> But talk of cronyism misses the point. If Adani didn’t exist, the Indian government would have had to invent him: The development model we have now chosen req

> But talk of cronyism misses the point. If Adani didn’t exist, the Indian government would have had to invent him: The development model we have now chosen requires risk-taking “national champions” such as the Adani Group. What else did you expect? After all, like so many others, India has turned away from traditional market-supporting structural reform in favor of old-fashioned industrial policy. > Much of what Hindenburg put in its report doesn’t count as news for Indian investors. They have known for years that Adani Enterprises Ltd., the fulcrum of the Adani empire, is loaded down with debt, and that the ultimate source of its funding is remarkably opaque. > No, Indians’ real fear is something else — that Gautam Adani and his companies simply cannot do what they say they will. Can they build the roads they have promised, improve the ports they have been given, maintain the airports they won in a bid? Until now, nobody else has been able to do so. > Our worry is not where the Adani Group is picking up the capital in service of these ambitions. India is not necessarily short of capital to achieve some of these ends. It is, however, certainly short of implementation capacity. This is what Adani’s companies has promised to supply. The public sector is too inefficient to build what India needs; the rest of the private sector is too concerned about political risk. > If Adani’s companies can deliver a fraction of what he has pledged, then perhaps, in time, they might even grow into the valuations they have already achieved on paper. If they fail, then a lot more goes down than his investors; Adani will take down India’s industrial policy with him. Their big bet on him will then rebound on India’s banks, on India’s politicians, and on India’s citizens. ---- Basically, in a country where the people cannot depend on the public sector, they are willing to accept a functional private sector for the price of possible corruption. (I think Korea with its Chaebol system has achieved success using this system, perhaps this is the way for Asian success?) for someone living across the border who can't hope to achieve that (we are bankrupt for all intents and purposes), that is an acceptable trade frankly Western nations will just have to accept corruption as a cost of doing business, IMHO