Indian business tycoon, Gautam Adani has pipped Bernard Arnault of Louis Vuitton, France to become the 3rd richest person of the world according to the Blooming Billionaires Index. He has a net worth of 137.4 billion US dollars. The net worth of Elon Musk , the richest is 251 billion US dollars and that of the second richest Jeff Bezoz is 153 billion US dollaras. The elevation of Adani to this position in stunning pace is mainly due to the undue patronage of the governments and banks. Gautam Adani has added 60.9 billion US dollars to his fortune in 2022 alone, five times more than anyone elese. Adani’s Business Empire is spread to every sector, ports-airports, cement, coal mines, gas distribution, data centres, media,alumina and off late telecom. But worries also growing over the exponential growth. A CreditSight report says Adani’s deals spree has been predominantly funded with debt with every possibility of default. ( source: The Economic Times)

The number of Indian billionaries was only 09 in 2000 and in 2022 it is 166, thanks to the pro-corporate neo-liberal economic policies of the central government. While the Indian billionaires retained 99% of their wealth in the Covid-19 scenario, billionaires in other countries have lost 83% in their wealth. This thoroughly exposes the pro-rich economic stimulus packages of the central government during the period of the pandemic. The latest Oxfam India report states that 84% of the Indian households witnessed an income decline amid the covid-19 pandemic. The richest 98 Indians own the same wealth as the bottom 552 million people. In the report, India is described as a very unequal country.