It’s Asia’s richest person Gautam Adani’s 60th birthday and his wife Priti Adani marked the special occasion with an emotional note, praising her husband for his ‘good health’ and success.
Priti Adani who tied the knot with Gautam Adani 36 years ago shared a monochrome picture of the billionaire on Twitter. Priti wrote, “More than 36 years back, I put aside my career and began a new journey with Gautam Adani. Today, when I look back, it is only with immense respect and pride for the person he is. On his 60th birthday, I pray for his good health and for him to realize all his dreams”.
While it’s Gautam Adani’s 60th birthday, it is also the centenary birth anniversary of his father Shantilal Adani. On this special occasion, the Adani family has committed a donation of ₹60,000 crore to a range of social causes. This corpus will be administered by the Adani Foundation.
“In addition to being the 100th birth anniversary of my inspiring father, this year also happens to be the year of my 60th birthday and therefore the family decided to contribute Rs. 60,000 crores towards charitable activities related to healthcare, education, and skill development, especially in the rural regions of our nation,” said the first-generation entrepreneur.
With this enormous donation, Adani has joined the ranks of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway who have committed large parts of their wealth to philanthropy.
According to the Bloomberg news agency, Adani’s pledge is almost half of what Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates donated to their foundation in 2021.
Among Indian business tycoons, Azim Premji, former chairman of Wipro Ltd., has a charitable trust with the largest endowment estimated at $21 billion, while Tata Trusts, overseen by Ratan Tata made donations of over $102 billion at its current value, according to a 2021 report by Hurun India and EdelGive Foundation.
The Adani group, which started with a small agri-trading firm in 1988, has now spawned into a conglomerate that spans coal trading, mining, logistics, power generation, and distribution. More recently, it has forayed into green energy, airports, data centers, and cement. Its billionaire founder has also committed to investing a total of $70 billion by 2030 to make his group the world’s largest renewable-energy producer.
The Adani Foundation, led by his wife Priti Adani, was established in 1996 and has worked on social programs in the rural hinterland of India. It has reached more than 3.7 million people in 2,409 villages across 16 states in India, according to its website.
A college dropout, Adani hails from Gujarat. He first tried his luck in Mumbai’s diamond industry in the early 1980s before returning to Gujarat to help run his brother’s plastics business. In 1988, he set up Adani Enterprises Ltd. as an agri-trading firm which has now morphed into the flagship firm for the conglomerate.
Adani’s wife Priti Adani is a qualified doctor with a bachelor’s in Dental Surgery (BDS). She has been spearheading Adani Foundation for two decades now. At present, the Foundation is helping uplift 3.4 million people annually across 18 states of the country, according to the Adani Group’s website.
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