Gautam Adani: Trial by fire
India TodayIf there were many who left a mark on 2024, billionaire Gautam Adani was one on whom 2024 left a mark. It began on November 20 when the US District Court, Eastern District of New York, accused top executives of Azure Power, an Indian solar power producer listed on the New York Stock Exchange, of colluding with Gautam Adani and two of his senior executives since 2020 to pay $265 million in bribes to Indian officials across four states and a Union territory for securing contracts. It stung to the quick because Adani, his nephew Sagar Adani and Adani Green Energy CEO Vneet S. Jaain came out looking as having been directly named along with four Azure executives in the alleged acts of subornment. ‘Officials’ in Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Odisha and Jammu & Kashmir were allegedly induced to execute sale agreements with the Solar Energy Corporation of India, the Centre’s nodal agency for renewable projects, which would then buy the power from Adani and Azure to sell to their discoms. But the way Adani’s Africa footprint waxed and waned held out signs: if Tanzania signed a 30-year concession agreement on ports, Kenya pulled out of deals worth $730 million amid much uproar.