The upheaval engulfing Gautam Adani's corporate empire that has caused a painful stock market selloff and shattered confidence in India as an investment opportunity may pave the way for a democratic renaissance in the nation, billionaire investor George Soros said.

The aftermath from American short seller Hindenburg Research's attack on the company has raised issues with the regulatory structure of the nation and raised doubts about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's relationships with Gautam Adani. It also threatens to harm investor confidence in India.

The Modi-Adani friendship has been under the spotlight as a result of the issue, but he must respond to inquiries from foreign investors and in front of the parliamentary body "In a speech prior to the Munich Security Conference, Soros remarked. This will make it much easier to press for urgent institutional reforms and dramatically weaken Modi's grip on India's federal government. I could be foolish, but I think India will experience a democratic renaissance." 

The Hungarian-American businessman, who set u  the Open Society Foundations to promote democratic governance, said Modi “is no democrat”, noting that “inciting violence against Muslims was a key factor in his meteoric rise”. He added that India “buys a lot of Russian oil at a steep discount and makes a lot of money on it”.

The Open Society Foundations, founded by Soros, whose estimated net worth is USD 8.5 billion, awards funds to organisations and people who support democracy, openness, and freedom of speech.

The Adani Group was accused of accounting fraud and stock manipulation in a damning short-seller report published in late January, which sparked a stock crash that destroyed more than $120 billion of the empire's market value and caused the once-second-richest person in the world to fall in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index rankings.

The empire's debt is the latest subject of discussion in the Adani saga. After a recent borrowing frenzy, concerns about access to foreign finance and a surge in yields in the wake of the short-seller report have led to fears that the group's more heavily leveraged companies may not be able to withstand rising interest rates.

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