LIVE: Gautam Adani Outlines India’s Growth Vision At CII Annual Business Summit 2026

And our president Mr. Rajiv Mmani to kindly hand over a token of appreciation to our guest. May now invite Mr. Banerjee to kindly take over the session.

Very good morning and a proud moment indeed. A special moment also, if I may say, to welcome amidst us a person who has contributed so phenomenally for the growth of the Indian industry, for the growth of the country. It's great to have you, Mr. Gautam Adani. Gautam bhai, this is the first time that you are addressing the CII national annual business summit. You have been to CII many, many times. You have addressed us, you have met us, you have given us time. But to gather a business summit of ours, our annual business summit, is indeed very, very special. If I try to in... and second, how do we work on seeing how big corporates which are present in CII, bigger corporates, and how they can grow and how you will really bless that particular mission of ours. So with that, ladies and gentlemen, please join me in very, very warmly welcoming Mr. Gautam Adani to our stage.

Thank you. I'll now turn to Rajiv, Rajiv Mmani, the president of CII, to make some points for response by Gautam bhai. Rajiv.

Thank you, CB. CB said he will not be foolish to introduce Gautam bhai. I may be slightly foolish, so I'll try and make some points. All of us know he is one of the country's leading businessmen with interests across critical infrastructure such as ports, energy, logistics, airports. And I think the critical thing is all the industries that he's involved with are very clearly linked with the nation's economic growth. At a personal level, I've known Gautam for the last 25 years. And my first interaction with him, he may or may not remember, when 25 years ago I was working for a large global foreign multinational firm which wanted to invest in his sports business and they had asked me to do a valuation of his sports business. So I had gone to meet Gautam. This is late '90s, early 2000. And I did the valuation and everything and Gautam listened very quietly and everything. And then he said, and he flipped through it and then he said... But that was my experience with him. And over the years I have had the privilege of witnessing his journey in building and scaling the Adani group not only with his risk-taking ability, unmatched ambition, but a very strong sense of nation building which you only come across when you actually spend time with him. And that's why we were very keen to bring him in. And as CB said, his entire agenda of linking entrepreneurship, growth, ambition, risk-taking with the country's economic development, especially given the call that we heard from the prime minister yesterday of how India and Indians need to stand up to this challenge and crisis that we are facing. So no one better to doing this than Gautam. And I know that there are many firsts to what he has done but one of the things that really stand out, and I will say that when I first went, I had gone to Mundra long, long back. It was a marshy wetland and he converted that into India's largest private commercial port and today a major logistics, commercial, industrial hub. With a capacity of 338 million metric tons, he's developing the world's largest renewable energy park at Khavda in Kutch, which is a semi-desert arid land where no one actually steps in, but he's completely developing that. And third, I know what is now closest to his heart is redevelopment of Dharavi, which for a long time was one of the largest slums in India. No one ever envisaged that someone will have the dream and desire to do that. I think that's what he has done. So apart from that, what I've also seen is the way in which he's infused talent. And for a lot of people who may not realize, his understanding of technology and his understanding of AI and how he wants to embrace that in every aspect of his business. Whenever we interact and interface with him, that's such a great learning that he's on top of all this. A couple of months ago, we went to Ahmedabad for our NC meeting and Gautam bhai and Priti bhabhi were very, very kind to invite us to their home for a very warm evening, very warm, hospitable evening and a lovely dinner and a lovely time that we spent. I just want to thank on behalf of everyone. I know how demanding his schedule is. He works 18 hours a day. But in spite of that, you know, he has taken the time to come especially from Ahmedabad today and I know after this he'll be flying back to Ahmedabad. Thank you very much, Gautam, for spending time with us, for coming here, sharing your thoughts, insights, for what I'm sure will be a very inspirational talk for all of us, especially all the entrepreneurs and business people. Thank you very much, Gautam. Thank you.