Karan Adani boasted that a recently signed $553 million US government funding arrangement towards a port terminal being created by his family's business was a “reaffirmation by the international community” when standing before Sri Lankan authorities and US diplomats in a five-star hotel in Colombo last week.

After a humiliating short-seller campaign and other accusations of corporate fraud this year, the statement was a welcome reprieve for India's Adani Group. It also meant that Washington supported the port empire that Karan's father, billionaire Gautam Adani, held, which would assist reduce China's maritime dominance in the Indian Ocean. Adani is seen as a strong supporter of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Two-thirds of oil shipments and more than one-third of bulk freight traffic worldwide occur in those waterways. Chief investment officer of TCG Asset Management Co. in Mumbai, Chakri Lokapriya, described Adani's port aspirations as a "strategic" move that would help India battle China's network of ports stretching from Pakistan to Sri Lanka.

The conglomerate's crown jewel, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd., is now pursuing more "opportunities in our neighboring countries", as its CEO, Karan Adani, said to the capital of Sri Lanka. Along with its current developments in Sri Lanka and Israel, these include possible ventures in Bangladesh and East African and Southeast Asian countries, such as Tanzania and Vietnam, he said.