Adani calls for broader credit framework to assess India's infrastructure projects

Adani urges new credit framework for infrastructure

Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani on Monday called on India's credit-rating agencies to develop broader analytical frameworks for assessing large infrastructure projects, arguing that conventional models may not fully capture the value of the country's changing infrastructure landscape.

Speaking at the 'Infrastructure Landscape: Vision for Viksit Bharat' Conclave hosted by CareEdge Group in Mumbai, Adani said India's infrastructure ambitions and the nature of projects being built have changed, requiring rating frameworks to evolve accordingly.

"Transformational infrastructures can be constrained not only by a lack of ambitions or capital, but also by the frameworks through which its risks are assessed. This is not a call for less scrutiny... India does not need lower standards. India needs wider lenses," he said, as quoted by the Free Press Journal and The Hindu Business Line.

Adani argued that many existing analytical frameworks were developed when infrastructure evolved incrementally, demand was relatively visible, and the boundaries of an asset were easier to define. He said such models often rely on standalone cash flows and may not capture the wider economic benefits created when different infrastructure assets work together.

Three categories of infrastructure

Adani classified infrastructure into three categories -- replacement infrastructure, growth infrastructure, and platform infrastructure -- according to reports in the Free Press Journal and The Tribune. He said replacement infrastructure can be adequately assessed with traditional rating models, while growth infrastructure requires models that account for ecosystem effects. Platform infrastructure, he said, can create entirely new capabilities, markets, and industrial clusters.

"Platforms like Mundra, Vizhinjam and Khavda do not just satisfy existing demand. They create new demand. They create new ecosystems. They create new capabilities," Adani said, as reported by The Hindu Business Line.

Citing examples from ports to renewable energy

Adani cited the example of Mundra port in Gujarat, which he said developed into a much larger ecosystem involving rail, logistics centres, power plants, industrial zones, traders, and manufacturers. He described it as a multi-layer network where each new layer cross-subsidizes, feeds, and de-risks the other, creating an "economic compounding flywheel" that linear financial models mostly fail to capture, according to the Free Press Journal.

He also referred to Vizhinjam port in Kerala, which faced difficulties in attracting capital but became the fastest Indian port to achieve two million TEUs within eighteen months of commissioning, as reported by the Free Press Journal and ANI. The Hindu Business Line noted that Vizhinjam, commissioned in December 2024, is India's first deep-draft mega transshipment port.

Additionally, Adani mentioned Khavda in Gujarat's Kutch region, where Adani Green Energy is developing a 30-gigawatt renewable-energy project, according to The Hindu Business Line.

'AI runs on infrastructure'

Adani linked the changing infrastructure landscape to the growth of artificial intelligence, saying, "AI may look like software. But ultimately, AI runs on infrastructure," as quoted by The Hindu Business Line.

He urged CareEdge to develop a comprehensive credit framework for integrated platform infrastructure that recognises ecosystem multipliers, adjacency value, and strategic benefits, while stressing that his call was not for lower standards but for dynamic models.

"Why should the world's first truly comprehensive Credit Framework for Integrated Platform Infrastructure not come from India?" he asked, according to The Hindu Business Line.

He also said India now has far more resources than earlier and has discovered confidence to dream at a scale once thought impossible, as reported by the Free Press Journal and The Tribune.

Context

The remarks come as India accelerates investment in ports, renewable energy, power transmission, digital infrastructure, and manufacturing, with the government targeting 500 GW of non-fossil power capacity by 2030, The Hindu Business Line noted.