Kolkata: The world was moving from conventional wars to technology-driven wars of power, and our ability to prepare would decide our future, said Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani at IIT Kharagpur's 75th foundation day on Monday. The industrialist launched an annual Adani-IIT Kharagpur Platinum Jubilee Change Makers Fellowship for high-impact projects to advance national priorities.
The fellowship will be coordinated by the Kharagpur campus but will cover every IIT.
"The wars today are fought in server farms, the weapons are algorithms and empires are built in data centres. The armies are botnets," Adani said. Pointing out that 90% of the country's semiconductors were imported and that one disruption or sanction could freeze our digital economy, Adani said, "We import 85% of our oil. A geopolitical incident can restrict our growth. When our data crosses India's borders, every bit of it becomes raw material for foreign algorithms, creates foreign wealth. Many of our military critical systems are imported, binding national security to political will. We must fight for the freedom of self-reliance,"Adani said.
Highlighting the need for an academia-industry partnership, he proposed to create living labs at IIT Kharagpur.