Gautam Adani at IIT Kharagpur: Renewable energy, invisible wars and Atmanirbharta
To strengthen collaboration, Adani launched the Adani-IIT Platinum Jubilee Change Makers Fellowship.'Its mission is to channel the nation's top talents into high-impact projects that advance national priorities. This framework creates a playbook for any major corporate to partner effectively with a top institution,' he said.He added that such partnerships could turn India's talent pool into a force that, 'in a decade, can be a parallel to Silicon Valley.'TECHNOLOGY AND INVISIBLE WARSAdani warned that the world was shifting from conventional wars to technology-driven ones.'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 pointed out India's vulnerability: 90% of semiconductors are imported and 85% of oil is imported. 'A single geopolitical incident can restrict our growth,' he said, stressing the need for energy security and data sovereignty.LEGACY OVER SALARYIn a motivational turn, Adani urged students to think beyond jobs.'One train takes you to a salary. The other takes you to a legacy. And only one train carries the pride of building Bharat," he said.He recalled leaving Ahmedabad for Mumbai at 16, driven only by conviction in his future. Adani asked students to be 'the new freedom fighters of Bharat' and to embrace self-reliance or Atmanirbharta as true freedom.THE NEED FOR INNOVATIONAdani admitted that corporates, too, must step up: '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.'advertisementHe announced living laboratories in renewable energy, logistics, and airports for IIT students to test their ideas. Citing his ventures like Mundra Port, the Khavda renewable park, and India's largest airport network, he said these were built from both entrepreneurship and optimism in the 'unstoppable India growth story.'Closing his speech, Adani left the audience with four clear takeaways: 'Be the new freedom fighters of Bharat, build first for Bharat, fortify our foundations, and march as one team for Bharat.'(With agency inputs)- Ends
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Mint
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While lucrative, this arbitrage is likely to be short-lived with India already clamping down on imported solar panels. Adani's strategy contrasts with other players like Tata Power and Waaree Energy, which utilize in-house panels for constructing their own solar power plants. A key notable difference is that the solar panel manufacturing business and the solar power plant business are housed within the same company in the case of Tata Power. Waaree's captive solar power plants are not as expansive as Tata and Adani, as its key business is manufacturing panels. High margin Credit rating agency India Ratings upgraded MSPVL's rating by a notch to Ind A+ in April. 'Export sales have been yielding higher margins on account of robust demand, specifically from the US, which has disincentivized imports from China. As a result, India has become a key exporter of solar modules to the US," a credit note from the rating agency said on 2 April. 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