Sometimes people see the world as either my way or the highway, a company or individual is the bad guy and the other side is the good guy, meanwhile the bad guy is just trying to do what is legal and meet a demand. When a person makes a great deal of money, it is reasonable to ask how did he/she do it? what connections do they have? can everyone have the same connections to make money?

In an article by Kruthika Pathi and Sibi Arasu of the Associated Press, they examined the richest person in India. Gautham Adani runs the Adani Group and by any measure is one of the largest companies in India. His success is tied to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his policies to promote self-reliance and achieving net zero by 2070. Prior to Prime Minister Modi, the Adani Group was much smaller, but since his election, Mr. Adani’s net worth has gone up 2,000% to $125 billion according to Bloomberg’s Billionaire index.

According to Mihir Sharma, an economist at the Observer Research Foundation, it is not that government policies are shaped by the Adani Group so much as the Adani Group is a willing and able partner in what the government decides are its priorities.

Mr. Adani has a base in supplying coal to coal burning electric power stations and has expanded to ports, farming, defense manufacturing and announced plans to invest $70 billion in solar, wind and other green projects over the next decade.

The company has won multibillion dollar contracts to build ports, highways and power plants. If there are large government subsidies involved, the Adani Group expands. One of the key elements to Adani’s success has been his ability to manage relationships. He is close to every politician that is power according to RN Bhaskar who wrote a biography on Mr. Adani.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, in the above case Mr. Adani is flexible enough to agree with India’s policies and benefit from them. Some companies try to stay away from government subsidies, others embrace them, what does your investments do? does it what which party is in power? does the management team have relationships?

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.