Gautam Adani Becomes ‘First Choice’ Of PM Modi, Steals Ambani’s Thunder
Written By: Aashish Vashistha
March 24, 2022 (New Delhi): Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani have been rivals around each other for many years. The duo represents India’s wealth and economic status at global level. On one side, Ambani established telecom and retail enterprises, Adani holds sole control on transport and energy distribution. Recently, India’s coal mining tycoon, Gautam Adani has overtaken fellow countryman and Reliance Industries’ Chairman Mukesh Ambani to the top spot. Adani becomes Asia’s richest person after his major push into green energy that has boosted his fortune to $88.5 billion, according to a report by The Guardian.
Surprisingly, Adani’s net wealth hiked by around $12 billion year-to-date (YTD), while Ambani’s wealth saw a YTD decline of about $2.07 billion after a recent report of Oxfam India. Mukesh Ambani was the richest person in India and in Asia with Gautam Adani trailing him by about $2.2 billion. FYI, Ambani’s total net worth currently stands at $87.9 billion. Both billionaires belongs to India’s Gujarat state and have start overlapping each other which has set the stage for a clash that could change the entire scenario of Indian economy.
Interestingly, Both Adani and Ambani have close relations with PM Narendra Modi. As per our sources, Ambani could get intrigued through the corridors of power. Their ‘visions’ and ‘balance sheets’ are different but their purpose to shape economic policies and shaping Indian politics have similar purpose. Both billionaires are swallowing weaker and smaller enterprises alongside to their operations. Ambani took the telecom route to next level as the czar of India’s consumer data whereas 59-year-old Adani wants to provide storage services to bits and bytes, powered by green energy. He also supplies grid power and cooking gas, in partnership with with France’s “Total Energies” to households. Ambani, who’s five years older than Adani, imagines a future in which “every farm, every house, factories and habitat could, in general , free itself from the grid by generating its own power”. -Gautam Adani
The Rockefeller industrialist’s relations with Mr. Modi came in limelight after Indian government approved the privatisation of six airports in the year 2018 where Adani scooped all six ports. The BJP government also relaxed the rules to widen the pool of competition, allowing companies without any experience in the sector and with no history of running airports. It has been alleged that Gautam Adani became one of the country’s biggest private airport operators overnight in Modi government. He is also the largest private ports operator and thermal coal power producer. He commands a growing share of India’s power transmission and gas distribution markets. Adani is investing huge amount of money in green energy which is one of the largest renewable projects in the world.