Namaskar, members of Visaka Paribal, colleagues, partners, friends, members of Dosi family, and my dear and Jugis, Paban, Nidi, Akad.
It is said that Waro... It is with this remarkable feeling that I stand here today, reflecting on over three decades of a deep friendship and a legacy that has withstood the test of time.
And indeed, today happens to be a beautiful coincidence because we gather to honor not just the legacy of Visaka, but also to celebrate the birthday of an exceptional leader who has shaped the very core of Visaka. Happy birthday, dear Chigis.
Today is not just another day on the calendar. It is a celebration of your vision and a reminder of the profound impact you have had in guiding the incredible journey of Visaka.
Every successful company has moments worth cheering and milestones that fill you with pride. However, what truly sets Visaka apart for me is far more than a corporate success story.
For Jigis and me, Visaka is a living proof of how faith and friendship can shape a future where trust becomes the most valuable form of capital.
So today, we are not just celebrating the success of business. We are celebrating a belief, a belief of trust that defined the relationship between Jigis and me and architected the destiny of Visaka.
And so let me take you back to where this relationship started. It began in 1992, a period the world still remembers because of the turbulence created following the Gulf War. India was still struggling with severe rupee devaluations. The war had led to massive energy market volatility. Shipping had been badly disrupted and supply chains had become entirely unpredictable.
At that time, imported polymers were integral to Indian sectors such as packaging, textiles, consumer goods, primarily because India's license raj in the preceding years had left the country with limited domestic manufacturing capacity.
Adani Enterprise, then known as Adani Exports, had already established itself as one of India's largest trading houses. However, when war broke out, polymer imports fell overnight. Prices began to fluctuate widely, and factories across the nation faced the looming threat of shutdowns.
Confronted with a severe import shortfall, I had no option but to reduce deliveries to our distributors by nearly 50%. But unfortunately, in that challenging period, many traders saw the shortage as an opportunity to profit. Contracts were broken, prices skyrocketed, and what should have been a crisis to address collaboratively transformed into an opportunity to exploit.
It was in these situations that I first met Jigis, who had come to see me and had brought along many of his small customers. He had not come to complain. He had not come to ask for favors. He had not come to negotiate a better deal. He had come so that I could truly understand the pain of those customers affected by this crisis.
I remember listening as they spoke about factories on the brink of being shut down, about thousands of jobs at risk, and about families whose lives hung in balance. While the temptations of profits made others focus on themselves, Jigis was focused on his customers, his principles, and the promises he had made.
So I made a simple decision. Instead of forcing Jigis through layers of distributors who made their cuts, we decided to supply to him directly. We extended him credit. We placed our trust in him. And I did so because I realized that Jigis had come not to ask any favors. He was asking me for fairness. He was not trying to exploit a crisis. He was trying to hold a fragile customer ecosystem together. He was not looking for quick gains. He was following the principles he believed in.
Life moved on after that extraordinary period of the '90s, but a permanent mutual respect had been created and Jigis and I stayed in touch. Wherever Jigis went, stories of the lives he touched and the communities he uplifted followed, reflected in his leadership roles such as chairman of Jito Ahmedabad and trustee positions with JATF, Shaman Ara, and G.
But beyond these praises, I would often hear about how Jigis lived his life anchored in the unity of his joint family, all devoted to some form of service. From the selfless social work of his elder brother Umeshbhai to the spiritual dedications of his younger brother Badrasbhai. It was this rare fusion of family bonds, service to others, and professional integrity that defined Jigis.
And then, in the year 2001, destiny knocked at our doors. I was planning to set up a polymer film packaging line at Mundra for Adani Wilmar's edible oil business. And when the time came to choose a partner, I did not look for the largest balance sheet. I looked for Jigis, the man who had brought to me his loyal customer in 1992. There were no spreadsheets, no negotiations. I simply said, 'Jigis, this has to be done together by the two of us.' That was it.
And from that one conversation grew not just a single company but a family of enterprises between us: Visaka Polyabaka Molding, Visaka Irrigations and Pipes, Visaka Renewables, Visaka Solar Films, Visaka Metals, and Visaka Glass.
Today the proof stands before us. At Kusaka, we have not just built a factory. We have transformed manufacturing and built a national capability from a bare greenfield site. In just 24 months, we commissioned India's largest solar glass furnace, a 660 ton per day plant that compares with the finest glass plant anywhere in the world.
This was not an Indian timeline catching up to the global standards. It was Visaka, an Indian benchmark, setting the global benchmark. And this is only the opening chapter because phase two will now take this to 1260 tons per day, making it the largest glass furnace ever built on Indian soil.
Even more audacious is our commitment to ignite this furnace in just 20 months. This is a speed of execution that redefines what Indian manufacturing is capable of when vision, trust, and discipline move together.
And beside this giant furnace stands another pillar of national strength: one of India's largest integrated aluminum complexes, anchored by the country's largest fully automated anodizing line. But what makes Visaka even more extraordinary is not any single asset. It is the ecosystem: glass, aluminum, films, and advanced materials that are not scattered across the country but are engineered together inside a fully integrated 12 gigawatt solar ecosystem, unlike any other location in the world.
Every sheet of glass, every aluminum frame, every polymer film is born inside one coordinated industrial symphony designed to solve India's renewable future and set global benchmarks. This is Atma at its best.
And so my friends, contracts did not build a Visaka. Conviction did. We did not just build a business. We built a belief, because the greatest institutions are sustained never by the ink of contracts but by the legacy of a shared conscience. It is this conscience that understands exactly what must be protected and what must never be betrayed. And it is this conscience that binds one generation to the next.
And so to our next generations, to the hugely talented Akshat, who carries his father's drive, and to Pranav, Karan, Saga, and Jit, yes, do look at the numbers, but look much deeper at the family integrity that builds these numbers.
Your challenge will not be to grow the balance sheet. It will be to guard the trust that allowed Jigis and me to create that balance sheet.
My dear friends, time flies. When Jigis and I first met in 1992, we were both just 20 years old, full of dreams, yet unaware that those dreams would one day give rise to a 35-year relationship built on trust, respect, and a shared sense of purpose.
Recently, this sense of purpose found an even more beautiful expression when I learned that Jigis wanted to support Priti and me by offering his invaluable expertise to help further the work of the Adani Foundations. There could be no better person whose support I would seek today.
It is this constant branching out to touch more lives that defines the very essence of who Jigis is. And this is precisely why it is so fitting that the company Jigis has built carries the name Vishaka, because in Sanskrit, Vishaka signifies the act of branching out, meaning the spreading of branches.
Sanskrit saw a vista. Today, each of those branches stands as a living testimony to the businesses we have built and the bonds we have nurtured day by day, week by week, and month by month for over 35 years.
This is what trust is all about. This is what friendship is all about. This is what a shared destiny is all about.
So my dear friend, thank you for your support. Thank you for your courage. And most of all, thank you for a friendship that ensured no matter how many branches we grew, we always stayed connected to the same heart.
So let me close by saying... Thank you, Jigis.
