Gautam Adani surpasses world’s richest Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk in wealth creation this year
Every now and then these days we come across articles of rich becoming richer and surpassing each other in their race of being the wealthiest. Recently, Elon Musk surpassed the Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos to claim his position at number one in the list of wealthiest people in the world. As for India, Reliance Industries (RIL) head Mr Mukesh Ambani maintained his position at number one in the country, with his wealth being increased by 24 per cent in the pandemic year. Accounting for about 8 per cent of India’s total exports, the Reliance Industries chairman climbed one spot to become the eighth richest individual in the world, as per the Hurun Global Rich List. However, there’s one man that is getting more attention than Mr Ambani himself right now- Gautam Adani. The founder and chairman of Adani Industries, Gautam Adani, claimed his position as the 48th richest man in the world and second richest man in the country after his fortune almost doubled in the pandemic year. While the country was struggling with the crippling economy that leads to a 9.1% unemployment rate, Mr Adani climbed 20 spots in the world’s wealth list to claim the position. Wow, seems like while lower-income and middle-income groups were struggling to make ends meet, the rich people were busy adding more zeroes at the end of their income numbers. Ironical, right?
Before we move ahead, let’s take a moment to acknowledge what this achievement by Gautam Adani really means. Not only did he double his entire wealth in the past year, but he also generated more income than anybody on this entire planet, including its current top 19 richest people. So, while scooping up airports and ports in India and coal mines in Australia, Gautam Adani made a whopping USD 16.3 billion in the last year itself, more particularly the pandemic year, taking his wealth total to a now mind-numbing USD 50 billion. Just to statistically state the significance of that number, Gautam Adani made almost double of what the richest man of the country Mukesh Ambani did. So, while we’re out here talking about these achievements, if Mr Adani continues to go at this pace, it won’t be shocking to see him claiming much higher positions in the Indian and Global rich list.
Adani Group ruling the Indian Stock Markets
Shares of all Adani Group companies barring one surged at least 50% while some even clocked gains of 90% making Adani the topmost gainer in the billion-dollar club. Some of Adani group shares such as Adani Total Gas have almost doubled with a market capitalisation of over Rs 80,000 crore while Adani Enterprises increased 90%, Adani Transmission Ltd gained 79%, with a market capitalisation of Rs 1,00,000 crore and Rs 85,000 crore respectively. Other group company stocks such as Adani Power and Adani Ports and Special Economic Zones Ltd gained more than 50%, with a rate of return of over 50% since the beginning of the year but then there is Adani Green Energy which quintupled last year and has added 12% in 2021, with a market capitalisation of about Rs 1.8 lakh crore. Adani Green Energy has been one of the largest wealth creators of last year and had increased multi folds, claiming its position to be an outperformer as well. Seems like Gautam Adani is running the Indian stock markets, right?
Vinod Adani witnesses a rise in his fortune too
Well, let’s just say this first-generation entrepreneur who rarely speaks publicly is being talked about by everybody. Oh, Gautam Adani is not the only Adani that made a fortune during the pandemic, Gautam Adani’s brother, Vinod Adani, saw a 128 per cent increase in his wealth. Unsurprisingly, Mr Gautam Adani has been on an expanding spree, increasing his ports to power conglomerate reach to areas like sports, data centres, airports and coal mines, both nationally and internationally. Luring in investments from Total SA to Warburg Pincus, the rising heft of the self-made billionaire placed the country’s foreign direct investments in a better position. “Adani has been consistently expanding its business in areas that are resilient to market cycles,” said Sunil Chandiramani, founder and chief executive officer at Nyka Advisory Services. “Now with the entry in data centres business, the group has also indicated its appetite for venturing into technology.” Just as an indication of this appetite, Gautam Adani signed a pact last month to develop 1 gigawatt of data centre capacity in India.
Is it actually a good news?
While all this news of Indians creating numbers is a piece of good news for the country, it is beyond doubt that when these numbers stay restricted to a certain few and are not driven down to the other sections of the country, the country reaps no good. The lines between businesses and government when start getting blurred, it gets time the countrymen realise that the income gap is going to widen, as can be seen from India’s current state. It cannot be stressed enough how deteriorated the small and middle businesses of the country are at this point, with the unemployment rate high as ever and the labour market showing no sign to combat the increasing inflation due to the risen petrol prices we are witnessing. Well, it can be fairly said that these miraculous growths of a few and struggle for all others are a dreading sign of corruption and political patronage in the country, which is never a good sign. It’s not about not being happy with the success of our own people; it is about the success staying restricted to a very few and the government doing nothing about it- especially when these people benefit in the face of India’s crony capitalism. So, let’s choose what’s better for the country, for common people like you and me, instead of the likes of a rich few.
