'Must Now Fight For Freedom Of Atmanirbharta': Gautam Adani At IIT Kharagpur — Read Full Text Of Speech

During his address at Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur on Monday, Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani highlighted the significance of educational institutions spearheading cutting edge research along with being accountable to real world impact.

According to Gautam Adani, it is no longer about producing brilliant graduates but it's about producing brilliant patriots that graduate armed with ideas, discipline, and the will to make India unshakable.

While emphasising the rise of artificial intelligence in solving engineering problems in seconds, Adani questioned the value an engineering or technical degree will hold in future.

"The lifespan of technical knowledge has collapsed from years to months — maybe even weeks. This means the gap between academic theory and industry reality is widening faster than ever before." the billionaire added.

Read the text of the speech here:

Namaskar!

Distinguished faculty, esteemed guests and my brilliant students of IIT Kharagpur. It is a true honour to join you for this Platinum Jubilee Session.

When the current Director, Dr Suman Chakraborty, and former Director, Dr Partha Chakrabarti, extended me the invitation, I did not even check my calendar. When the nation’s two most brilliant Chakrabartis ask you to be part of such a milestone, the only answer is an immediate and wholehearted “Yes!”

My dear friends,

This is my first visit to Kharagpur, and I was deeply moved to learn that this very ground was witness to our nation’s struggle for freedom. It is indeed humbling to stand here, where many of India’s courageous freedom fighters were once imprisoned, some even younger than the students before me today.

One story of an inmate that somehow lingers in my mind is that of Tridib Kumar Chaudhuri, who in 1931, at just 19 years of age, was already a fearless freedom fighter.

Imagine — just 19!

Standing here, I can almost hear his fearless voice still sounding through the walls of the Hijli jail.

ना थमे ना झुके रहे मातृभूमि अमर

गगन गगन गूंजे सदा वन्दे मातरम् का स्वर

That cry of Vande Mataram was more than a slogan.

It was a promise:

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.

And it is about this meaning of freedom that I wanted to talk to you today.

My dear friends,

In 1947, we broke the chains on our land. Yet in the 21^st century, a nation can be independent and still be bound by dependence. Just three days ago, we marked our 79^th Independence Day, and it is clear we stand at a major inflection point. The world is moving from conventional wars to technology-driven wars of power, and our ability to prepare will decide our future.

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.

And here is the uncomfortable truth:

In terms of Technology Dependence, 90% of our 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.

When our Data crosses India’s borders, every bit of this data becomes raw material for foreign algorithms, creates foreign wealth and strengthens foreign dominance.

And in the case of Military Dependence, many of our critical systems are imported, binding our national security to the political will and supply chains 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.

Eighty years ago, here in the Hijli jail, young men and women fought for the right to govern our land. That same fight continues — only the weapons have changed.

And this is what I want every student here to take back. 

You are the next generation of freedom fighters.

Your innovation, your software code, and your ideas are today’s weapons. You will decide whether India takes command of its destiny or surrenders it to others.

क्योंकि स्वतंत्रता केवल एक घटना नहीं यह एक निरंतर लड़ाई है

और इस लड़ाई की अंतिम विजय तभी होगी

जब हम हर क्षेत्र में आत्मनिर्भर बनकर अपने भविष्य खुद तय करें

My dear friends,

I have been an entrepreneur since the age of 16.

I have navigated multiple cycles of disruption, many moments of transformation, and built businesses through both crisis and opportunity.

But I can tell you, with absolute conviction, that the age of transformation now unfolding before us is unlike anything I have seen.

And the battlefield is not just about protecting our nation’s borders.

It is about securing our technology leadership, and ensuring we are able to stay at the forefront of global innovation.

It is about redesigning every business, reimagining every industry, and rewriting every rule of the game — so we lead and not just participate as low-cost players in the global race.

Because, as we all know, in a world of robotics and AI, cost advantages will vanish overnight, and we can quickly lose our ability to compete.

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

LLM start to write LLM

Robots start to build robots

Code starts to write code

Machines start to teach machines, and

Discoveries start to fuel more discoveries.

And this is why I call it our second freedom struggle!

The world has never seen an industrial and intelligence revolution of this scale.

Here is what I can tell you — Tomorrow’s trillion-dollar valued disruptors will bend others to their will. And some of them will go on to dominate the world like no company has ever done before.

Companies will become more powerful than many nations.

And over the next decade, several companies that today seem unbeatable will vanish. They will disappear, not because they lacked resources, but because they could simply not compete at the pace and scale needed.

And I will say that the same stands true for educational institutions!

Because the educational institutions too must transform. They must move at the speed of change, drive cutting edge research and yet be accountable to real-world impact. This is no longer about producing brilliant graduates — it is about producing brilliant patriots that graduate armed with ideas, discipline, and the will to make India unshakable.

The brutal truth is this — when knowledge is a commodity, when skills can be downloaded, and when AI can crack engineering problems in seconds, we must ask — What is the future value of an engineering or technical degree? How should we prepare?

Because, the lifespan of technical knowledge has collapsed from years to months — maybe even weeks. This means the gap between academic theory and industry reality is widening faster than ever before.

And the new currency is abundance.

Abundance of bold ideas.

Abundance of lightning-speed adaptation.

Abundance of relentless reinvention.

In this new round of battle, it is the most brilliant minds that India will need. And you, my dear professors, are the custodians of these minds. Minds trained on these very grounds, trained to think beyond the textbook, trained for rapid invention, and trained to carry the courage of discovery as a national duty.

While this is not a call to give up the heritage of our top institutions, it is indeed a call for designing a different future before it is too late.

Let me now talk about the Indian corporates!

And it begins with an honest admission that we in industry must share equal responsibility for the innovation deficit India faces. After all, we hire from these colleges, and the best among them are government-funded. We stand on the shoulders of public institutions like ISRO, BARC, DRDO, ICMR, NCL, and many more. These have given us the inventions, breakthroughs, and discoveries that form our launchpads.

From ISRO’s Chandrayaan to Aadhaar, from UPI to vaccine research, from freight corridors to renewable grids, it is worth reflecting that it is the Government that has built the foundation of our modern economy.

And this model will not adequately sustain in the race we are entering. If India is to lead in the age of transformative technologies — like advanced materials, biotechnology, deep tech, and many others — we must carry our share of the nation’s innovation burden, translated not into marketing slogans, but into budget allocations, world-class laboratories and risk capital. We must provide platforms where young minds can explore, and even fail without fear.

If we corporates do not step up, we will remain users of foreign breakthroughs and never be originators.

This is a future that we cannot accept.

So, what is a possible path forward?

If speed and scale are the defining challenges of our academic institutions, then the answer lies in blurring the lines between where education ends and where enterprise begins.

In the industrial era, institutions and corporates operated in parallel lanes. Academia produced graduates; industry consumed them.

In the world we have now entered, victory will most often belong to the owners of IP, and nations will weaponize this IP by governments controlling the IP distribution.

Therefore, we must master partnerships that unite diverse stakeholders, enable seamless talent flow between labs and industry, and embed IP-sharing and funding models that reward both groundbreaking research and rapid commercialization.

And there are many examples to learn from:

In Silicon Valley, Stanford’s deep ties with venture capital and industry have seeded tech companies, from Google to Tesla, with startups and academia feeding each other’s growth.

In the case of Biotech Synergy, the Boston–Cambridge cluster saw Moderna and its vaccines emerge directly from MIT and Harvard labs, which was then accelerated by corporate funding.

Therefore:

Universities must push the boundaries of research and corporates must push the boundaries of execution.

Universities must focus on breakthroughs and corporates must focus on scaling the breakthroughs.

And together, we must create impact, not just in markets but in the very fabric of our own Indian society.

And so, let me propose some ideas.

Together, we will create living laboratories, here at IIT Kharagpur, across high-impact sectors that reflect the very challenges India must lead in.

First is Renewable Energy.

By 2030, India aims to lead the world in renewables. At Adani, we are building the world’s largest renewable energy park in Khavda in the Kutch district of Gujarat. 30 GW of capacity, across 500 square kilometres. Imagine IIT KGP students co-developing AI-driven grid-balancing solutions, real-time predictive maintenance, and sector-wide optimization tools.

Second is Ports & Logistics.

Adani Ports moves over 400 million tonnes of cargo annually. As the world’s most integrated logistics player, even a single day’s delay can ripple through supply chains. IIT KGP talent can design Machine Learning led berth scheduling, autonomous container handling, and real-time logistics optimization systems.

Third is Airport & Smart Mobility.

Adani Airports handles 100 million passengers a year across seven of India’s busiest hubs. This complex ecosystem spans transport, security, energy, and passenger experience. IIT KGP engineers could pioneer real-time crowd prediction, intelligent baggage handling, and IoT-enabled operations to set new benchmarks.

Building on these initiatives, we are launching the annual Adani–IIT Platinum Jubilee Change Makers Fellowship, coordinated by IIT Kharagpur and covering every IIT. Its mission is to channel the nation’s top talent into high-impact projects that advance national priorities. This framework creates a playbook for any major corporate to partner effectively with a top institution.

And together, we can accelerate India’s sheer scale of talent into a force that, in a decade, can be a parallel to Silicon Valley.

Now let me address the students in the audience many of whom may be wondering:

“Am I not too young to really make a difference?”

And the best way I can answer is tell you my own story, and hopefully, you will have a few takeaways.

My dear young friends,

It was 1978, and as I walked on to the Ahmedabad railway platform, awaiting the Gujarat Mail to take me to Mumbai, I held two tickets in my hands. In one hand was a second-class ticket, bought after thirty minutes in a crowded station queue.

In the other hand was my ticket to freedom.

At 16 years of age, like many of you, I too stood at a crossing. One track led to the predictable safety of school, the other to the vast unknown of the city of Mumbai.

But in my heart, there was a single, unshakable belief that the train I was about to board was not just taking me to freedom in Mumbai — it was giving me the freedom to make my own choices. The freedom to build my life with my own hands.

In Mumbai, my first job was sorting diamonds, and before long, I was trading in diamonds. That is where my real education began. Trading teaches you that loss is not the enemy — hesitation is.

And I realised something deeper — only those who are truly free-minded make good traders because you learn to embrace risk, to make fast decisions and to be comfortable with incomplete information or losses you incur.

This speed of decision-making was to become my first operating philosophy for life.

By the age of 19, I found myself back in Ahmedabad, running my brother’s polymer factory. I realized how integrated manufacturing and supply chains were not just background operations, but the core engines that decided who would dominate. It taught me the value of understanding and owning end-to-end integrated processes.

This learning became the second operating philosophy that would guide every venture I would thereafter build. Then came the crisis of 1991. I was 29 when India was forced to open its doors to liberalization.

It was the start of a massive policy change. For me, with my willingness to take risks, it was a once-in-a-generation opportunity. I moved swiftly and stepped into polymer trading.

Fast forward, and just three years later, we had overtaken everybody and built India’s largest trading house. We then took it public.

That was the birth of Adani Enterprises. I had turned 32.

But success has its own way of revealing what you lack — and I realized that while I was a very good trader, I did not have an anchor. Without real assets in the real economy, I had no real foundation.

One market crash — and I could be swept away.

That is when the third operating philosophy became clear to me. You cannot build your empire on a ground you do not own.

And this took me to Mundra, that was to become my karmabhoomi.

When I first announced my intention to build a port in Mundra, most people thought I had lost my mind. Not just because I had never laid a single brick in my life but because I chose to build the port within one of India’s largest marshlands.

I still recall that when I presented the idea, some of the bankers laughed and asked, “Mr. Adani, how do you expect us to finance land that is under water?” And they were not wrong. Mundra had no access, no industry, no precedent.

Fast forward, and in less than three decades, Mundra became a continental-scale logistics engine, moving an astonishing 250 million metric tonnes of cargo every year.

And today, we run one of the world’s largest integrated logistics networks, made up of 21 national and international ports, rail networks, inland container depots, warehouses, and fulfilment centres.

Thereafter, from ports we moved into energy.

And starting in 2007, we built the world’s largest single-location coal based private power plant, of 4,200 megawatts and along with it, we also built India’s first 1,000-kilometre high-voltage DC transmission line.

Then, we took over Mumbai’s distribution network and followed it up by building the world’s largest solar plant of that time — 770 MW — all in just nine months.

And we continued expanding.

Today, in less than two decades, our energy portfolio spans generation, transmission, distribution, LNG, LPG, city gas, solar panel and wind turbine manufacturing, EV charging, batteries, hydrogen — and we are building at Khavda the world’s largest hybrid renewable energy park, over an area five times the size of Paris.

Thereafter, from the gateways to the oceans and gateways to the deserts, we turned to the gateways of the skies of India, and six years ago, we stepped into the airports business.

Today, we own the largest fleet of airports controlled by any single entity anywhere in the world. We move 100 million passengers annually, managing 28% of India's air passengers and we also manage 40% of India's air cargo.

We are commissioning the Navi Mumbai airport later this year, which, when complete, will handle another 90 million passengers.

And around each airport, we are creating urban ecosystems where air travel will merge seamlessly with commerce, industry, retail, hospitality, and residential living. No company has ever conceptualized such an integrated ecosystem at this scale.

My young friends

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.

I have learnt that any visionary private sector group can achieve scale only when it moves in step with the policies of a visionary government. And over the past decade, this mutual belief, the Government's belief in India’s potential and my belief in the Government policies, gave us the runway to build at a pace that has made us India's largest infrastructure company.

My dear students, the same is even more true for you.

If you align your ambition with India’s rise, the peak of your careers will unfold alongside the peak of India’s power. By 2050, when you are in your prime, you will be part of a 25-trillion-dollar Indian economy, shaping global debates, writing the rules, and setting the pace for the future.

No other nation offers its youth an opportunity of this scale. Therefore, I always say, there has never been a better time to be Indian.

And so, my dear friends, as I prepare to close, I leave you with four principles that I believe will define a greater Bharat in our time.

First — 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.

हिजली की गूँज वीरो की जान

तेरा जूनून भारत का मान

Second — Build first for Bharat.

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.

आत्मनिर्भर भारत सबका नारा

दुनिया में चमके तिरंगा हमारा

Third — Fortify our foundations.

Infrastructure, technology, intellectual property — these are the roots of our freedom. A nation standing on borrowed soil cannot hold its head high.

अपनी धरती अपनी पहचान

भारत गूँजे भारत महान

Fourth — 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.

अदाणी का संकल्प और केजीपी की शान

भारत का तिरंगा सबसे महान

And so, my friends,

Remember — Tridib Chaudhuri at 19, locked in the Hijli jail for seven years, and yet he returned to fight again for your freedom and mine.

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, 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.

And you must decide which train you will take.

Salary or Legacy.

Only one train carries the pride of building Bharat.

And therefore, I hope you stand tall and your journey begins with these words:

ना झुकूँगा ना रुकूँगा यही है हमारा शान

भारत से सर्वश्रेष्ठ भारत यही हमारा अभिमान

So … Go

Build so strong that no fear can chain us.

Stand so tall that no empire can bend us.

Rise so high that no force can stop us.

Our Bharat awaits you.

वन्दे मातरम्.

जय हिन्द.