The Fifth SMISS-AP Held In Mumbai: Address By Gautam Adani (Image Credit- Pinterest)
Distinguished doctors, and my dear friends,
Let me begin by saluting you for the work you do. Your humanity is what restores your patients’ dignity. It gives them the strength and the courage to stand tall again. To the world, you may be known as spine doctors. But to your patients, you are something far greater. You represent hope.
And speaking of hope, let me share something personal. One of my all-time favourite films is Munnabhai MBBS. Not just for the laughter, but for the message. Munnabhai was not just healing people with medicine; he was healing them with humanity. It reminded us all that true healing goes far beyond surgery.
Healing is hope.
Healing is humanity.
जैसा कि मुन्नाभाई ने कहा था — जादू की झप्पी हो या सजजरी का स्के ल्पेल — दोनोों में एक ही बात होती है, और वो है, इोंसाननयत।
When I was first invited to speak here, I hesitated. What could I, as a builder of enterprises, possibly offer to you, the healers of spines? But as I sat with that question, a deeper metaphor came to my mind. The spine you mend is the ultimate architecture needed for resilience of the human body.
And just as you restore resilience to our bodies, leadership is about restoring resilience to organizations. So, perhaps today, this shared metaphor will remind us that the spine is both a medical miracle and a corporate necessity for self-belief.
It was with this same inner spine of self-belief that I made my first bold decision at the age of 16. I bought a second-class train ticket and left for Mumbai with no degree, no job, and no backup except a burning desire to define my own path.
आऩिर में नकसी चीज़ को नदल से चाहो…
तो पूरी कायनात उसे तुमसे नमलाने की सानज़श में लग जाती है।
In Mumbai, I began learning to sort and polish diamonds. Each stone I polished taught me patience, precision, and perseverance. My first deal with a Japanese buyer earned me Rs 10,000 in commission.
The money never mattered. The moment did — because that was the moment when I realized that my beliefs would have to always outpace my doubts. And that is the truth about entrepreneurship. It never begins with a grand vision. It begins with a spark of conviction.
It begins with the courage to act, even when the future is uncertain. And it begins with the willingness to dream alone and then walk alone, before others join the path.
क्योंकि … सपने वो नहीं … जो नींद में आते हैं …
सपने वो हैं… जो नीदों उडा दे ते हैं।
Reflecting back, all of these experiences proved to be invaluable for me, as the most significant decade of India’s transformation was just about to get started and this in turn gave me the platform for transformation that was to reshape my thinking forever.
मुन्नाभाई निल्म की सबसे गहरी बातोों में से एक ये थी नक… बापू ने कहा था… बदलाव लाना है… तो सोच बदलनी होगी।
In 1985, Shri Rajiv Gandhi, then the Prime Minister of our country, began liberalizing our economy by easing import licensing norms. This was a quiet but significant reform. It was as if an economic pressure valve had opened. We moved fast, becoming early importers of polymers and laying the foundation for our trading house. I was 23.
Then came 1991 and India faced one of its darkest hours with just 10 days of foreign exchange reserves left. Under the decisive leadership of the then Prime Minister Shri PV Narasimha Rao and Finance Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, India launched a historic economic reset.
Three words defined it — devaluation, deregulation, and globalization.
This marked the fall of many major established corporates who had the protection of the License Raj. But for us first-generation entrepreneurs, it was the spark of reinvention we had been waiting for.
We immediately established a global trading business, which in just 2 years, went on to become India’s largest trading house. The year was 1993 and I had already turned 31!
जहााँ सबने तूफान दे खा …
वहााँ कुछ ने अपनी नाव निकाली…
और समंदर पार कर लिया ।
Because in moments when others back off in fear, it is those with courage that step forward and build the bridge to the future. This belief in the future would become the operating DNA of the Adani Group.
It was this spirit that carried us into 1995. Adani Exports, which you now know as Adani Enterprises, went public. The listing came at an extraordinary 14x premium. I was 33.
On paper, it was a moment of great validation. But within me, it also raised a deeper question: Was I trading value? Or was I truly building it?
I realized that if we were to shape the future, it was time to make a bold decision. Trading commodities had given us momentum, but it was time to build the very infrastructure that carried those commodities, connected economies and enabled nations to grow.
From that moment on, I decided to build. I decided to stop chasing the tide, and instead, become the coastline that shapes the tide. And I decided to stop reacting to change, and instead, become the foundation that shapes the change.
And it all started in Mundra with the objective to build a salt export jetty along with a US partner. To make a long story short, the partner backed out and we were left to build the jetty by ourselves.
Around this time in 1995-96, Gujarat pioneered a Public–Private Partnership policy for port development, aiming to tap private sector capabilities.
The fact is, in October 1998, our Mundra Port commenced operations with its first berth, thereby marking India’s first private port launch. A few years later, the SEZ policy was announced. Once again, we moved fast. While others saw barren land, we saw 40,000 acres of possibility.
Mundra is the manifestation of a belief made real. It is a reminder that, when vision dares, destiny bends.
It is now:
· India’s largest multi-cargo port
· The world’s largest private single-site thermal power plant
· India’s first HVDC transmission line
· India’s largest integrated solar & wind manufacturing hub
· And a cluster of vital industries that include petrochemicals, copper smelters, solar accessories and much more yet to come.
However, the real story of Mundra is not about what we built. It is more about what it built within us.
It gave us the courage to look beyond limits, it gave us the belief that barren salt lands could be converted to world-class infrastructure, and it gave us the conviction that if we could make it happen once, we could do it again bigger, faster and bolder.
And what started in our karmabhoomi has now become a pan-India network of dreams, powering our growth that has made us:
· The world’s 2nd-largest solar power company and building the world’s largest single-site hybrid renewable park of 30 GW spanning over 500 square km.
· India’s largest integrated private airport operator with over 25% of India’s passengers and 38% of our nation’s air cargo.
· India’s largest ports and logistics network handling 30% of the nation’s sea- borne cargo.
· Most highly integrated energy business encompassing thermal and renewable generation, transmission, distribution, LNG, LPG, CNG, PNG, battery storage, hydrogen trucks, EV charging stations, pumped hydro, and mining
· India’s 2nd-largest and most efficient cement manufacturer
· as well as Aerospace and Defence, Data Centres, and Real Estate.
· In her energy grids.
· In her logistics arteries.
· In her industrial backbone.
And it is with this conviction that we are preparing for a capital expenditure investment of nearly $100 billion over the next five years. The scale and pace of this commitment is unprecedented in India’s private sector history as we do our part for strengthening the very spine of India’s rise.
· A spine that must be unbreakable.
· A spine that must carry 1.4 billion dreams.
· A spine that tells the world that India’s rise is inevitable.
Let me now shift gears and speak about the role entrepreneurs like us, and potentially like you, can play together. But first, allow me to share a deeply troubling statistic.
So today, I would urge you to consider that one of you build India’s first AI-powered spinal diagnostic platform that detects degeneration long before disability. Another reimagines rural surgery, creating low-cost, high-impact mobile operating theatres that bring hope to villages.
A third pioneers the spinal hospital of the future a global centre for robotic surgery, regenerative medicine, and next-gen bio-integrated implants.
As an entrepreneur, I can say that the possibilities are endless — but we must have the belief and the audacity to pioneer this change. That is why I urge you to see yourselves as more than just medical professionals.
We did not enter healthcare because it lacked momentum. We entered because the momentum was not enough. The pace of change was out of step with the urgency of future demands. As the landscape unfolded, one truth stood out — healthcare does not need incremental upgrades. It needs a system-wide redesign. Not an evolution but a revolution rooted in intelligence as well as empathy.
Therefore, we are investing in modular, scalable infrastructure, of the kind that can expand rapidly in the face of pandemics or emergencies. We are championing the creation of large, world-class healthcare institutes that bring together innovation, patient care, and applied learning under one roof.
And so, in closing, let me leave you with my final thoughts:
If you want to serve India at scale and with empathy — Go for it!
Jai Hind.
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