Gautam Adani Becomes Second Richest Man

Submission 970

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About

Gautam Adani Becomes Second Richest Man refers to Indian businessman Gautam Adani overtaking Jeff Bezos and Bernard Arnault to become the second wealthiest man in the world on September 16th, 2022. The news was received with mixed reactions in India, with some commending the tycoon for supposedly bolstering the Indian stock market and others critiquing his company's massive debt to the Indian government. The news of Adani's rapid ascent was chronicled on Forbes' Real-Time Billionaires List before making its way to Twitter and Instagram where it was discussed and memed.

Origin

On September 16th, 2022, the Twitter^[1] account @livemint posted an article announcing that Gautam Adani had overtaken Jeff Bezos to become the second richest man in the world. The post gathered nearly 500 likes and nearly 90 retweets in four days (seen below). That same day, the Facebook^[2] account TheEngineerBro posted an image announcing similar news and gathered over 40,000 reactions and 2,000 shares in four days (seen below).

Spread

On September 16th, 2022, Twitter^[3] user @ysathishreddy posted an image of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with an image of Adani being relegated to a corner of the portrait. The tweet contained a caption that read, "Congratulations to ‘Gautam Adani’ on becoming the 2nd richest person in the world xD," and gathered over 4,000 likes and nearly 1,000 retweets in four days (seen below).

Also on September 16th, the Instagram^[4] page @raitaposting uploaded a slideshow containing two memes about Adani Group's debt to the Indian Government, gathering over 6,000 likes in four days (seen below).

Discourse about Adani's debt to the Indian government continued to gain traction, with some internet users coming to Adani's defense by citing the debts owed by other corporations to their governments. On September 18th, 2022, Twitter^[5] user @rishibagree posted a tweet referencing this fact and gathered over 12,000 likes and 4,000 retweets in nearly two days (seen below, left).

Other users were quick to add an amendment to the claim by emphasizing the higher profit margins of other companies. For example, Twitter^[6] user @iJasOberoi posted a reply to the aforementioned tweet and gathered over 4,000 likes and 800 retweets in two days (seen below, right).