KHARAGPUR, West Bengal— Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani on Monday hailed the country’s young innovators as the driving force of Atmanirbhar Bharat during his address at IIT Kharagpur’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
Speaking to a packed audience, Adani said the energy and enthusiasm he witnessed on campus reflected India’s future.
“The packed hall, unstoppable energy and non-stop cheers will always stay with me. On this historic occasion of IIT KGP’s Platinum Jubilee, it was inspiring to see how our young innovators are the torchbearers of Atmanirbhar Bharat,” Adani said. “With their passion and brilliance, our nation’s growth story has no limits.”
Adani reminded students that today’s pace of technological change is unprecedented. “This is not transformation at 1X speed. It is 10X. It is 100X. And it is accelerating towards 1000X, as AI starts to build AI, LLMs start to write LLMs, robots start to build robots, and machines start to teach machines,” he said.
The billionaire industrialist also acknowledged that Indian companies share responsibility for what he called an “innovation deficit.” He urged corporates to increase investments in research and development. “If we corporates do not step up, we will remain users of foreign breakthroughs and never be originators. This is a future we cannot accept,” he warned.
During the event, Adani announced the launch of the Adani–IIT Platinum Jubilee Change Makers Fellowship, along with plans to establish “living laboratories” in renewable energy, logistics and airports. These initiatives aim to provide IIT students with real-world platforms to test their ideas.
His remarks were punctuated with stories from his entrepreneurial journey, including the building of Mundra Port, the group’s expansion into energy, and the creation of India’s largest airport network. “I talk about Mundra, Khavda, our airports, because they were born not just from my spirit of entrepreneurship, but also from my optimism that the India growth story is unstoppable,” Adani said. (Source: IANS)
