THE BILLIONAIRE AND THE PRIME MINISTER

摘要

When his son was married in the coastal state of Goa last year, Indian billionaire Gautam Adani's guest list included the richest man in the country and scores of top executives, bankers and bureaucrats. Most, however, just stopped by the night before to bless the happy couple and skipped the actual wedding. One prominent friend, however, stayed through all the ceremonies, which extended over a couple of days, genial and relaxed like a favorite uncle: Narendra Modi, chief minister of Adani's home state of Gujarat-and almost certainly the next prime minister of the world's largest democracy. Adani had another reason to pamper his guest. With an estimated worth of $5.4 billion, Adani runs India's largest port, a power company and a commodities trading business. A large chunk of his operations are in Gujarat, where the Modi government, in power since 2001, has been very, very generous to Adani.