Kharagpur (West Bengal): Gautam Adani, Chairman of the Adani Group, turned philosopher, historian, and futurist at IIT Kharagpur, urging students to choose “legacy over salary.”

At the institute’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations in August, he said young Indians faced a choice: join safe jobs abroad or stay back to build a $25-trillion Bharat by 2050. “One train takes you to a salary. The other takes you to a legacy. Only one carries the pride of building Bharat,” he said, recalling his own leap at 16.

Adani emphasised that true independence now meant self-reliance in semiconductors, defence, energy, and data. “This is the freedom of Atmanirbharta we must fight for,” he declared.

He warned students that disruption was accelerating “10X, 100X, towards 1000X” as AI builds AI, robots build robots, and machines teach machines. Corporates, he admitted, must invest more in research to overcome India’s “innovation deficit.”

Adani announced an Adani–IIT Platinum Jubilee Change Makers Fellowship and “living laboratories” in energy, logistics, and airports for real-world innovation.

Citing his journey from Mundra Port to Khavda renewables and India’s largest airport network, he said: “These were born not just of entrepreneurship, but optimism that India’s growth story is unstoppable.”

He ended with a four-point call: “Be new freedom fighters of Bharat, build first for Bharat, fortify our foundations, and march as one team for Bharat.”