Who is Gautam Adani, the Indian billionaire charged in the US over bribery plot?

Much of the expansion and growing monopoly of the Adani Group was made possible by contracts given by the Modi government. Photograph: Rupak de Chowdhuri/Reuters

Gautam Adani is widely regarded as one of the most powerful men in India, as well as one of the wealthiest. Born in the western state of Gujarat, one of eight children whose father was a low level textile trader, Adani is seen as a self-made industrialist. At its peak in 2022, Adani’s personal net worth touched $127bn (£100bn).

His first venture into business was trading in the diamond industry in Mumbai, where he made hist first million rupees. In the 1980s, he returned to Gujarat to help with his brother’s plastic business and gradually widened to importing metals, agricultural materials and textiles.