Indian billionaire Gautam Adani dropped from the Forbes list of third richest people to the seventh richest. His fall came after the shares of his companies dropped by twenty per cent on claims of defrauding investors. The controversy began only a few days after Hindenburg Research, a company that specialises in “short-selling” against a company’s share price in the hope that it will decline, released a report accusing the Adani Group of engaging in decades-long, “brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud”.
Adani’s meteoric rise has coincided with Narendra Modi’s political rise. News reports published by credible newspapers show Modi using Adani aircraft when he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat. When he became Prime Minister in 2014, Modi landed in Delhi, not in Air India or another airline but in an aircraft emblazoned with the name Adani.
Since 2014, the Adani group has bagged numerous contracts from the Government of India. They have also been on an acquisition spree, primarily fuelled by debt from Public Sector banks. From airports to ports and roadways, the Adani group has bagged contracts with unusual ease. Adani industries were granted over 126 contracts for handling natural gas networks across India and own 24 per cent of India’s port capacity, according to reports by the news portal Scroll.in. Now, Adani airports claim to cater to “ten per cent of India’s air passenger traffic”.
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