Adani urges India's youth to fight for tech freedom amid AI competition

Terms the challenge the second freedom struggle amid AI competition

Gautam Adani, Chairman of the Adani group, on Monday warned that artificial intelligence (AI) will upend global competition and recast the balance of power between nations and corporations.

 

He called on India to treat technological self-reliance as its next freedom struggle.

 

In a keynote address at the platinum jubilee celebrations of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur on Monday, the Adani Group chairman said the speed of innovation in AI and related technologies is so rapid that today’s advantages could disappear overnight.

 

He urged both the central government and corporate sector to prepare for an era where algorithms, data and intellectual property determine sovereignty.

   

“The wars we fight today are often invisible. They are fought in server farms, not in trenches. The weapons are algorithms, not guns. The empires are not built on land, but in data centres,” Adani told students in a packed auditorium.

 

He added, “Tomorrow’s trillion-dollar disruptors will bend others to their will. Several companies that seem unbeatable today will vanish because they cannot compete at the pace and scale needed.” 

 

Adani framed the challenge as India’s “second freedom struggle,” comparing the nation’s quest for self-reliance in critical technologies to its 20th-century fight against colonial rule.

 

While political independence was achieved in 1947, he argued, India remains dependent on foreign countries for semiconductors, energy and defence systems.

 

Nearly 90 per cent of chips are imported, he noted, leaving the country exposed to sanctions or supply disruptions.

 

“Your innovation, your software code, and your ideas are today’s weapons,” he told students at IIT Kharagpur. “You will decide whether India takes command of its destiny or surrenders it to others.”

 

Adani warned that as AI begins to build AI, robots build robots, and machines teach machines, entire industries and education systems will face disruption.

 

Cost advantages in labour will evaporate, he said, unless India leads in intellectual property creation and breakthrough technologies.

 

The billionaire, whose $200 billion Adani Group operates the country’s largest ports, airports and renewable power projects, also acknowledged that India’s private sector has lagged in research and innovation.

 

For too long, he said, it has depended on government-funded institutions like Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) to drive breakthroughs, while industry has focused on scaling rather than creating original intellectual property.

 

“If we corporates do not step up, we will remain users of foreign breakthroughs and never be originators,” Adani said. “This is a future we cannot accept.”

 

To address the gap, he announced a new Adani–IIT Platinum Jubilee Change Makers Fellowship, a programme across all IITs aimed at channelling top student talent into high-impact projects in sectors such as renewable energy, logistics and smart mobility.

 

Adani said the initiative will serve as a model for how large corporates can partner universities to accelerate innovation.

 

Adani pointed to opportunities where advanced analytics and machine learning (ML) could reshape industries central to India’s growth. At his group’s 30-gigawatt Khavda renewable park in Gujarat, students could co-develop AI-driven grid-balancing and predictive maintenance tools, he said.

 

At Adani Ports, which handles over 400 million tonnes of cargo annually, algorithms could optimise berth scheduling and autonomous container handling.

 

And at Adani airports, which manage 100 million passengers a year, AI could improve crowd prediction, baggage handling and energy efficiency.

 

Such collaborations, he argued, could help transform India’s scale of engineering talent into a global innovation hub comparable to Silicon Valley or Boston’s biotech cluster.

 

Adani’s comments underscore mounting anxiety among India’s business elite over the pace of technological change.

 

The rise of generative AI has already disrupted industries from software development to pharmaceuticals, while intensifying a global race for chipmaking capacity and advanced research.

 

For India, the stakes are high. The country aspires to be a $25 trillion economy by 2050, yet remains heavily dependent on foreign technology.

 

“In a world of robotics and AI, cost advantages will vanish overnight,” Adani said. “If India is to lead, we must carry our share of the innovation burden — not as marketing slogans, but with budget allocations, world-class laboratories and risk capital.”

 

Adani closed his speech with a message to students about personal responsibility in shaping India’s destiny. Drawing on his own journey from a teenage trader in Mumbai to the head of one of India’s largest conglomerates, he urged the next generation to choose the harder path of nation-building over the lure of comfortable foreign jobs.

 

“You are the new freedom fighters of Bharat. Eighty years ago, within the cold walls of the Hijli jail, young men and women your age fought for freedom. Today, your weapons are ideas, your ammunition is innovation, and your fight is for a sovereign India that submits to none,” he said.

 

Adani asked students to build first for India. “From the fisherman of Kutch to the farmer of Kharagpur, our responsibility is to Bharat first. If we don’t build for 1.4 billion of our own, we surrender to foreign flags,” he said.

 

Adani also asked the students to fortify India's foundations:  “Infrastructure, technology, intellectual property — these are the roots of our freedom. A nation standing on borrowed soil cannot hold its head high,” he said.

 

Finally, Adani asked students to march as one team for Bharat. "Walk alone — speed is possible. Walk together — greatness is inevitable. When academia and industry fuse into one mission squad, India is unstoppable," said he.

 

"Remember — If I could take a train to Mumbai at 16 with nothing but belief, then you, with your knowledge and heritage, can go much farther.  And remember — soon, in your hands will be two tickets. One — to a comfortable life — maybe a foreign company or a safe job. The other — a ticket to stay, the drive to build for Bharat, to join this second freedom struggle.

 

“One train takes you to a salary. The other takes you to a legacy,” he said. “Only one train carries the pride of building Bharat.”