Gautam Adani, an Indian billionaire industrialist and philanthropist, is the founder of the Adani Group. Since its inception, he has diversified the business into energy, resources, agriculture, logistics, defence and aerospace, amongst others. He held the title of second richest man in Asia and 13th richest man in the world for a period of time, before losing it, due to unexpected circumstances. His family’s net worth is estimated to be around US$72.3Billion as of September 2021. Here are some really interesting facts about the Industrialist that will surely blow your mind away:
- He is the President of the Adani Foundation founded in the year 1996, which is funded through the Adani Group. The foundation with its base in Gujarat, India, operates in 6 other states in the country.
- In May 2020, Adani won the world's largest solar bid by the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) worth $6 billion, with the Adani Green taking up the 8000 MW photovoltaic power plant project.
- With this, Adani Solar is expected to establish 2000 MW of additional solar cell and module manufacturing capacity.
- During the COVID-19 pandemic, he contributed ₹100 crore to the PM Cares Fund through his group's philanthropy arm in March 2020, in an effort to fight the pandemic outbreak.
- Apart from this, a contribution of $5 crore was made to the Gujarat CM Relief Fund, and $1 crore to the Maharashtra CM Relief Fund.
- Gautam Shantilal Adani was born on June 24, 1962 to Shantilal Adani and Shanti Adani in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, in a Jain family. He has seven siblings.
- His father Shantilal was a textile merchant. His parents had migrated from the town of Tharad in the northern part of Gujarat.
- Gautam was educated at Sheth Chimanlal Nagindas Vidyalaya School in Ahmedabad. He attended Gujarat University, enrolling for a Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce, but dropped out after the second year.
- Since his childhood days, he was very keen on business, and had a lot of ideas. However, he was not that interested in his father’s textile business.
- As a teenager, he moved to Mumbai to work as a diamond sorter for Mahendra Brothers in the year 1978. He worked there for 2 to 3 years gaining enough experience.
- With this knowledge and experience, he established his own diamond brokerage firm at Zaveri Bazaar, Mumbai in the year 1981.
- Around the same time, his elder brother Mansukhbhai Adani bought a plastics unit in Ahmedabad and asked him to manage the operations of the unit. This was Gautam’s first gateway to global trading through polyvinyl chloride (PVC) imports.
- He started importing primary polymers for small-scale industries in the year 1985. Three years later, he established Adani Exports, now known as Adani Enterprises – the holding company of the Adani Group, in 1988.
- The economic liberalization policies in 1991, was really favorable for his company, due to which he started to expand the businesses into trading of metals, textiles and agro products.
- In 1994, the Government of Gujarat announced managerial outsourcing of the Mundra Port and in 1995, Adani landed the contract.
- Gautam set up the first jetty in 1995, which was originally operated by Mundra Port & Special Economic Zone. The operations were later transferred to Adani Ports & SEZ (APSEZ).
- As of 2021, the company is the largest private multi-port operator, while Mundra Port is the largest private sector port in India, with the capacity of handling close to 210 million tons of cargo per annum.
- In the year 1998, he was reportedly abducted and held hostage for ransom. However, he was released without collecting the money.
- Adani founded the power business arm – Adani Power of the Adani Group of Industries, in the year 1996, which holds thermal power plants with a capacity of 4620 MW, the largest private thermal power producer of the country.
- It was in the year 2006 that he entered the power generation business. Within the next 5 to 6 years, he acquired Abbot Point Port in Australia and Carmichael coal mine in Queensland.
- During the 2008 Mumbai Attacks - a series of terrorist bombing attacks that took place in November 2008, lasting for 4 days across Mumbai, he was residing in the Taj Mahal Palace, one of the sites of the attacks.
- He is married to Priti Adani, who is one of the leading women educators in the State of Gujarat. She holds a bachelor’s degree in dental surgery from Government Dental College, Ahmedabad.
- Gautam appointed her as the chairperson of Adani Foundation in the year 1996. She started the Adani DAV School in Mundra, after the Bhuj Earthquake in 2001.
- He, along with his wife, established the Adani Vidya Mandir in Bhadreshwar (near Mundra) and Ahmedabad, which provides free higher secondary education to underprivileged children.
- He has two sons with Priti Adani – Karan Adani and Jeet Adani. Karan Adani is currently the CEO of Adani Ports & SEZ Limited as well as the director of Adani Airport Holdings Limited.
- In September 2020, Gautam Adani is reported to have acquired a 74% stake in the Mumbai International Airport, India's second busiest airport.
- He led the Adani Group import four ISO cryogenic tanks filled with 80 metric tones of liquid medical oxygen from Dammam in Saudi Arabia to Mundra in Gujarat, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Apart from this, the Adani Group has also claimed to have secured 5,000 medical-grade oxygen cylinders from Linde Saudi Arabia.
- He shared in his Twitter post that every day, his company is supplying 1500 cylinders with medical oxygen to meet the requirements in Kutch, Gujarat.
- He was the second richest man in Asia, and the 13th richest man in the world, but lost the title on June 17, 2021, due to the sudden decrease in shares prices of the Adani Group.
- Gautam Adani Net Worth: $13 Billion
"Ambassador Roemer visits Ahmedabad" by U.S. Embassy New Delhi is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0
"Ambassador Roemer visits Ahmedabad" by U.S. Embassy New Delhi is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0
"Sec. Kerry at Vibrant Gujarat Summit in Ahmedabad, Jan 11-13, 2015" by U.S. Embassy New Delhi is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0