Billionaire Gautam Adani has been charged by US prosecutors over his role in an alleged years-long scheme to pay $250 million bribe to Indian officials in exchange for favourable terms for solar power contracts.

US prosecutors charged Adani, 62, his nephew Sagar, and other defendants for paying over $250 million in bribes between 2020 and 2024 to Indian government officials to win solar energy contracts on terms that could potentially bring in more than $2 billion in profit.

This, they alleged, was concealed from the US banks and investors from whom the Adani group raised billions of dollars for the project.

US law allows pursuing foreign corruption allegations if they involve certain links to American investors or markets.

The Adani group did not immediately respond to requests for comments.

“The defendants orchestrated an elaborate scheme to bribe Indian government officials to secure contracts worth billions of dollars,” Breon Peace, US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, which brought the case, said in a statement.

Adani, Chairman of the ports-to-energy Adani Group, his nephew Sagar R Adani, who is an executive director at the conglomerate’s renewable energy arm Adani Green Energy Ltd, and its former CEO Vneet Jaain were charged with securities fraud, securities fraud conspiracy, and wire fraud conspiracy. The Adanis were also charged in a US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) civil case.

The five-count indictment also accuses Sagar and Jaain of breaking federal laws.

The US authorities also charged three former employees of a large Canadian pension fund, CDPQ, in connection with the alleged scheme, saying they obstructed an investigation into the bribes by deleting emails and agreeing to provide false information to the US government.

CDPQ, which invests in infrastructure projects, is a shareholder in Adani companies.

The indictment may throw the conglomerate again in a turmoil just as it rebounded from US short-seller Hindenburg Reserach’s damning fraud allegations.

Hindenburg allegations of “brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud” in January 2023 had led to the conglomerate seeing $150 billion wipeout in market value at its lowest point. The group stocks have since recovered most of the losses.

Adani Group had denied all allegations made by Hindenburg.

A school dropout, Gautam Adani founded his namesake group in 1988 as a commodities trading firm, and built a business empire that now spans airports, shipping ports, power generation, energy transmission, and mining companies.

“Specifically, on or about March 17, 2023, FBI special agents approached Sagar Adani in the United States and pursuant to a judicially authorised search warrant, took custody of electronic devices in his possession,” the court document said.

Some conspirators, according to the documents, referred privately to Gautam Adani with the code names “Numero uno” and “the big man,” while his nephew allegedly used his cellphone to track specifics about the bribes.

“On or about March 18, 2023, the defendant Gautam S Adani emailed himself photographs of each page of the search warrant executed and grand jury subpoena served on the defendant Sagar R Adani,” it said.

Others who were criminally charged include Ranjit Gupta and Rupesh Agarwal, respectively former CEO and former chief strategy and commercial officer of Azure Power Global, which authorities said agreed to pay some of the bribes.

The complaint charges them with violating the antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws and seeks permanent injunctions, civil penalties, and officer and director bars.

During the alleged scheme, Adani Green raised more than $175 million from US investors and Azure Power’s stock was traded on the New York Stock Exchange, the SEC said in a statement.

Simultaneously, the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York unsealed criminal charges against Adani and Sagar Adani, Cyril Cabanes, and others linked to Adani Green and Azure Power.

The federal indictment unsealed in a federal court in Brooklyn charges five others with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in connection with the bribery scheme, involving one of the world’s largest solar energy projects.

Amidst extensive reach into India’s Tier II+ cities and high quality content, the country’s short-form video (SFV) market has seen a 3.6x increase in daily active users, according to a report by Redseer Strategy Consultants.

In a report titled “India SFV in 2024: From ‘Likes’ to Monetising Millions”, the firm has identified four main user archetypes driving SFV engagement, namely value seekers, digital innovators, household stewards, and career mavens.

“India’s digital advertising market is set for exponential growth, projected to nearly double by FY 2029 to reach $16–17 billion, with video advertising leading the way as the fastest-growing ad format,” said Mukesh Kumar, Associate Partner at Redseer Strategy Consultants.

More than 50% of SFV users are monetisable, the report noted. The discretionary spending of these users are often directed towards e-commerce, OTT, in-app purchases, and paid gaming services.

India’s SVF platforms are now generating $95-$100 million in FY24 with ad revenue currently representing 1%-2% of its digital ad spend.

The influencer marketing space is estimated to grow at 40-45%, and is likely to touch $3-$4 billion by FY29.

In addition to advertising, the student highlighted potential for new revenue streams like virtual tapping and video commerce.

Currently, over 63% of the SFV engagement is coming from Tier II+ regions, with platforms like Josh and Moj tailoring content for local languages and preferences. On an average, users now spend about 30 minutes per day on Indian SFVs platforms, said the report.

According to the report, the focus on quality is a key factor in user retentions, particularly in Tier II+ regions, and with growing maturity of users and user-influencer connections, video commerce is expected to touch $5 billion by FY29.

Hello,

Zomato is hiring … but with a catch.

Co-founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal is looking for a Chief of Staff but the selected candidate will get no salary for the first year and will have to pay Rs 20 lakh in the form of donation to the company’s Feeding India initiative. Zomato will contribute Rs 50 lakh to a charity of the candidate’s choice. 

All salary discussions will only take place at the start of the second year.

This comes as a Deloitte report released earlier this year revealed that the gap between median pay and average C-suite pay is widening. The average CEO compensation with long-term incentives was Rs 9.8 crore in 2020 versus Rs 13.8 crore in 2024.

ICYMI: Deepinder Goyal has a go-to recommendation when it comes to books. 

In other news, Christmas came early for crypto investors.

Bitcoin hit a new all-time high price, trading at $94,000, amid reports that Donald Trump’s social media company, Trump Media and Technology, was in talks to buy crypto trading firm Bakkt ahead of an expected crypto-friendly incoming Trump administration.

However, not all are painting the town red. Logan Paul, for one.

The social media star, and the brother of Jake Paul, who recently won a fight with Mike Tyson, is facing fresh questions over his cryptocurrency dealings that he may have profited from misleading fans. BBC reported that his tweet about a particular crypto coin in 2021 may have caused the prices of his investments to spike.

But some countries are now treating cryptocurrencies as a long-term reserve, shifting away from their sceptical stance. Bhutan has quietly accumulated $1.1 billion in Bitcoin, holding 34% of its GDP in 13,011 BTC.

It’s always the quiet ones you have to watch.

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Healing healthcare skill gaps
• Spacetech startups’ sky-bound ambition
• Transformative lithium battery recycling

Here’s your trivia for today: Which is the richest Hindu temple in the world?

Feature

Healing healthcare skill gaps

As medical research, treatments, and technology advance at an unprecedented pace, healthcare professionals must stay ahead to ensure the delivery of safe, effective, and high-quality care.

Unlike other industries, staying on the cutting edge is non-negotiable for healthcare professionals to deliver the best possible care. This urgency has opened up a vital opportunity for organisations offering high-quality upskilling programmes tailored to their needs.

Prescription for success:

• India has over 700 medical colleges with an annual intake of more than 1 lakh students. However, there are only around 70,000 postgraduate seats. According to Gerald Jaideep, CEO of Medvarsity, this imbalance often leads doctors to forgo specialisation.
• Startups like OC Academy and Medvarsity are working towards helping healthcare professionals bridge skill gaps, offering courses from short-term certifications to long-term post-graduate qualifications, master’s degrees, and fellowships.
• India has just 1.7 nurses per 1,000 people, and the doctor-to-patient ratio stands at 1:1,500, creating significant opportunities for upskilling service providers to fulfil this demand for trained personnel. 

Funding Alert

Startup: Blitz

Amount: Rs 51 Cr

Round: Series A

Startup: Billion Hearts

Amount: $4M

Round: Seed

Startup: Doodhvale Farms

Amount: $3M

Round: Series A

Spacetech

Spacetech startups’ sky-bound ambition

ISRO has a key role to play in the growth of startups, including Agnikul Cosmos, Skyroot Aerospace, Pixxel, Dhruva Space, and Bellatrix Aerospace.

The successful suborbital launches by startups Skyroot and Agnikul have fanned hopes among other startups in the sector, which are ready to take on the challenges of rocket-building in the private sector and build the next SpaceX in India, noted ISRO Chairman Dr Sreedhara Panicker Somanath at the Bengaluru Tech Summit 2024.

Growing ecosystem:

• The ISRO chief pointed out that the Indian space ecosystem is growing, with a vision to expand fivefold in the next 20 years. Currently contributing less than 2% to the global space economy, India aims to claim at least a 10% share as the sector evolves.
• Dr Somanath also noted that building small satellites is becoming a significant activity across the country, with at least five companies now involved in satellite development. Many are also scaling up their ability to collaborate and contribute to subsystems for rockets and satellites.
• He also elaborated on the Gaganyaan mission during the session, terming it a major project that has been underway for the last four years, with the aim of launching the nation’s first crewed space mission by 2026. The uncrewed mission is scheduled for early next year, with rocket parts already at the launch complex.

Startup

Transformative lithium battery recycling

As the demand for EVs and renewable energy storage accelerates, the question of what happens to lithium-ion batteries as they degrade and lose their capacity to perform efficiently at the end of their life becomes increasingly critical. 

Founded in 2021, Lico Materials aims to provide a solution by transforming the recycling and refurbishment processes of lithium-ion batteries to create a sustainable circular economy.

Sustainability loop:

• The Mumbai-based startup recycles, refurbishes, and recovers critical materials like lithium, cobalt, manganese, and nickel from end-of-life batteries, which are then returned to battery manufacturers to be used in making new batteries.
• LICO generates revenue by selling minerals to battery manufacturers and paying for the raw materials.  In the last financial year, the startup reported a revenue of Rs 30 crore and is targeting Rs 60 crore for the current financial year.
• The bootstrapped startup has partnered with global giants like Samsung in South Korea, the US, the Philippines, and Malaysia to source batteries for recycling. It partners with OEMs in the EV sector, the battery energy storage systems sector, and consumer electronics manufacturers.

News & updates

• House sales: According to real estate consultancy firm ANAROCK, the average house price in the top seven cities, including Delhi and Mumbai, climbed 23% from a year earlier to Rs 1.2 crore during April-September 2024. More than 227,400 units were sold in those urban areas during the first half of the fiscal year, it said.
• AI learning: OpenAI released a free online course designed to help K-12 teachers learn how to bring ChatGPT into their classrooms. Created in collaboration with the nonprofit organisation Common Sense Media, the nine-module programme covers the basics of AI and its pedagogical applications.
• Back to market: Egypt started selling a stake of as much as $104 million in United Bank, the country’s first initial public offering in three years as it presses ahead with a privatisation programme being encouraged by the International Monetary Fund.

Which is the richest Hindu temple in the world?

Answer: Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram, with estimated assets worth Rs 1,20,000 crore.

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