Gautam Adani At IIT-Kharagpur: 'A single geopolitical incident can restrict our growth'

While addressing the students of Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, the Chairman of the Adani Group, Gautam Adani said that he was deeply moved to learn that this was the ground which has witnessed the nation's struggle for freedom.

What Did Gautam Adani Say?

"This is my first visit to Kharagpur and I was deeply moved to learn that this very ground was a witness towards the nation's struggle for freedom," Gautam Adani said.

"It is indeed humbling to stand here where many of India's courageous freedom fighters were once imprisoned, some younger than the students before me today...That cry of 'Vande Mataram' was more than a slogan. It was a promise, sealed in blood and sacrifice, a promise of India's unbreakable resolve and a promise that freedom would live on beyond those who gave their lives for us," he added.

Adani added that in terms of technology dependence, 90% of Indian semiconductors are imported.

"One disruption or sanction can freeze our digital economy. In the case of energy vulnerability, we import 85% of our oil. A single geopolitical incident can restrict our growth," he said.

He further added that in the case of military dependence, many of India's critical systems are imported, bringing our national security under the political will of other nations.

"This is the freedom we must now fight for, the freedom of self-reliance, the freedom of Atmanirbharta, if we are to be truly free," Adani noted.

While commenting on modern warfare, the billionaire said, that the world is moving from a conventional war to technology-driven wars of power and our ability to prepare will decide our future. He added that this is because the wars that we have to fight today are often invisible, they are fought in server farms and not in trenches.

"The weapons are algorithms, not guns. The Empires are not built on land; they are built in data centres. The armies are botnets and not battalions," he further added.

Adani was further speaking about how he has been an entrepreneur since the age of 16 and has navigated multiple cycles of disruptions, many moments of transformation, and built businesses through both crisis and opportunity.

According to him, the age of transformation is now unfolding before us and it is unlike anything he has seen.

"From ISRO's Chandrayaan to Aadhaar, from UPI to vaccine research, from freight corridors to our renewable grids, it is worth reflecting that it is the government that has built the foundation of our modern economy," the conglomerate leader noted.

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