Gautam Adani and his fortune drivers deserve keener spotlight, scrutiny

The silent soldiers behind the world's second-biggest personal fortune are overdue their recognition. They also deserve some scrutiny

Gautam Adani’s rise to the No. 2 spot in global wealth rankings, crafted chiefly from shares traded in the local market, deserves to be in the spotlight — as much as a poster child of Narendra Modi’s “Make in India” self-reliance as an opportunity for some much-needed transparency about the tycoon’s investors.

In the Indian prime minister’s eight years in power, the first-generation entrepreneur from his home state of Gujarat came out of relative obscurity and eclipsed Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com Inc. No other Asian businessman has ever risen this high — not when Japan Inc. was buying up everything