India’s economy is deeply intertwined with Mr. Adani, India’s top infrastructure conglomerate. He runs 13 ports (30% market share), 7 airports (23% of passenger traffic) and India’s second largest cement business (20% market share).
With six coal-fired power plants, Adani is India’s largest private power supplier. At the same time, he has pledged to invest $50 billion in green hydrogen and has an 8,000 km (4,970 miles) natural gas pipeline in operation. He is also building India’s longest highway and redeveloping India’s largest slum. He employs more than 45,000 people, but his business impacts millions of people across the country.
Mr Adani’s global ambitions span coal mines in Indonesia and Australia, airports and energy projects in Kenya and Morocco. The group is investing more than $1 billion in infrastructure projects across Tanzania and Kenya.
Mr Adani’s portfolio closely reflects Mr Modi’s policy priorities, starting with infrastructure and recently expanding to clean energy. He has thrived despite critics accusing his business empire of crony capitalism and noting his close ties with Modi. Because both of them are the Chief Minister of Gujarat and the Prime Minister of India. (Like other successful businessmen, Mr. Adani had relationships with many opposition leaders and invested in their states.)
“This (the bribery charge) is big. Mr. Adani and Mr. Modi have long been inseparable. This will have implications for India’s political economy,” says Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, an Indian journalist who has written extensively on business groups.
