Adani Urges India's Youth to Fight for Tech Freedom

Terms the challenge the second freedom struggle amid AI competition

- DEV CHATTERJEE

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 (IIT), 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."