India’s economy is closely tied to Mr Adani, the country’s leading infrastructure tycoon. It operates 13 ports (30% market share), seven airports (23% passenger traffic) and India’s second largest cement business (20% market share).
With six coal-fired power plants, Mr. Adani is the largest private player in India’s energy sector. At the same time, it has pledged to invest $50 billion in green hydrogen and is laying an 8,000-km (4,970-mile) gas pipeline. He is also building India’s longest expressway and redeveloping India’s largest slum. It employs more than 45,000 people, but its business impacts millions across the country.
Mr Adani’s global ambitions include coal mines in Indonesia and Australia, airport and energy projects in Kenya and Morocco. The group is counting on infrastructure projects in Tanzania and Kenya worth more than a billion dollars.
Mr. Adani’s portfolio closely mirrors Modi’s policy priorities, starting with infrastructure and most recently expanding into clean energy. He has succeeded despite critics calling his business empire crony capitalism, pointing to his close ties to Modi, both as chief minister of Gujarat, where they are both from, and as prime minister. Minister of India. (Like any successful businessman, Mr. Adani has also forged ties with many opposition leaders by investing in their states.)
“It (allegations of bribery) is big. Mr Adani and Modi have been inseparable for a long time. It will affect the political economy of India,” says Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, an Indian journalist who has written extensively about the business group.
