Gautam Adani is one of the most favoured of the ruling party especially the Prime Minister and the Home Minister. In 2014 elections Mr. Narendra Modi was going around the country in airplanes of Adani. So he favours Adani. The wealth of Adani has increased 121% between 2014 and 2019. From the 41^st richest man in 2014, he became 2^nd richest man in 2019.

In September and October 2015, the Modi government awarded 126 contracts to set up and operate piped natural gas networks and fuel stations across India.  25 bids were won by Adani. 15 on its own and 10 in joint venture with government owned Indian Oil Corporation.

In 2018 it won project for treating waste water in Allahabad.

In 2019, without any experience Adani was allotted 6 airports of India including Trivandrum which the state government was willing to operate by relaxing norms for bidding.

In 2013 Adani Group had 44 projects but by 2018 it had 92 projects. As on 2018 Adani Group had loan outstanding of Rs. 99181 on Crores.

Now Adani Group is one of the biggest producers of electricity in power sector.  It is also one of the biggest transmitter of electricity.

Adani Group runs 12 ports in the country. Adani Group & Partners are one of the largest aggregators of diamond and gold jewellery.

Coming to Agriculture- Adani Group is one of the biggest importers of edible oils and apples.

In 2019, it set up 21 Logistics Ltd Companies in addition to existing Adani Wilmar Ltd, Adani Farm PiK, Adani Agri Fresh Ltd and in 2020 it has got contract to provide logistics to Food Corporation of India.

In May, 2020, Adani Group was given conversion of 23 acres of land in Haryana for its Logistics Company.

Adani Group is one which has been given concessions by the government regularly by relaxing norms. A college dropout who was diamond aggregator and then plastics merchant, has now become the second richest man in the country. This cannot be by luck or extraordinary business acumen but with the support of government which has relaxed many norms, given tax concessions and also provided relief through state governments. The government has also provided Viability Gap Fund( VGF) to Adani’s projects.

The farm bills clearly favour corporates like Adani by paving way for slow death of the APMCs slowly which will end minimum support price, encourage contract farming which will help groups like Adani to decide what is to be grown and decide the price and by permitting hoarding by removing potatoes, pulses and oils from essential commodities.

How did Adani group grow this big?

Almost every bank in the country has given loans to Adani Group. Let’s have a glance.

Adani Ennore Container Terminal P Ltd – IDFC Bank
GSPC LNG Ltd – BOI, PNB, Corporation Bank, Syndicate Bank, EXIM Bank, OBC, SIB, P&S Bank, Indian Bank, Allahabad Bank, UBI, RBL BK, Kotak Mahindra & United Bank.
Adani Vizhinjam Port P Ltd – Indus Ind Bank Ltd
Adani Transmission Ltd – Credit Suisse AG, SOCIETE GENERALE, MIZUHO Bk Ltd, Exim Bk, SBI, Standard Chartered Bk, IDFC Bk Ltd, Indus Bk Ltd & HDFC Bk Ltd.
Adani Properties Ltd – Indus Ind Bk Ltd
Adani Power Ltd, BOI, Jammu & Kashmir Bk Ltd, PNB, BOB, Corporation Bk, IDBI Bk, Syndicate Bk, Exim Bk, SBI, Karnataka Bk Ltd, Canara Bk, P&S Bk, UCO Bk, Allahabad Bk, ICICI BK, DCB Bk, BOM, Axis Bk, UBI, United Bank of India.
Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd. Societe Generale, BOA, Mizuho Bk, SBI, ICICI, Axis Bk, IDFC, Yes Bk, Indus Ind, HDFC, Barclays Bk, Kotak Mahindra, Citi Bank, MUFG Bk
Adani Petronet (DAHEJ) Port Ltd – SBI, Indus Ind, HDFC, Barclays
Adani Kandla Bulk Terminal P Ltd – IDFC Bk
Adani Infrastructure and Developers P Ltd – Indus Ind Bk
Adani Hazira Port Ltd – BOA, Axis, IDFC, Indus Ind
Adani Green Energy Ltd – Yes Bk, Indus Ind Bk
Adani Gas Ltd – 6 Bks
Adani Entreprises Ltd – 12 Banks above.

This is based on 2018 data. Almost all leading banks in the country and a few foreign banks have given loans. Definitely not based on credit worthiness as various international ratings have given poor ratings for the group. The total debt of the company is Rs. 275000 Crore or $ 30 billion out of which $ 7.8 billion is in bonds and $ 22.2 billion is bank loan.

If Adani goes burst it will not be like Vijay Mallaya’s Rs. 9000 Cr or Nirav Modi’s Rs.11500 Cr. The entire banking system in the country will collapse. The banks cannot afford that. The government too cannot allow that.

So the banks will ask farmers to use Adani’s contract farming for loan tie up.  Adani Logistics for their transportation and warehouse. Adani power for factories and home. The shop keepers will have to buy adani products. Already the group claims to have 15 lakh outlets and 5000 distributers selling products with brand names like Fortune, Kings bullet, Raag, Avsar, Pilaf, Jubilee, Fryola, Alife, Alpha and Aadhaar! They cover oils of Soya, Sunflower, Mustard, Rice bran, groundnut, cotton seed and VIVO oil, basmati rice, pulses, soya chunks, besan, wheat flour, soap etc.

They are constructing huge warehouses.

So the farmers will be at the mercy of Adani Group. They will have no option except buying inputs from Adani group and sell produces to them at rates fixed by Adani. Farmers will have to do contract farming and sell produces to the Adani group. He will import produces to keep the prices low so that he can earn huge profits. From small farmers the produces will be purchased by local traders who will be agents of Adani group. Farmers will have to give up farming. The prices will increase heavily for the consumer. The public distribution system will collapse. Poverty will increase.

The inequality will increase.

No other country has treated farmers like this. Every country in the world provides subsidies and support to their farmers. Our government supports corporates as it is run by the corporates and believes in the philosophy that everyone should not be self-sufficient. It will be difficult to govern.

The farmers of the country have understood this to some extent. 

Hence the boycott call. Let’s all join the boycott before it is too late.

Thomas Franco is former General Secretary of All India Bank Officers’ Confederation.