Hello and welcome. You are listening to Patrick Boyle on Finance, a podcast exploring ideas from quantitative finance, examining events occurring in markets right now and financial history to see what lessons can be taken away, including interviews with some of the most interesting people in the world of finance. To learn more about the podcast, visit onfinance.org.

The Adani Group, one of India's biggest conglomerates, has come under far from a small American

investment firm called Hindenburg Research. The firm run by Nathan Anderson is known for uncovering

issues at companies like Nicola Corporation, Clover Health and Lordstown Motors. You may not

be familiar with the Adani Group or its founder, Gatom Adani, but in India he's a household

name, having briefly surpassed Jeff Bezos

as the world's second richest man.

As India continues to grow as one of the world's largest economies, Adani has become the face

of its fast-paced growth. Adani's journey began as a diamond sorter in Bombay, after dropping out of school

as a teenager. He then built India's largest conglomerate, the Adani group, with interests

in sectors ranging from infrastructure and data to defence media mining and green energy.

The Adani group is a major player in India's economy,

responsible for a fifth of the nation's electricity transmission and a fifth of the cement industry.

Adani's companies also own key infrastructure like roads, airports and ports, and store a third of India's

grain in their warehouses. The Adani group, which derives much of its revenues from mining

and burning coal, has vowed to become one of the world's largest green energy businesses

by investing $70 billion by 2030 in everything from green hydrogen

to solar panel manufacturing. Adani is one of the largest employers and taxpayers in India,

meaning that accusations of fraud matter to the country, its financial markets, its regulators and politicians.

Questions about Gautam Adani's personal integrity really matter too, because of his long-standing

association with India's Prime Minister Narendar Modi, who comes from the same state of Gujarat.

The strength of Adani's political connections

...