especially books by Tony Robbins.
Philanthropy
Gautam Adani is the president of the Adani Foundation, funded through the Adani Group. It was founded in 1996. Other than Gujarat, the Foundation operates in the states of Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Odisha. In March 2020, he contributed Rs 100 crore to the PM CARES Fund through his group's philanthropy arm, to fight the Coronavirus outbreak. A contribution of Rs 5 crore was made to the Gujarat CM Relief Fund and Rs 1 crore to the Maharashtra CM Relief Fund.
Controversy
During the time of 2014 Loksabha elections of India, Adani was accused of various controversies. He was being accused of supporting Narendra Modi for his campaign in Bharatiya Janata Party. Even though claiming on national media that he has no special favours with Modi, Modi was seen traveling on Adani group's chartered planes to rallies across India. To counter this allegation, Adani spoke out in an interview with CNBC and clarified that the BJP paid market price to Adani Group for using its aviation services. It was alleged that the NDA government was favouring Adani by allegedly waiving Rs. 200 crore fine on Adani Port and SEZ. Adani, later, in an interview clarified the fine has not been dropped and the government is not favouring Adani either. He further clarified that the mine is owned by Rajasthan Government, and Adani Group is just the mine contractor.
