| Gautam Adani | |
|---|---|
| Born | Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Ethnicity | Gujarati |
| Citizenship | India |
Gautam Adani (Gujarati:ગૌતમ અદાણી ) (born June 24, 1962), is an Indian businessman. He is the chairman of the Adani Group, a leading trading and export company of India. In March, 2011 Forbes magazine announced that Adani is the 6th richest person in India with a personal wealth of US $10 billion. He is the first billionaire from the city of Ahmedabad.[1]
Contents |
Gautam Adani was born in Ahmedabad, India, to Shantilal and Shantaben Adani in a Gujarati Jain family. He had 7 siblings. Adani's parents had migrated from a community of entrepreneurs in Tharad in north Gujarat.[2]. Adani was born in the Seth ni Pol area located in Ratanpol in Ahmedabad. He set out for Mumbai to make a living with only a few hundred rupees at the age of 18.He studied at the Seth C. N. Vidyalya school in Ahmedabad and later on at Gujarat University. Adani is a University dropout, he studied till his second year for a Bachelor's Degree in Commerce.
He worked in Mumbai as a diamond sorter at Mahindra Bros. After working there for two years, Adani, 20 at the time, set up his own diamond brokerage outfit at Zaveri Bazaar and made his first lakh.[3]
In 1981, one year later, his elder brother Mansukhbhai, bought a plastics unit in Ahmedabad and asked Gautam to run it. This marked the beginning of Adani's foray into global trading by beginning to import polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a key raw material for manufacturing plastics. After the economic liberalisation, the import duty on various goods was slashed, and profits of Adani Exports, then his flagship company, grew immensely.[4]
In 1997 he was kidnapped for ransom.[5] 11 years later, he was again held hostage during the siege at Taj Mahal Palace & Tower in Nov 2008.[6]
In 1988 he set up an import-export company called Adani Enterprises.[7]
It imported PVC and took on the giant Reliance Industries which produced PVC in India.[8]
In 1993 the Gujarat government invited private companies to run the Mundra Port, and in 1995 the contract was given to Adani.[9]
In 2006, Mundra Port was developed into a Special Economic Zone.[10]
Adani is married to Priti, aged 46.[11] She is a dentist and heads the Adani Foundation, of which she is the managing trustee.
When he was a small trader, Adani's father in law accepted him as a husband for his daughter after an astrologer said "the boy will float in riches and his wife will be a queen".[12]
They have two sons. Karan, 24[13], is pursuing his BS in Management from Purdue University, USA. Jeet Adani, their younger son is 13 years old. Gautam Adani owns 2 private jets - a Beechcraft jet purchased in 2005 and a Hawker purchased in 2008.[3]