Adani Group (referred to as “Adani Group” or “the Group”) is one of the leading business conglomerates and the largest integrated player in infrastructure and energy space in India. Its business operations spread across key sectors like energy, port and logistics, mining and resources, gas, defence and aerospace and others. Adani Group owes its success and leadership position to its core philosophy of ‘Nation Building’ driven by ‘Growth with Goodness’.
The person behind Adani Group
Gautam Shantilal Adani, the founder and chairman of Adani Group (referred to as “Adani”), was born on 24th June, 1962 in a Gujarati family. After dropping out of college, Adani came to the City of Dreams, and tried his luck in Mumbai’s diamond industry in the early 1980s. He soon moved to his home state of Gujarat to help run his brother’s plastics business before setting up in 1988, Adani Exports now known as, Adani Enterprises Ltd.
Businesses like Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd. (APSEZ – India’s largest private port company), Adani Power Ltd. (India’s largest power producer), Adani Transmissions Ltd., Adani Gas Ltd. and Adani Green Energy Ltd. were demerged from Adani Enterprises, and these six companies together form ‘Adani Group’.
Journey of Gautam Adani over the years
Originally, Adani Export dealt in power and agricultural commodities. In 1995, the Group developed its own port ‘Mundra Port’, to support its trading operations, and today, the ‘Mundra Port’ is the largest commercial port in India.
Adani looks forward to provide integrated infrastructure for supply chain across India. Having pan India port presence, Adani is also a leading private rail operator, and is venturing into Auto Freight Trains and General-Purpose Wagons to support his vision of providing end to end logistics services.
Adani Power, initially started off as a power trading company, and later on moved to power generation. The company’s thermal power plant in Kutch, Mundra was the first thermal project in the world to receive ‘Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Project’ certification from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNCFCC). In 2011, the company commissioned a solar power plant in Gujarat, Bitta, which then was the largest solar power project in India.
Adani Transmission, is one of the largest private sector power transmission companies operating in India. The company has made some key acquisitions over the years, including –
i. acquisition of assets of GMR Group (2016),
ii. acquisition of assets of Reliance Infrastructure Limited (2017),
iii. acquisition of Reliance Infrastructure Ltd’s Power Generation, Transmission and Distribution Business in Mumbai (2018 – this acquisition led to the formation of a wholly owned subsidiary, Adani Electricity Mumbai Limited),
iv. acquisition of KEC assets (2019)
v. acquisition of Warora Kurnool Transmission Ltd. from Essel Infraprojects Ltd.
While the world was dealing with the pandemic, Adani Gas Ltd, entered into a strategic partnership with Total Holding SAS (France) in 2019-20, and the company was renamed as Adani Total Gas Ltd to reflect this alliance. This instance will also be the largest foreign direct investment in India’s gas distribution sector.
Go Green
Power and Energy being key sectors of the Adani Group business, Adani has also made huge strides in the renewable energy business. Adani Green Energy Limited, incorporated in 2015, develops, builds, operates and maintains utility scale grid connected solar and wind farm projects. In Jan’20, Adani had said that the Group aims to become the world’s largest solar power entity by 2025, and the largest renewable power firm by 2030. Taking steps to make this vision a reality, Adani Green Energy will acquire 80% stake in SB Energy Holdings (SoftBank Group’s renewable energy assets in India) for an enterprise value of $3.5 billion.
In a pilot project, the Group has developed a Bio-Shield, which is made of mangrove plantation and non-mangrove vegetation along the South Coast of Gujarat. This project contributes to protection of the coastal eco-system and has also become a source of livelihood opportunities for the people living in the region.
Nation Building in its essence
The philosophy of Adani Group has been ‘Nation Building’, and they have taken the meaning of nation building one step further, by investing in the human capital of India. Through its Sports initiatives, the group has invested in a couple of franchise leagues – Gujarat Giants (Boxing), Gujarat Fortune Giants (Kabaddi). Through its ‘GarvHai’ programme, the group has been involved in grooming athletes, to make them capable of representing the country.
Giving back to the society
Adani Foundation, founded in 1996, is the Corporate Social Responsibility wing of the Adani Group, focuses on four key areas – education, community health, sustainable livelihood development and rural infrastructure development. The Adani Group invests about 2% of its total profits through Adani Foundation. The foundation has worked across 13 states, covering 20 locations and 1,470 villages, to uplift the lives of more than 5,00,000 families.
“Being an entrepreneur is my dream job, as it tests one's tenacity.”
Being kidnapped, or a college dropout, or held as a hostage during the 2008 terrorist attack, nothing has been able to put a pause on the rise of the Ports Tycoon, Gautam Adani. On 18th May, 2021, he overtook Zhong Shanshan to become the second richest Asian.
A self-made billionaire, Gautam Adani can prove to be an inspiration for young entrepreneurs, that all it takes to succeed is an idea, a dream, the ability and belief to convert the vision into reality.
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References:
https://business.mapsofindia.com/business-leaders/gautam-adani.html
https://www.adanipower.com/operational-power-plants/mundra-gujarat
https://www.adanipower.com/operational-power-plants/bitta-gujarat
https://www.adanitransmission.com/about-us/timeline
Hi, Rootu. A nicely written & informative article on Gautam Adani. I felt as if I was reading the Our Chairman page on the Adani Group website. It would have helped to know a little more about the seamier side (for lack of a better word) of the Adani Group because everything can’t be so clean & pious. No offense intended. Just sharing my point of view.