New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi together with industrialists and fellow Gujaratis Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani, will shape India’s transformation into an economic superpower in the coming decades, according to a report by US media outlet CNN.

The Indian economy exhibits characteristics of an economy on the cusp of rapid growth, something seen in the UK in the 1820s, South Korea in the 1960-70s and China in the 2000s, CNN reported, citing the Billionaire Raj by James Crabtree.

India is currently the world’s 5th largest economy with $3.7 trillion GDP. The country is poised to become the world’s 3rd largest economy after the US and China by 2027 backed by a projected annual growth of 6 per cent. To be sure, this period was also punctuated by rising unemployment a a low score in terms of per capita GDP in 2022, CNN reported.

Calling Ambani and Adani the Rockefellers of India, for their ubiquitous presence in the country, from airports to cultural institutions, CNN stated that the two businessmen enjoy a never-seen-before power and influence in India. John D Rockefeller was the first American to become a billionaire in the 19th century.

Ambani and Adani have garnered formidable wealth by placing bets on sectors that are likely to be in focus under PM Modi’s government. This is another similarity seen with Rockefeller whose fortune surged as the US witnessed an infrastructural expansion led by factories, trains and urban centres, according to the CNN report.

Other billionaires who struck gold during this period, the Gilded Age, were:

Adani and Ambani are playing allies to the Modi government’s infrastructural push with a focus on constructing roads, ports, airports and railways, apart from a push for digital connectivity.

The two businessmen lead conglomerates that are well connected and are playing “a important role” in India’s direct and indirect growth, CNN reported, citing Guido Cozzi, professor of macroeconomics at the University of St Gallen, Switzerland. Here direct growth means infrastructure expansion and indirect growth is measured in terms of the expansion of India’s digital network.

US-based brokerage Cantor Fitzgerald called Adani Group too big to ignore after its flagship company Adani Enterprises bounced back from a value destruction caused by a critical report from US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research.

Adani Group was founded by Gautam Adani, a first-generation entrepreneur who went from selling diamonds to building ports. Today, the conglomerate is in the business of ports, airports, and energy — both fossil fuel-based and clean energy — something Cantor Fitzgerald calls “a unique long-term investment opportunity,” CNN reported.

Founded by Dhirubhai Ambani, Reliance Industries’ petrochemicals business was inherited by his elder son Mukesh. Today, the latter has upended India’s telecom landscape by offering the cheapest Internet connectivity in the world. RIL dominates the media to retail landscape today, CNN reported.