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NEW DELHI (AP) — Asia’s richest man, Gautam Adani, made his vast fortune betting on coal as energy-hungry India grew rapidly after liberalizing its economy in the 1990s.
It has now set its sights on becoming the world’s largest renewable energy player by 2030, skillfully aligning its investments with government priorities.
As India grapples with climate change, Adani Group, whose operations also include ports, power, agriculture and defense manufacturing, plans to invest $70 billion in solar, wind and other green energy projects over the next decade.
Adani, 60, has profited since fellow Gujarati Narendra Modi, India’s most influential prime minister in decades, took office in 2014.
College dropouts from middle-class families fit the government’s need for “national champions,” both to achieve domestic goals and to partner with the private sector in strategic projects outside India, said Mihir Sharma, an economist at the Observer Research Foundation, a New York-based think tank. in Delhi.
FILE – Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani speaks during the inauguration of the 9th Gujarat World Summit in Gandhinagar, India, January 18, 2019. Asia’s richest man, Gautam Adani, made his vast fortune betting on coal as energy-hungry India grew after liberalization its economy in the 1990s. It has now set its sights on becoming the world’s largest renewable energy player by 2030, skillfully aligning its investments with the government’s own priorities. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki, File)
Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS/Ajit Solanki
FILE – Adani Group Chairman Gautam Gautam Adani poses during Akash Ambani’s wedding reception in Mumbai, India, March 10, 2019. Asia’s richest man, Gautam Adani, made his vast fortune betting on coal as energy-hungry India grew rapidly after liberalizing its economy in the 1990s. It has now set its sights on becoming the world’s largest renewable energy player by 2030, skillfully aligning its investments with government priorities. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade, file)
Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS/Rajanish Kakade
FILE- Adani Group Chairman Gautam Gautam Adani, left, Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani, center, and Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra talk while attending the ‘UP Investors Summit 2018’ in Lucknow, India, on February 21, 2018. Asia’s richest man Gautam Adani made its vast fortune betting on coal as energy-hungry India grew rapidly after liberalizing its economy in the 1990s. It has now set its sights on becoming the world’s largest renewable energy player by 2030, skillfully aligning its investments with government priorities. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh, file)
Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS/Rajesh Kumar Singh
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“It’s not that Adani Group has shaped government policy so much as Adani Group is a willing and able partner in whatever the government decides its priorities are,” Sharma said.
Since Modi became prime minister in 2014, occasionally campaigning using a private jet owned by the tycoon, Adani’s net worth has risen nearly 2,000% to $125 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He overtook Amazon boss Jeff Bezos to briefly become the world’s second-richest man in September, after the value of his seven publicly traded companies rose.
Adani’s companies have won multi-billion dollar contracts to build ports, highways and power plants. The industrialist’s ambitions include the development of drones and munitions, which are key to the government’s goal of increasing military-related exports to $5 billion while reducing the cost of expensive imports.
Adani has also invested in agriculture, a big priority for Modi given the importance of the farm vote.
One of eight children in a middle-class family in Ahmedabad, in Modi’s western Indian home state of Gujarat, Adani began his career trading diamonds in the financial center of Mumbai.
He returned home to join his brother in importing plastics before founding Adani Enterprises in the 1980s, trading in everything from shoes to buckets. His career has seen ups and downs: he was kidnapped for ransom in 1988 and survived the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks by hiding in the basement of a hotel besieged by militants.
Although its wealth was built from coal mining and other heavy industries, Adani recognized the promise of renewable energy early on, said Tim Buckley, director of Australia’s Climate Energy Finance, which has tracked renewable energy investments in Asia for decades.
Adani has taken advantage of the Indian government’s incentives to promote self-reliance and achieve net zero by 2070, recently receiving nearly $90 million in government subsidies to produce solar modules.
“I don’t think Gautam Adani is really thinking about climate science — but what he is doing is understanding India’s geopolitical and economic interests and setting himself up to solve that problem for his benefit and India’s,” Buckley said.
“He wants to be up there with Bill Gates, with Elon Musk.” The only way he can do that is to be a credible global billionaire, not the biggest fish in the Indian market. “Adani Green is what he will want his legacy to be,” he added.
Adani’s push for green energy is not limited to India. He recently announced plans to build a 10 gigawatt clean energy project in Morocco that will help meet Europe’s energy needs.
However, it has not yet abandoned its fossil fuel roots.
In December 2021, Adani Group began exporting coal from Australia’s Carmichael mine after years of disputes with environmental groups. The project 300 kilometers (185 miles) west of the Queensland coast involves a rail line to transport coal from the Galilee Basin to countries in Asia, including India.
Energy-starved Bangladesh will soon start getting some of its electricity from the Adani coal-fired power plant under construction in eastern India.
Adani recently announced plans to invest more than $4 billion in a petrochemical complex that will include an ethane cracker and a plant that will turn natural gas into plastics.
Critics say such projects run counter to Adana’s zeal for green energy. The company says such a combination is inevitable given the need to meet growing demand as India moves to a cleaner future.
“While we are fully committed to clean energy, existential demands dictate that we must stay the course with traditional fuel sources until reliable alternatives emerge,” the company said in a statement. It said the use of fossil fuels would be phased out and “so our long-term vision is to remain focused on clean, reliable and affordable energy”.
In Adana, India has rivals for some of China’s great empires.
Last year, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zones signed an agreement with Sri Lanka to develop and operate a terminal at the port of Colombo, the country’s busiest and largest port. It was a triumph for New Delhi’s push for influence in the island nation, where China has invested billions of dollars in infrastructure, including the takeover of Hambantota, a southern Sri Lankan port struggling to turn a profit.
Earlier this year, Adani Ports acquired a 70% stake in Israel’s Haifa Port, near Haifa Bay, which is operated by China’s Shanghai International Port Group. The group pledged to invest in projects in Tanzania after China’s port deal, part of its ambitious Belt and Road Initiative, ran into difficulties.
Looking to expand internationally, the group had to address concerns about rising debt levels. Adani Enterprises, the group’s listed flagship company, has announced it will seek shareholder approval for a share offer to raise more than $2 billion.
Adani’s push to take over NDTV, India’s leading broadcaster, has raised concerns that, given its close ties to Modi, it could stifle the network’s often critical stance on the government.
Adani did not agree to interview requests. The company sent written comments to questions through a company spokesman who defended Adani Group’s strong track record in winning government contracts and pursuing opportunities both inside and outside India.
“Strategic priorities, both domestic and foreign, of any country, can be of key importance for the creation of business opportunities,” the announcement states. “If it is attractive enough, we are willing to invest, cutting across geographies and sectors.”
RN Bhaskar, a journalist who wrote a biography of Adani, says it was only natural for the tycoon to tie his wealth to that of Modi and his party when they came to power, as he had previously been friends with the rival Congress party, which ruled Gujarat when they many of his early projects began.
“A key element of Adani’s success is its ability to manage relationships.” He is close to every politician who is in power,” Bhaskar said.
“In India, big business only works through alignment with the government — India is at the same stage as the robber barons and Rothschilds of the 19th century. If an opposition party were to take power tomorrow, Adani would also be close to them.
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