Gautam Adani
As a teenager, Adani moved to Mumbai in 1978 to work as a diamond sorter for Mahendra Brothers.[11]
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 (PVC) imports.[12]
In 1985, he started importing primary polymers for small-scale industries. In 1988, Adani established Adani Exports, now known as Adani Enterprises – the holding company of the Adani Group. Originally, the company dealt in agricultural and power commodities.[12]
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.[13]
In 1994, the Government of Gujarat announced managerial outsourcing of the Mundra Port and in 1995, Adani got the contract.[14]
In 1995, he set up the first jetty. Originally operated by Mundra Port & Special Economic Zone, the operations were transferred to Adani Ports & SEZ (APSEZ). 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.[15][16]
In 1996, the power business arm of the Adani Group, Adani Power, was founded by Adani. Adani Power holds thermal power plants with a capacity of 4620MW, the largest private thermal power producer of the country.[17]
In 2006, Adani entered the power generation business. From 2009 to 2012, he acquired Abbot Point Port in Australia and Carmichael coal mine in Queensland.[18]In May 2020, Adani won the world's largest solar bid by the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) worth US$6 billion. The 8000MW photovoltaic power plant project will be taken up by Adani Green; Adani Solar will establish 2000MW of additional solar cell and module manufacturing capacity.[19][20]
In September 2020, Adani acquired a 74% stake in Mumbai International Airport, India's second busiest after Delhi.[21]
In February 2022, he became Asia's richest person, surpassing Mukesh Ambani.[22]
Personal life
Adani is married to Priti Adani.[23][24][25] He was abducted and held hostage for ransom in 1998, but was released without collecting the money.[26][27] He was in the Taj Hotel during the 2008 Mumbai attacks.[28][29]
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.[30]
In March 2020, he contributed ₹100 crore (US$13 million) to the PM Cares Fund through his group's philanthropy arm, to fight the Coronavirus outbreak.[31] A contribution of ₹5 crore (US$660,000) was made to the Gujarat CM Relief Fund and ₹1 crore (US$130,000) to the Maharashtra CM Relief Fund.[32]
Adani led diversified conglomerate Adani Group imported four ISO cryogenic tanks filled with 80 metric tones of liquid medical oxygen from Dammam in Saudi Arabia to Mundra in Gujarat. The group also secured 5,000 medical-grade oxygen cylinders from Linde Saudi Arabia. In a Twitter post, Adani shared that each day his group is supplying 1,500 cylinders with medical oxygen to wherever they are needed in the Kutch district of Gujarat.[33]
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