At a moment when technology is reshaping power, productivity and identity, Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani struck a deeply personal and national note in Baramati, Maharashtra, on 28 Dec 2025.

Inaugurating Vidya Pratishthan’s Sharad Pawar Centre of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence, Mr Adani urged young Indians to rise as builders of the age of intelligence rather than passive consumers of technology.

Calling Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar his mentor, Mr Adani said Baramati symbolised what aligned leadership can achieve over time. From agriculture and cooperatives to education and institution building, Mr Pawar’s work, he noted, showed how national progress emerges when people, policy and purpose move together. That same clarity of vision, he said, is now essential as India enters the artificial intelligence (AI) era.

Addressing students and researchers, Mr Adani framed AI as a defining civilisational shift, not a passing technology cycle. History, he reminded the audience, offers reassurance. Every major technological revolution, from steam and electricity to digital computing, initially created anxiety but ultimately expanded opportunity. AI, he said, will go further by placing intelligence and productivity directly in the hands of ordinary citizens, enabling young Indians from every background to participate in growth.

His message also carried a clear strategic warning. Leadership in AI, Mr Adani said, cannot be outsourced. In a world where algorithms increasingly shape economies, security and influence, dependence on foreign platforms risks ceding control over jobs, data and decision making. India, he stressed, must build its own artificial intelligence models, compute capacity and intelligence ecosystems to safeguard economic freedom and national sovereignty.