An Indian businessman who is one of the world’s richest people has been indicted in the U.S. on charges he duped investors by concealing that his company's huge solar energy project on the subcontinent was being facilitated by an alleged bribery scheme. Gautam Adani, 62, was charged in an indictment unsealed Wednesday with securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud. The case involves a lucrative arrangement for Adani Green Energy Ltd. and another firm to sell 12 gigawatts of solar power to the Indian government — enough to light millions of homes and businesses. The indictment paints Adani and his co-defendants as playing two sides of the deal. HC orders formation of committee to review power deals with Adani Group It accuses them of portraying it as rosy and above-board to Wall Street investors who poured several billion dollars into the project over the last five years while, back in India, they were paying or planning to pay about $265 million in bribes to government officials to help secure billions of dollars' worth of contracts and financing. Adani and his co-defendants sought to “obtain and finance massive state energy supply contracts through corruption and fraud at the expense of U.S. investors,” Deputy Assistant Attorney General Lisa Miller said. U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said the defendants “orchestrated an elaborate scheme” and sought to "enrich themselves at the expense of the integrity of our financial markets.” In a parallel civil action, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accused Adani and two co-defendants of violating antifraud provisions of U.S. securities laws. The regulator is seeking monetary penalties and other sanctions. Not demanded full payment from Bangladesh in 7 days: Adani Group Both cases were filed in federal court in Brooklyn. Adani's co-defendants include his nephew Sagar Adani, the executive director of Adani Green Energy's board, and Vneet Jaain, who was the company's chief executive from 2020 to 2023 and remains managing director of its board. Online court records did not list a lawyer who could speak on Adani's behalf. An email message seeking comment was left with an arm of his conglomerate, the Adani Group. Emails were also sent to lawyers representing his co-defendants. Sagar Adani's lawyer, Sean Hecker, declined the comment. The others did not immediately respond. Sanjay Wadhwa, acting director of the SEC’s Enforcement Division, said Gautam and Sagar Adani are accused of persuading investors to buy their company's bonds by misrepresenting "not only that Adani Green had a robust anti-bribery compliance program but also that the company’s senior management had not and would not pay or promise to pay bribes.” Adani is a power player in the world’s most populous nation. He built his fortune in the coal business in the 1990s. The Adani Group grew to involve many aspects of Indian life, from making defense equipment to building roads to selling cooking oil. In recent years, the Adani Group has made big moves into renewable energy, embracing a philosophy of sustainable growth reflected in its slogan: “Growth with Goodness." The company has a clean energy portfolio of over 20 gigawatts, including one of the world’s largest solar power plants in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. Adani Group has stated its goal of becoming the country’s biggest player in the space by 2030. In 2022, Gautam Adani said the company would invest $70 billion in clean energy projects by 2032. Last year, a U.S.-based financial research firm accused Adani and his company of “brazen stock manipulation” and “accounting fraud.” The Adani Group called the claims “a malicious combination of selective misinformation and stale, baseless and discredited allegations.” The firm in question is known as a short-seller, a Wall Street term for traders that essentially bet on the prices of certain stocks to fall, and it had made such investments in relation to the Adani Group. The company's stock plunged as a result and dipped again in August when the firm, Hindenburg Research, levied more corruption allegations. Jaain told The Associated Press last year that Hindenburg's allegations had little impact on its ongoing projects, including work building 20 gigawatts of a solar and wind energy project in the northwest Indian village of Khavda. Prosecutors allege that Adani and his co-defendants started plotting the bribery scheme in 2020 or 2021 to guarantee demand for the energy that Adani Green and another firm were under contract to produce for the national government's Solar Energy Corporation of India. Adani Green and the other firm’s high prices turned off India's state-run electricity distributors, which buy power from the national government and provide it to homes and businesses. But the companies needed those deals to make the project worthwhile and keep revenues high, so they offered bribes to get them done, prosecutors said. After the defendants started promising bribes to government officials, in 2021 and 2022, electricity distributors in five Indian states or regions entered into agreements to purchase their energy, prosecutors said. Adani's company issued a statement in which he touted his deals as the “world's largest” power purchase agreement. At the same time, prosecutors said, the Adanis and Jaain were attesting to global investors that Adani Green was and would never be involved in bribery. Those claims enabled them to secure billions of dollars in financing for the project at terms that “did not account for the true risk” involved, prosecutors said.

About 80 chartered flights have landed at the new international airport of India's holy city of Ayodhya for Monday’s partial opening of the controversial grand temple for one of Hinduism’s most revered deities, Lord Ram. Ayodhya’s airport can barely accommodate the influx of private jets. “The planes will depart after dropping guests,” airport manager Saurabh Singh said. The temple was built over an ancient razed mosque, and most political opposition leaders are boycotting the temple's opening, saying it doesn't befit a secular India. However, the list of attendees boasts some of India's most influential people: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, industrialists Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani and Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan. Ahead of the upcoming general election, Modi’s Hindu nationalist party is using the elaborate consecration ceremony to lobby the country's Hindu majority. Read more: Ancient Temples of Bangladesh: Remembering Their Past Glory THE LEGEND OF RAM, THE PRINCE OF AYODHYA The temple will be the sacred abode of one of the Hindu pantheon's most popular gods Ram, who Hindus believe was born at the exact site in Ayodhya. Millions of Hindus worship Lord Ram with an intense belief that chanting his name in times of adversity will bring peace and prosperity, and most of those who practice Hinduism keep idols of Ram in their homes. Major Hindu festivals like Dussehra and Diwali are associated with mythological tales of Ram extolling the virtues of truth, sacrifice and ethical governance. The mythological Hindu epic “Ramayan," which tells the story of Ram’s journey from prince to king, has often been adapted in popular culture. One of the most-viewed fabled shows is the TV series “Ramayan” created in the 1980s which continues to have a faithful audience. Ram’s divinity is not only the dominant religious force in India but also part of the ancient cultural heritage in countries like Thailand, Indonesia, Myanmar and Malaysia. Read more: A Hindu temple built atop a razed mosque in India is helping Modi boost his political standing A TEMPLE RISES Spread over nearly 3 hectares, the temple — which is still being built— has an estimated cost of $217 million. It's made with pink sandstone, adorned with intricate carvings, and has 46 doors — 42 of which will have a layer of gold. Anil Mishra, a member of the trust overseeing the construction, said the temple blends traditional design with cutting-edge technology and is “crafted without the use of iron, steel, or cement." A 1.3-meter (4.25-foot) dark stone sculpture depicting Ram was installed in the temple’s inner sanctum for Monday’s consecration. The religious ritual of “Pran Pratishtha," which signifies giving life to the idol, will be conducted according to Hindu Vedic scriptures. The deity can then receive and bless devotees. After the ceremony, the temple will open to the public and an estimated 100,000 devotees are likely to visit daily, authorities say. AYODHYA, PAST AND PRESENT The city known for its narrow lanes crowded with Hindu pilgrims and shops selling miniature Ram idols, has been given a facelift with modern infrastructure and services. Ayodhya’s modest airstrip has grown into an expansive international airport with a 2.2-kilometer (about 1.4-mile) runway in the first phase. The clean railway station has a daily passenger capacity of about 50,000 people. “The historical and spiritual significance of Ayodhya makes it a compelling destination,” and a huge surge in demand is anticipated, said Ravi Singh, a representative of the Indian Hotels Company Limited. THE CONTROVERSY Ayodhya has been at the center of India’s turbulent politics and the Hindu majoritarian quest to redeem the country’s religious past for decades. Its diverse, multicultural past was overrun by strident Hindu nationalism after mobs demolished the 16th-century Babri mosque in 1992. Hindus won a prolonged legal battle in 2019, allowing them to build the temple. Hindus make up about 80% of India’s population but the country is also home to some 200 million Muslims who have frequently come under attack by Hindu nationalists. Modi has been the face of an unprecedented, and unapologetic, fusion of religion and politics in India and led the temple’s groundbreaking ceremony in 2020. Critics say the idea of a diverse, constitutionally secular state leading a Hindu religious ritual is deplorable. Most opposition leaders have declined the invitation, saying the event is being used for political campaigning by Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which promised to build a Ram temple as part of its election strategy. Modi has asked people to publicly celebrate the consecration by lighting lamps at homes and temples. The message is clear: Mobilization of Hindu voters will be a key issue in the upcoming national election as Modi looks to extend his rule for a record third-consecutive term. Read more: India's Modi is set to open a controversial temple in Ayodhya in a grand event months before polls

Indian tycoon Gautam Adani’s wealth increased after stocks gained for two weeks in a row and outpaced Wall Street shares. As a result, he now occupies the third position on Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires List, surpassing Amazon founder Jeff Bezos once more. NDTV reported that Gautam Adani’s wealth increased by $314 million on Monday (October 31, 2022), bringing it to $131.9 billion – making him the third richest person in the world according to Forbes, after Bernard Arnault of Louis Vuitton, who maintains the second slot with a net worth of $156.5 billion. After Amazon predicted dismal holiday sales last Thursday (October 27, 2022), sending shares of the largest retailer in the world tumbling in after-hours trade, the Forbes list also showed a dramatic decline in Jeff Bezos' fortune. Read more: Forbes Highest-paid Footballers 2022: Mbappe overtakes Messi, Ronaldo Although Adani surpassed Jeff Bezos, whose net worth was $126.9 billion, the rankings on the Forbes list have been fluctuating recently, echoing the turmoil in the larger global stock markets, with gains and losses. Gautam Adani, Bernard Arnault, and Jeff Bezos have had readings similar to a musical chairs game for the second, third, and fourth richest spots in recent weeks, but Elon Musk has kept far ahead and is the world’s richest, with a net worth of $223.8 billion. The NDTV reports adds that Gautam Adani’s company would spend more than $150 billion in sectors including renewable energy, data centres, airports, and healthcare as it strives to join the exclusive club of corporations with $1 trillion valuation. Read more: 3 Bangladeshi companies on Forbes list

Indian industrialist, and chairman-founder of Adani Group, Gautam Adani met Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina this evening (September 5, 2022).  Following the meeting Adani tweeted from his verified account: “It is an honour to have met Hon PM of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina in Delhi. Her vision for Bangladesh is inspirational and stunningly bold.”  Read: Purchasing surplus fuel from India will be discussed tomorrow: Foreign Secretary “We are committed to commissioning our 1600 MW Godda Power Project and dedicated transmission line to Bangladesh by Bijoy Dibosh, 16 Dec 2022,” the industrialist added.  Adani Power has set up a 1,600MW thermal power plant in Jharkhand's Godda, India to supply most of the power generated to BPDB through a dedicated transmission line.