THE GEOPOLITICAL IMPLICATIONS OF THE ADANI CASE

The aim of this case might be to stop the Adani Group from raising funds in the US markets and prevent its rapi infrastructural expansion especially in ports, and airports.

- HINDOL SENGUPTA

Through the 1980s, America worried manufacturing, and comprehensively outpaces the West, including America, in areas like electric vehicles and others.

This concern about economic might and the role of Indian companies was always bound to move to India as the country rose up the GDP ranks―now at number 5-with an avowed aim to be the third-largest economy in the world by the end of the decade.

It is for a court to adjudge the merits of the case against Indian infrastructure and energy major Ad☐ about the rise of ani Group and its meteoric Japan, and the "Japanese takeover of the US" as Japanese companies like Mitsubishi and Sony picked up prime American assets.

This anxiety gave birth to novels like Michael Crichton's Rising Sun (1992), a futuristic murder mystery laden with corruption set in Los Angeles in an imaginary age when Japanese companies completely dominate the American landscape having wiped any competition. Ironically, at the same time, the Japanese bubble was beginning to burst, and a long stagnation followed.

For the last three decades, concerns about Chinese infiltration of American and Western systems, and the might of Chinese companies, have grown exponentially, not least due to the Chinese Communist Party's own machinations including industrial theft.

This saga continues as China has now acquired pole position in large scale founder Gautam Adani, but it is important to understand that this case is much more about geopolitics than merely about alleged corruption.

The Ahmedabad-based around $150 billion Adani Group was virtually unknown three decades ago, and yet it has become one of the most powerful conglomerates with a ports-toreal estate-to-FMCG-andmedia portfolio in India. It is, in a sense, spearheading the private contribution to India's geopolitical infrastructure-building from supplying electricity in Bangladesh to building and managing ports around the world.