Who is George Soros? What angered the Indian government about Billionaire?

During a speech ahead of the Munich security conference, billionaire investor George Soros made remarks that infuriated the government. He stressed the recent Adani Group crisis and said that Prime Minister Modi 'must answer questions' from foreign investors and Parliament about allegations of fraud and stock manipulation against the billionaire's companies.   

The Bharatiya Janata Party launched a frontal attack on billionaire investor George Soros on Friday, February 17, accusing him of targeting not only Prime Minister Narendra Modi but also the Indian democratic system. 

During a speech ahead of the Munich security conference, Soros made remarks that enraged the government. He cited the recent Adani Group crisis and said that Prime Minister Modi 'must answer questions' from foreign investors and Parliament about allegations of fraud and stock manipulation against the billionaire's companies.

He also said that this would 'significantly weaken Modi's stranglehold on India's federal government' and allow for much-needed institutional reforms to be pushed. 'I may be naive, but I believe India will experience a democratic revival,' Soros said. 

Union minister Smriti Irani called it an 'attack on India that would not be tolerated' and called upon Indians to respond unitedly to 'foreign powers who try to intervene in India's democratic processes.' Additionally, she referred to the billionaire as a 'designated economic war criminal.'

Know who George Soros is:
1) The philanthropist, 92, is one of the world's wealthiest men. Following Encyclopaedia Britannica, he was born into a prosperous Jewish family that fled Hungary (when he was 17) when the Nazis arrived. They arrived in London in 1947, where Soros studied philosophy at the London School of Economics.

2) After finishing his education, he joined the London merchant bank Singer & Friedlander. According to Encyclopaedia Britannica, Soros moved to New York in 1956 and began working as an analyst of European securities.

3) After establishing a hedge fund in 1973, Soros made his mark in the financial world by making risky investment decisions. From 1969 to 2011, he was in charge of client funds. According to Forbes, Soros made a $1 billion profit by shorting the British pound. According to the outlet, he became known as the man who broke the Bank of England.

4) Soros has a net worth of $8.5 billion and is the founder of the Open Society Foundations, which provides grants to organisations and individuals that promote democracy, transparency, and free speech, said Bloomberg.

5) Soros established these foundations after the Cold War ended in Czechoslovakia, Poland, Russia, and Yugoslavia. These Open Society Foundations were active in over 70 countries by the turn of the century. Joe Biden has also been involved in political activism, supporting the presidential campaigns of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Soros has criticised China's President Xi Jinping, former US President Donald Trump, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The opposition has accused the BJP-led government at the Centre of favouritism and crony capitalism. They had even raised the issue during Parliament's budget session, demanding a joint parliamentary committee investigation.

The Adani Group, led by billionaire Gautam Adani, one of the world's richest people, has seen shares in its seven companies lose billions of dollars in market value since the US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research published a report on January 24 accusing the Adani Group of improper use of offshore tax havens and stock manipulation. Adani has categorically denied the allegations, calling them a 'maliciously mischievous' reputational attack.