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The government company that Modi sold to Adani for ₹2.5 crore has seen its business grow to ₹600 crore. Adani uses the name and year of the oldest company in its business. like a trademark for marketing
Dilip Patel
Ahmedabad, December 24, 2025
The Narendra Modi-led Gujarat government finally sold the Gujarat State Export Corporation to the Ahmedabad-based Adani Group for ₹1.6 crore in 2004. Adani owns the oldest company, Gujarat Export Corporation, which was established in 1963. Adani has been using this year as a symbol of its long-standing presence in the business. 1963 has become like a trademark for marketing purposes.
The Narendra Modi government’s first deal was to give Adani land cheaply without an auction. The second deal was to give Adani a company that conducts import-export business.
In 2025, this company has a large office on Ashram Road in Ahmedabad. Rakesh Shah, Samir Mankad, Shaishav Shah, Raji Shah, Maheshwar Sahu, and Sandeep Parikh are its directors. Its turnover is between ₹500 and ₹600 crore, and its profit margin is 10%. Adani has created 3 more companies under this company. Aviation is one of them.
It operates export and import facilities and a trading business. It operates air cargo complexes under operation and maintenance arrangements in Ahmedabad, Indore, and Visakhapatnam. It provides ground handling services to 3 airports. It operates at Visakhapatnam Airport. By re-establishing GSEC, Adani transformed it into a highly profitable unit. Today, this platform is a pillar of Adani’s large logistics and airport business, which is spread across several airports in the country.
The government and the Adani Group signed an agreement regarding this on Monday. Although the exact amount of the deal is unknown, it is believed that the Adani Group paid approximately Rs 1.6 crore.
According to a report in the Economic Times, Sanjay Gupta, Chief Executive Officer of Adani Infrastructure, confirmed the development. However, he declined to provide specific details of the acquisition deal.
According to a Business Standard report, in the first instance where the state government sold its entire stake in a public sector undertaking, Gujarat sold its 56.6 percent stake in Gujarat State Export Corporation Limited (GSEC) to Adani Exports Limited for Rs 4.50 crore. The remaining stake is held by the public.
All the state government directors were removed.
Ahmedabad-based Adani Exports is promoted by the Adani Group. The government had sold its entire stake in GSEC to Adani Exports. In March, the company was informally given management control.
Rajesh Shah was appointed as the new Managing Director of the corporation.
Adani increased the profitability of the corporation by 40 percent in four months.
The corporation operates the air cargo complex at Ahmedabad airport. The revenue from the air cargo complex increased from Rs 70,000 per day to Rs 1 lakh. At that time, Samir Mankad was a director of GSEC. Adani announced that its objective was to help small and medium enterprises promote their export and import businesses.
The then Minister of State for Industries, Anil Patel, announced that the government would proceed with the disinvestment policy. The government constituted an expert committee to examine the pros and cons of disinvesting in other such companies in the future.
The committee was formed, but it could have sold off a few more companies.
Finance Minister Vajubhai Vala had announced that the government would sell its stake in some more entities in phases, as there was no point in holding large government stakes in loss-making PSUs. Vala made the announcement but did not follow through. Today, the government owns 70 companies. To attract more pharmaceutical companies to use Ahmedabad Airport, GSEC appointed an Assistant Drug Controller at the air cargo complex itself.
A counter was set up to facilitate the payment of customs duties and other charges. Trade in fruits, vegetables, flowers, and pharmaceuticals is expected to increase significantly.
The capacity of the air cargo complex’s cold storage facility has also been increased to 15 tons. In the financial year, GSEC handled import and export cargo worth more than ₹5,500 crore.
The Gujarat government’s 2004 decision to sell a 56.7% stake in the state-owned Gujarat State Export Corporation (GSEC) to the Adani Group at a low price raised serious questions about the state’s assets, farmers’ interests, and the fundamental principles of democracy.
GSEC was established in 1963 to promote the export trade of Gujarat state. When the sale took place 40 years later in 2004, its total valuation was only ₹2.8 crore. This valuation was done without considering the organization’s true assets.
GSEC possessed highly valuable assets: monopoly rights at Ahmedabad Airport (SVPI) as the sole agency for air cargo handling, a large cargo terminal, warehouses and land in prime locations, offices and a logistics network at other export hubs including Surat, and permanent business and licenses such as ‘Customs Cargo Handling Agent’.
Today, the land alone is worth hundreds of crores of rupees. The land inside Ahmedabad Airport is now priceless. At that time, it was valued at a very low government rate. This incident…
The commercial value of the institution, which was only ₹2.8 crore in 2004, is proof that it was a major player in air cargo services and similar properties.
Now it could be worth more than ₹500 to ₹1000 crore. The impact of privatization has been detrimental to farmers and the state’s public welfare policies. The state exchequer suffered a permanent loss. GSEC was a profitable institution. Its sale permanently eliminated the state’s source of annual profits and dividends. GSEC could have provided cold storage and cargo services to farmers at subsidized rates, which is now gone. The ‘market power’ of private companies proved more important than public interest. This was a strategic and economic victory for the Adani Group. Following this, the Adani Group expanded rapidly. A meager investment of ₹1.6 crore gave Adani a monopoly in Gujarat’s air cargo market from 2004 onwards. The foundation of an integrated logistics empire was laid. In 2007, the aviation business started charter operations for passengers. There is also the chemicals and petrochemicals business. The Russian ‘loans-for-shares’ scheme in the 1990s saw Russia’s valuable oil and mineral assets sold off to a few industrialists at very low prices. As a result, ‘oligarchs’ emerged, who converted economic power into political power and weakened democracy. The same is happening in the country today.
In Argentina and Brazil, indiscriminate privatization made public services expensive and created significant social unrest. A similar situation is now developing in India.
In the 20 years from 2004 to 2025, the value of the property and its business has increased hundreds of times, with the entire benefit going to a private group. The public has been deprived of the potential benefits of this wealth. For the stability of democracy and social justice, it is essential that national wealth be managed in the public interest.
If economic inequality is to be reduced and power decentralized, then a mechanism of strict transparency, independent evaluation, and parliamentary oversight is necessary for the privatization of government assets in the future. This incident in Gujarat serves as a reminder to the entire country that in the pursuit of economic development, the fundamental principles of democracy and the interests of the common man should never be compromised. (Google translation from Gujarati, see original Gujarati text)
