Gautam Shantilal Adani (born 24 June 1962) is an Indian billionaire businessman who is the chairman and founder of Adani Group. According to Forbes, his net worth is estimated to be $8.81 billion as of September 2017. [1] He founded the Adani Group in 1988, which now deals in businesses spanning coal trading, coal mining, oil & gas exploration, ports, logistics, power generation, agriculture, edible oils, transmission and gas distribution.

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THE MAN BEHIND CHANGING PHASE OF PORTS:
GAUTAM ADANI
VARUN KESAVAN, RESEARCH SCHOLAR, E – MAIL ID –
varunkesavan@yahoo.com
Gautam Shantilal Adani (born 24 June 1962) is an Indian billionaire businessman
who is the chairman and founder of Adani Group. According to Forbes, his net worth
is estimated to be $8.81 billion as of September 2017. [1] He founded the Adani
Group in 1988, which now deals in businesses spanning coal trading, coal mining, oil
& gas exploration, ports, logistics, power generation, agriculture, edible oils,
transmission and gas distribution.
EARLY LIFE
Gautam Adani was born into a Gujarati Jain Bania family on 24 June 1962,
in Ahmedabad. He is the son of Shantilal and Shanta Adani and has seven siblings.
His parents had migrated from the town of Tharad in the northern part of Gujarat. He

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did his schooling at the Sheth Chimanlal Nagindas Vidyalaya school in Ahmedabad.
He started a bachelor's degree in commerce at Gujarat University, but dropped out
after the second year.[3]
CAREER
After working as a diamond sorter at Mahindra Brothers for two years, Adani set up
his own diamond brokerage business in Mumbai, India.[4] Mahasukh Adani, his elder
brother, called him back to Ahmedabad to run his newly purchased plastic
factory.[4] He soon started commodity trading by importing polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a
key raw material for manufacturing plastic.[4]
ADANI GROUP
In 1988, he started Adani Enterprises Limited (formerly known as the Adani Export
Ltd), the flagship company of the Adani Group, that traded in a variety of power and
agricultural commodities. The 1991 economic liberalization policies fuelled the rapid
growth of the business leading to huge profitability of Adani Exports. This provided
further capital to Adani to expand his business. In 2006, Adani Exports was renamed
to Adani Enterprises Limited.[5] In 1993, the Government of Gujarat invited private
companies to run the Mundra Port and in 1995 the contract was given to Adani
Group. Today, Mundra Port is the largest Private Sector port in India, with capability
of handling close to 210 million tonnes of cargo per annum. [5]
Adani is also the founder and promoter of Adani Power Ltd (APL), a power business
arm of Adani Group. Adani Power has thermal power plants with capacity of 4620

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MW, the largest private thermal power producer of the country. It is also the largest
solar power producer of India with capacity 648 MW.[6]
KAUMUTHI
In September 2016, Adani Green Energy (Tamil Nadu), the renewable wing of
the Adani Group, kicked off operations in Kamuthi in Ramnathapuram in Tamil
Nadu with a capacity of 648 megawatts (MW) at an estimated cost of Rs.
4,550 crore.
ADANI FOUNDATION
The Adani Foundation was founded in 1996, and is registered under the
Bombay Public Charity Trusts Act of 1950 and Society’s Registration Act
1860.[15] Other than Gujarat, the Foundation operates in the states of
Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh
and Odisha.
PERSONAL LIFE
He is married to Priti Adani, who is a dentist and heads the Adani Foundation
as a managing trustee.[16] They have two sons.