According to Gautam Adani's keynote speech at the 2022 Forbes Global CEO Conference, India's economy will expand to $30 trillion

The chairman of the Ahmedabad-based Adani Group, owned by Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, is a conglomerate with interests in ports, airports, green energy, cement, data centres, and more. The 60-year-old businessman, who started his organisation in 1988 as a tiny commodities trading company, just eclipsed Bill Gates, Bernard Arnault, and Jeff Bezos to claim the title of second-richest person in the world with a net worth of $143 billion. The group's listed firms' total market capitalisation as of today is $260 billion.

Adani highlighted his vision for India and its expanding position in the global economy during his keynote speech at the 20th Forbes Global CEO Conference 2022, which was held in Singapore on September 26–27. Here is the complete speech:

Dear Honored Visitors, Good Afternoon!

Being present at the 20th Forbes Global CEO conference is an honour. After a three-year hiatus, I am happy to see this return to a physical meeting. Zooming in and out of online conferences, spending time with Google, or working with Microsoft gave me the impression that I was always in the cloud. I am so relieved to be back where I can truly stand between an audience and their lunch on Earth.

We are all aware that the world's economy has experienced extraordinary growth over the past few decades. The conference theme, "The Way Forward," is remarkable in this perspective. Since the criteria by which you and I define "the path forward" may no longer be the same. Globalization, in my opinion, has reached a turning point. It will resemble very little of what we have been accustomed to in a mostly unipolar world. I was one of many people who got into Thomas Friedman's socioeconomic business theory that the world was flat. We had begun to think that the "end of borders" had been brought about by the digital revolution. We acknowledged that economic unification and market liberalisation had sparked a period of unrestricted economic growth. This seemed to be a logical way to sum up unrestricted expansion.

Who would have thought that in just 36 months, our world would change? Unprecedented levels of complexity brought on by concurrent increases in demand and decreases in supply are causing inflation to reach levels not seen in the preceding 40 years. Many federal banks are hiking interest rates to such an extent that they could send the economy into recession. Today, this is an unimaginable reality.

We are also in uncharted territory because of a conflict with far-reaching repercussions, the challenges of climate change, and runaway inflation. The story's sails are currently being developed. A significant realignment of national ecosystems is the result of all of this. The Abraham accord's implementation in West Asia, the ring-fenced Central Asia's desire to have more influence over their own future, and other events have shown it to be true. As the world moves toward being multipolar, we must acknowledge that a fresh set of geopolitical couplings is currently being seen. I anticipate new global engagement tenets built on increased self-sufficiency, reduced supply chain risk, and heightened nationalism. This has been referred to as "the rising wave of deglobalization" by some.

Where does this leave India, then? is the question. According to me, India's opportunities have increased due to the current global unrest. India is now one of the few countries with a relatively bright future from a political, geostrategic, and market standpoint. The word "relatively" is crucial because the situation in Europe has only become worse. Its structural flaws have been accelerated by the ongoing armed conflict. It will be more difficult than ever to maintain EU unity while balancing the aspirations of the member states. The UK is still losing ground as it fights with Brexit and a fresh set of difficult-to-optimize economic problems.

Additionally, I predict that China, which was formerly considered as the greatest proponent of globalisation, will feel more alone. Technology limitations, supply chain risk reduction, and rising nationalism will all have an effect. The Belt and Road programme was supposed to be a sign of China's desire to dominate the world, but it is currently difficult because of opposition. Additionally, its credit and housing concerns are being compared to what occurred to the Japanese economy during the 1990s "lost decade." Although I anticipate that all of these economies will eventually rebalance and recover, the friction this time around seems to be much greater.

I'll be the first to confess that when it comes to India, we are far from perfect. However, I will also assert that India's democracy's imperfections are what make it unique. What many people perceive as India's flaws is actually a robust, boisterous democracy. Only those who are free can afford to draw attention to themselves and make their flaws obvious. If this were over-managed, India's ability to express its diversity would be lost forever. The fifth-largest economy in the world is now, in reality, India. India would undoubtedly have the third-largest economy in the world by 2030. India's genuine growth is only now beginning as it approaches its 100th year of independence after celebrating its 75th year of independence this year. This time frame is known in our nation as Amrit Kaal. i.e., the ideal time to start working toward a brighter future.

Now let me think about the next 25 years. Over the course of this time, India will readily reach a 100% literacy rate. Prior to 2050, India will also be rid of poverty. Even in 2050, our median age will be 38, and we will have the largest middle class in terms of consumption that the world has ever seen. Given the massive magnitude of consumption by 1.6 billion people, we will also be the nation that draws the highest amounts of foreign direct investment. We will have a stock market capitalization of 45 trillion dollars, a 3 trillion dollar economy that grows to a 30 trillion dollar economy, and we will be the nation that is utterly confident in our position.

Let's double-click the trends a few more times. India took about 58 years after gaining its independence to reach a GDP of one trillion dollars. After that, it took us 12 years to reach our second trillion dollars, but just 5 years to reach our third. As the digital revolution takes hold and transforms every type of activity on a national level, this rate will only increase. We have previously seen this. India added a unicorn every nine days in 2021 and completed an astounding 48 billion real-time financial transactions, leading the world. This was three times more than China and six times more than the combined GDPs of the United States, Canada, France, and Germany.

India is currently on the verge of producing thousands of entrepreneurs. Even while many may fall short of success, the youth's sheer energy and learning capacity will cause India's unicorn creation rate to quicken. And for every unicorn that emerges, dozens of micro-unicorns will be born. India is already the most fertile ground in the world for original thought. Over 670 of India's 760 districts have at least one registered start-up. The most effective combination to reshape a country is aspirations combined with a smart phone and cheap data. And the path of the digitally enabled India is only getting started.

Although domestic investments have primarily fueled India's progress to this point, we understand that an economy needs both domestic and international direct investment. With 85 billion dollars in FDI influx last year, India experienced its biggest annual FDI inflow. The influx is anticipated to surpass $100 billion this year, breaking the previous record. In fact, since 2000, FDI inflows to India have multiplied by more than 20. There is no clearer indication of the growing international confidence in India. Over the next 15 years, I anticipate the amount of FDI flowing into India will significantly increase and surpass $500 billion, making India the country with the fastest pace of FDI growth.

The size of business choices also reflects a nation's level of confidence. This is the situation with the Adani Group since we gain from India's growth. In this regard, allow me to briefly describe the key focuses that will determine our strategic course both within and then outside of India. Energy Transition comes first, then Digital Transformation.

In the upcoming ten years, the Group will invest approximately $100 billion in capital. Seventy percent of this investment has been set aside for the Energy Transition sector. We are already the biggest solar player in the world, and we want to achieve much more. Adani New Industries is the embodiment of our wager in the area of energy transition in this aspect. We pledge to put 70 billion dollars into a fully integrated, environmentally friendly hydrogen-based value chain.

The new company will therefore add another 45 GW of hybrid renewable power generation spread over 100,000 hectares of land, which is an area 1.4 times that of Singapore, in addition to our existing 20 GW renewables portfolio. Three million metric tonnes of green hydrogen will eventually be commercialised as a result of this. We will construct 3 gigafactories in India as part of this multifaceted enterprise. We are constructing a 10 GW integrated wind-turbine manufacturing plant, a 5 GW hydrogen electrolyser factory, a 10 GW silicon-based photovoltaic value chain, which will be built from solar panels to raw silicon. Today, we can certainly say that we have a clear path to being the cheapest producer of the green electron and thereafter the cheapest producer of green hydrogen. It completely changes the game for India and creates the hitherto unimaginable possibility that it might someday become a net energy exporter.

However, even as we embark on this incredibly ambitious energy transition journey, we are also making sure that our objectives remain fair to the requirements of the country. Critics want us to immediately stop using any fossil fuels that India needs to support its sizable population. India would not benefit from this. Even now, with 16% of the global population, India produces less than 7% of CO2 emissions, and this percentage is steadily declining. So allow me to reiterate what Mr. Steve Forbes said just a few days ago. Amazingly, no one completed the necessary research to determine what was involved in switching from fossil fuels to alternate energy sources. They also failed to consider what would occur if the wind or sun failed to shine. Unquote. Nobody could have put it better than that.

The aspirations we have in the area of digital transformation also aim to gain from the proximity of the energy revolution. The Indian data centre market is expanding rapidly. Because this business uses more energy than any other in the world, our decision to develop green data centres is a differentiator that will change the game. We will construct consumer-based super-apps that will gather the hundreds of millions of Adani's B2C consumers on one common digital platform and interconnect these data centres via a number of terrestrial and globally connected subsea cables drawn at our ports. Once completed, there are countless ways to earn money. We also recently completed building the largest sustainability cloud in the world, which is already powered by 100 of our solar and wind farms and is controlled by a single enormous command and control centre that will soon be supplemented by a worldwide A-I lab. These are just a handful of the adjacencies that Adani's digital enterprises are mainstreaming.

The Adani Group operates as a collection of nearby firms that act like a large network, although I have concentrated on Adani's renewable and digital enterprises. Our strategy direction is largely defined by this adjacency-based business model. Let me explain.

• With 25% of the nation's passenger volume and 40% of its aviation freight, we are the largest airport operator.

• With a 30% national market share, we are India's largest port and logistics company.

• We are India's largest integrated energy company, operating LNG and LPG ports, city gas and piped gas distribution, as well as electricity generation, transmission, and distribution.

Following the IPO of Adani Wilmar, we are the FMCG company with the largest valuation.

• In numerous new industries, including as data centres, super applications, industrial clouds, aerospace and defence, metals, and petrochemicals, we have outlined our future course.

• We are the second-largest cement producer in the nation.

• Our market cap is now at USD 260 billion, growing more quickly than any other Indian firm in history.

The point I want to emphasise is that there are amazing opportunities all around India. The actual tale of India's growth has only just begun. The time is now for businesses to seize the extraordinary multi-decade tailwind that the world's largest and most dynamic democracy has to offer, as well as India's economic rebirth. For India's future influence on the world, the next three decades will be the most pivotal.

As a final point, let me state that I have an unquenchable optimism. This positivity has given me wind in my sails and helped us become the most valuable company in India. My faith in the India growth story is fueled by this passion. Indians consider the sky's blue colour to be a representation of the infinite.

India's time has come, and a democracy whose time has come cannot be stopped. I firmly feel that India's status as an economically prosperous democracy that sets a positive example for the world can only be good news.

What we do right away will appear to be a marathon. What we accomplish over the long term will appear to be a sprint. Yes, there will be turbulence on the waves, but the optimist in me would rather there be turbulence that propels us to greatness than calm that would keep us at a lower level of excellence.

I invite you to bet on India and embrace India’s aspirations and potential.

Thank you.