My dear members of the Adani family, my warm greetings to all of you. In a few days, we will all celebrate the 15th of August. The 15th of August is not just a national festival for me. Every year it makes me both humble and grateful. Humble because the free India we breathe in today, we inherited. And grateful because for this freedom, many people dedicated everything to the country. Some left their homes, some left their families, some gave the best years of their lives to the nation, and some sacrificed their very lives. Whatever we are able to do today, whatever we are able to build, whatever future dreams we are able to dream — that is the result of their sacrifice.
That is why the 15th of August is not just a day of celebration for me; it is also a day of gratitude. And perhaps this very gratitude gives us another great lesson of life — that no great transformation happens without sacrifice, without patience. And if I look at my own life's journey, I see the same truth. By God's grace, life has given me far more than I ever expected. But even more than that, life has taught me. And perhaps now the time has come, as the head of this family, to share some of those lessons with all of you.
Friends, a few months ago on the 1st of May, on the occasion of Labor Day, we started our dialogue 'Apni Baat Apno Ke Saath' (Our Conversation With Our Own). When we first connected through this platform, I spoke about respecting labor. I said that the greatest strength of any institution is not its machines — it is its people. That day, there was another thought in my mind — that in such a large family, communication should not be limited to meetings alone. It should also have warmth, trust, and opportunities to learn from one another. With this very spirit, this dialogue began. Today is our second meeting, and I am confident that in the years to come, 'Apni Baat Apno Ke Saath' will become a beautiful tradition of our Adani family.
An occasion where we talk not just about our work, but also about our lives. When I recall my life's journey, the first faces that come before me are those of my parents. I consider myself fortunate to have been born into a family where resources were limited, but values were limitless. My father, Shri Shantilal ji, never gave us grand lectures. He taught us that honesty is not a policy — it is a part of your nature. He taught us that a promise, whether small or big, is still a promise and must be kept. And if people believe in your words, there is no greater respect in life. Today, when I look back, I feel that if my life has any greatest inheritance, it is not of wealth — it is an inheritance of trust.
My mother taught us a different kind of lesson. She taught us, without ever saying it, what sacrifice means, what simplicity means, and what family truly means. Mother spoke very little, but her love always spoke. Even today, when I recall my childhood, the first thing that comes to mind is the fragrance of my mother's cooking, the warmth of home, and a small question my mother would ask: 'Have you eaten?' Perhaps in all our lives, there are some memories that never grow old with time. And it is these memories that keep us connected to the ground.
You all know that I did not get the opportunity for higher education. At that time, it perhaps felt like a shortcoming. But today, when I look back, I feel that God had chosen a different path of learning for me. I had many teachers, but the greatest among them was life itself. Life's greatest lessons are not always found in grand events. Many times they are hidden in small incidents. And many times, those lessons are taught by the people we meet every day — sometimes a small neighborhood grocer who extends credit on nothing but trust alone; sometimes a technician's sense of duty, or a security guard's vigilance — they teach us the meaning of responsibility. If you have the humility to learn, every person in life can become your teacher. Still, I want to say one thing to all my young colleagues and your children: if you have received the opportunity for good education, embrace it wholeheartedly.
Because good education gives you the power to think, and life gives you the opportunity to test those thoughts. When both come together, the learning is deeper and the personality is refined. Time moved forward, and one day the time came to leave home. I was only 16 years old. There was excitement in my heart, there were dreams, and also a little anxiety. I had absolutely no idea where life would take me. I had no grand plan. Just one belief — that if I worked hard, life would show me the way.
I feel that many of you must have seen a similar day in your lives — when you left behind your village, your city, and your family to take the first step in search of a new future. At that time, we don't just leave a city behind. We leave a part of our lives behind. Even today, I feel that the hardest step in life is often the first one. But that very first step begins to shape us. This is not just the story of Gautam Adani. It is the story of every colleague who, by staying away from home, made a project in some corner of the country their own dream.
It is the story of those countless engineers, of those millions of laborers, of those families who sent their loved ones away from home for the building of the nation. It is the story of all of you. The story of your hard work, the story of your sacrifice, and the story of your trust. Because in life, one day we all have to leave our homes and take that first step toward our dreams. When I first arrived in Mumbai, I wanted to learn. I wanted to understand work, I wanted to understand people, and perhaps I wanted to understand myself as well.
Mumbai was not just a city for me — it was my first university. In Mumbai, I started a diamond business. People see the sparkle of diamonds, but I saw something else. No diamond shines the moment it comes out of its mine. It has to be cut and polished — with patience, with dedication, and again and again. Today it seems that human beings are perhaps just like that. Within all of us there is a potential, but the sparkle of that potential comes out only through life's hard work, life's struggles, and life's experiences. Over time I understood one thing: the real foundation of business is not built on goods or money — it is built on trust. Before any deal, people trust you. And that becomes the greatest capital.
Slowly, life moved forward. Colleagues joined, responsibilities grew, and small efforts gradually transformed into a large group. But if anyone were to ask me what the biggest investment in this journey was, my answer would be: trust. Building a port like Mundra, creating the world's largest renewable energy park like Khavda, building an international airport like Navi Mumbai, or realizing a project like Gohad — these are certainly extremely difficult tasks. But all these experiences taught me one thing: the hardest construction is not of any project — it is of trust. And perhaps life's greatest lesson to me has also been about trust.
Slowly, I came to understand that trust is life's greatest capital. Whoever has trust has everything. And whoever has lost trust has lost everything. Life also taught me that trust — whether of family, of friends, of colleagues, of our employees and workers, of customers, of partners, or of society — its foundation is always built on character. Trust is not demanded — it is earned. And not once — it is earned every single day.
Perhaps for this very reason, life gave me another very important lesson: the bigger the journey, the greater the churning, and the greater the test. We have all heard the story of the Samudra Manthan — the churning of the ocean. As life progressed, I understood that this is not merely a story — it is a truth of life. When there is a churning, what comes out first is not nectar — what comes out first is poison. And this is where life begins to test us. Churning does not test circumstances — it tests character.
In every person's life, every family's life, and every institution's life, such tests come. Some we choose ourselves, and some life brings before us. The more I read about our civilization, our history, and the lives of our great leaders, the clearer one truth becomes: great journeys are never easy. Look at the life of Lord Ram — without exile, the Ramayana would be incomplete. Look at the life of Lord Krishna — from birth to end, every step brought a new challenge. Look at the story of Samudra Manthan — the emergence of poison before the nectar was inevitable. Mahadev bore that poison to protect creation.
Look at the Mahabharata — dharma was with the Pandavas, yet they endured exile, suffered humiliation, and had to fight a war. If we look at our freedom struggle — be it Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, or other freedom fighters — none of their glory was separate from struggle. That is when one feels that perhaps this is the very rule of life. Those who have to shoulder great responsibilities face great tests in life.
A few years ago, our group also faced one such great test. The Hindenburg report came. Numerous questions were raised in the stock market. An atmosphere of uncertainty was created. At the same time, our Follow-on Public Offer — also called FPO — was underway. Many domestic and international investors, trusting us, had invested approximately 20,000 crore. Then, after the Hindenburg report, our share price fell sharply. This directly impacted those investors who had invested in our FPO. The value of their investment had declined rapidly.
From a legal standpoint, we had every right to continue with that process. Stock price fluctuations are a normal phenomenon. We could have kept that amount if we wanted. But in life, not every decision is taken based on law alone. Law gives us rights, but our value system tells us when to exercise that right and when not to. At that moment, I remembered a single teaching of my father: trust is greater than any legal right. I could not accept that those who had trusted us and invested their money should see their investment value decline from the very first day.
That is why we decided to return the entire amount. At that time, many people said, 'Don't do this.' Some said it had never happened in history. Some said it was an emotional decision. They may well have been right in their own way. But at that time, there was only one question before me: are we doing justice to the trust of those who invested their money believing in us? When I asked myself this question with complete honesty, the answer was absolutely clear: we must return their money. So for me, everything else became insignificant. That is why we returned the full amount of 20,000 crore.
On that day, we did not make an ordinary decision. We simply did what our values, our culture, and my father's teachings were telling us to do. We honored the legacy of trust received from our father. Friends, reputation is not built in a day, nor by a single decision. It has to be lived in every small and big decision for decades. Our constant effort has been that whoever has given even one rupee to us receives their payment respectfully and on time — whether it is a bank, an investor, a bondholder, or any small operational partner. Trust is not built by grand decisions alone. It is built by fulfilling our responsibilities every day.
Today, this is the defining culture of the Adani Group. Hindenburg came and it also went. But the Adani Group remained firm on its values, stood strong on the trust of its people, and emerged stronger than before. But I still have one regret — due to the greed of some people, many small investors in the stock market had to suffer losses. At that time, we placed our investors' interests above everything else, and perhaps that was the greatest test of our trust.
But life's tests did not end there. After that, another difficult test came before us. A judicial process began in America. Naturally, it too raised many questions. Many things were said. Many assumptions were made. Many people also passed judgment very quickly. But we had unwavering faith in our truth. That is why we did not choose the path of confrontation. We chose the path of patience. We exercised restraint. We gave respect to the judicial process. We trusted the facts. And above all, we kept faith in our own truth. I told myself again and again one thing: truth does not need noise — it only needs time.
Today, when I look back, my satisfaction is not that we survived a difficult period. My satisfaction is that during this very period, together we took the Adani Group to new heights. In those two years, we delivered the best performance in our history. New projects moved forward, new achievements were made, and most importantly, our future became stronger than ever before. This, for me, is the nectar of the churning. Today, many people consider this our victory. I respect their sentiment. But when I look back today, this seems much bigger than just one episode.
To me, this appears as a collective learning for all of us as an institution. We learned that trust faces its hardest test during difficult times. We learned that the greatest strength of any institution is its people. And we also learned that trust is not something you can earn just once. It must be earned every single day — through your work, your behavior, and your character. Today, if there is one feeling dominant in my heart, it is not of victory — it is of gratitude. Gratitude toward all of you, toward your families, and toward all those colleagues who maintained their trust and did not abandon their work, their dedication, or this institution — not just in ordinary circumstances, but even when everything was abnormal.
If I were to be asked today about the greatest achievement of this entire journey, my answer would not be Mundra, or Khavda, or Gohad, or even the Navi Mumbai Airport. My greatest achievement is you — our Adani family. Because projects are built through engineering, but great institutions are built through the character of people. Some time ago, I visited Khavda. Temperatures above 41 degrees, strong winds, a vast desert stretching far and wide. And in those harsh conditions, many of our colleagues were working day and night. I met a young engineer there — Amit Kumar.
He was from a small village in Bihar. I asked him, 'Isn't it difficult to work in such harsh conditions, staying away from home for so many months?' He smiled and said, 'Sir, it is difficult. I miss my mother too. But when this project is completed, I will be proud of my life, and I have a small contribution to it too.' I asked him about his family. He told me that his mother's eyesight was gradually fading. Timely, proper treatment had not been available. And his greatest worry was not his job — it was his mother's eyes. That day, I realized that development is not just about building ports, power plants, or airports.
Development is also about bringing light back into a mother's eyes. Perhaps at that very moment, a thought became even clearer in my mind: if we can build world-class infrastructure, can we not also bring new light into the lives of millions? Later, during a trip to Bihar, when I met many families, I realized that this was not the story of just one family — it was the story of many families. That very experience gave our thinking a new direction, and it is with this sentiment that our partnership with Akhand Jyoti will begin.
Today, this is not merely a hospital or an eye health project. It is an expansion of this belief — that the greatest success of any industry comes when its benefits reach the last person in society. I say with satisfaction that under the leadership of Dr. Priti Adani, the Adani Foundation is working to advance this thinking across many parts of the country through education, health, nutrition, human empowerment, and community development. We know that the nation's needs are vast. Our contribution is very small in comparison.
But if we can kindle hope in even one family's life, if we can give a better future to even one child, if we can save the eyesight of even one mother, then that effort is meaningful. When India completes 100 years of its independence, history will not only ask how many gigawatts of generation capacity we installed, how many ports we built, how many airports we created. History will also ask: how many lives did we change, how many dreams did we give new flight to, how many families did we bring new light to? And the answer to that question will not come from any report or any project.
The answer to that question will come from your contribution, from your dedication. Because India's future is not in the hands of any one person — it is in the hands of crores of young people. And I have complete faith that your contribution will be the most powerful answer to India's future. When we hear the name Bachchan, the first name that comes to everyone's mind is Amitabh Bachchan ji. But today, I am not talking about Big B — I am talking about Bigger B. Yes, I am talking about Dr. Harivansh Rai Bachchan.
He wrote: 'Tu na thakega kabhi, tu na rukega kabhi' — You will never tire, you will never stop. Please do read the rest of the poem, but even in these two lines I see the essence of life. Friends, challenges will come in life — they are bound to come. They will come before our group and they will come in your lives too. No great journey remains untouched by them.
But whenever life brings before you a new Samudra Manthan, do not abandon your values. Do not compromise your character. Keep faith in your companions. Keep faith in your family. Keep faith in your country. And above all, keep faith in truth. Because life has taught me this: do not fear the churning. Do not stop the churning.
Today was our second meeting, but our conversation is not yet complete. There are many more journeys ahead, many more stories remaining — of Mundra, of Khavda, of Dharavi, of the Adani Foundation, and of the many colleagues who are the real heroes of these stories. We will meet again — with this same warmth, this same trust, and as this same family. I bow to all of you and your families from the bottom of my heart. Your trust is my greatest strength. I pray only this to God — that He keeps us all healthy, keeps us safe, and continues to give us the strength to serve India together. Hearty Independence Day wishes to all of you and your families. Thank you. Jai Hind.
