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Gautam Adani

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Gautam Adani
Born (1962-06-24) 24 June 1962 (age 62)
Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India
NationalityIndian
Occupation(s)Founder and Chairman of the Adani Group
Known forAdani Group
SpousePriti Adani
ChildrenKaran Adani
Jeet Adani

Gautam Adani (Gujarati:ગૌતમ અદાણી ; born 24 June 1962) is an Indian entrepreneur and billionaire who is the Chairman of Adani Group. The Adani Group is a globally integrated infrastructure player with businesses spanning coal trading, coal mining, oil & gas exploration, ports, multi-modal logistics, power generation & transmission and gas distribution.[3] With business experience, of more than 33 years, Gautam Adani is an Indian entrepreneur who has led the Adani group from a modest background to create a $8 billion professionally managed empire in a relatively short period of time.[4]

He is said to be among the 100 most influential businessmen worldwide in the shipping trade and developing shipping related infrastructure. He has also been recognized for establishing the modern Mundra port which was selected as the best port in 2006 by the oldest and the most influential British publication for shipping business, Lloyd.[5][6]

Early life

Gautam Adani was born into a Gujarati Jain family on 24 June 1962 in the Seth ni Pol area located in Ratanpol in Ahmedabad. He is the son of Shantilal and Shanta Adani and has seven siblings. His parents had migrated from the town of Tharad in the northern part of Gujarat India.[6]

Career

Instead of joining his father’s textile unit in Ahmedabad, Gautam Adani moved to Mumbai. He started his career working as a diamond sorter at Mahindra Brothers for 2 years and then went on to set up his own diamond brokerage business in Mumbai, India. The trading initiative was a success and he made his first million within a year, at the age of 20, a big amount during the 1980s.[6]

Mahasukh Adani, Gautam’s elder brother and an entrepreneur, called Gautam back to Ahmedabad to run his newly purchased plastic factory.

Soon, Gautam began commodity trading by importing Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC), a key raw material for manufacturing plastic.[5][6]

Adani Group

In 1988, he established Adani Exports Limited (now known as the Adani Enterprises Ltd), the flagship company of the Adani Group, that traded in a variety of power and agricultural commodities. The economic liberalization in 1991 fuelled the rapid growth of the business and the huge profitability of Adani Exports provided further capital for Gautam Adani to expand his business.[6]

In 1993, the Government of Gujarat invited private companies to run the Mundra Port and in 1995 the contract was given to Adani Group. Today, Mundra Port is the largest Private Sector port in India, with capability of handling close to 80 million tonnes of cargo per annum.[6]

Gautam Adani is also the founder and promoter of Adani Power Ltd (APL), a power business arm of Adani Group. Adani Power has thermal power plants with capacity of 4620 MW, the largest private thermal power producer of the country. It is also the largest solar power producer of India with capacity 40MW.[6][7]

Philanthropy

In 1996, Gautam Adani set up the Adani Foundation as the Corporate Social Responsibility arm of the Adani Group for undertaking activities to ensure sustainable development and create harmony with people residing in the neighborhood of the Group's operations. The Group invests ~3% of profit in community initiatives through the Adani Foundation. Adani Foundation operates in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh. It is active in field of community health, rural infrastructure development, sustainable livelihood and education like Adani Institute of Infrastructure Management in Ahmedabad and the Gujarat Adani Institute of Medical Sciences in Bhuj.[8]

Controversy

During the time of 2014 Loksabha elections of India Goutam Adani was accused of various controversies. He is being accused of supporting Narendra Modi for his campaign in Bharatiya Janata Party.[9] Even though claiming on national media that he has no special favors with Modi,[10] Modi was seen traveling on Adani group's chartered planes to rallies across India.[11][12] To counter this allegation, Mr Adani spoke out in an interview with CNBC and clarified that the BJP paid market price to Adani Group for using its aviation services.[13]

Supposedly, Adani Group was given lands at throw away rates for their infrastructure and expansions.[9] He has given an interview to NDTV journalist. On the interview, it is claimed that Adani was given the land at a price three time lower than the market price then.[14].

There are both sides of views on this issue. An article by Economic Timesdescribes how the allegations against Mr Gautam Adani do not make any sense. According to this article, Adani bought land that was largely non-agricultural and barren, though mangroves existed in some portion of the 15,000 acres. Located close to the sea, a large chunk of it was salty with very little meaningful cultivation. Moreover, this land was bought 20 years ago! The same is not true for the land bought by Tata and Ford who paid a higher price for better land purchased many years later.[15]

Another article by FirstPost mentions that the report scrutinizing Adani Group's records contains factual inaccuracies and half-truths. It has proved, how the article carried by Forbes is factually incorrect. The article explains how Adani Group has secured the land in a legal manner. [16][17]

References

  1. ^ Profile
  2. ^ "Indian Billionaire's Wealth Tripled in Eight Months". Bloomberg. 2014-05-06. Retrieved 2014-05-07.
  3. ^ "adani enterprises ltd (ADANIENT:National Stock Exchange of India)". Bloomberg Businessweek.
  4. ^ "Billionaire who Beat the System". India Today. August 20, 2011.
  5. ^ a b "Gautam Adani". Success Stories. July 16, 2011.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Mehta, Harit (2014-04-10). "Gautam Adani, the baron to watch out for if Narendra Modi becomes king". The Times of India. Retrieved 2014-04-10.
  7. ^ "APL synchronises country's first supercritical power plant". Economic Times. December 23, 2010.
  8. ^ "Adani staff donate blood". Business Line. June 29, 2011.
  9. ^ a b http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Home/Lok-Sabha-Elections-2014/News/Allegations-political-didnt-get-land-at-Re-1-from-Modi-Adani/articleshow/34340833.cms
  10. ^ http://indianexpress.com/article/india/politics/adani-says-got-no-special-favours-from-narendra-modi/
  11. ^ http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Modi-flies-only-on-Gujarat-Inc-money/articleshow/2413018.cms
  12. ^ http://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/1zcrzn/can_someone_explain_why_modi_is_using_adanis/
  13. ^ http://www.onlinenewsvideo.net/gautam-adani-interview_ff993659f.html
  14. ^ http://www.ndtv.com/elections/article/election-2014/does-gujarat-government-s-own-data-show-adani-group-got-land-cheap-515451
  15. ^ http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/lok-sabha-elections-2014/news/Criticism-of-SEZ-land-price-unfortunate-Gautam-Adani/articleshow/33529906.cms
  16. ^ http://www.firstpost.com/politics/fact-check-heres-why-adani-may-not-have-received-a-sweetheart-deal-from-modi-1439607.html
  17. ^ http://www.onlinenewsvideo.net/gautam-adani-interview_ff993659f.html

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