"When smartphones and low-cost data reached Indians, it released enormous surge of economic energy at grassroots": Gautam Adani

Baramati (Maharashtra) [India], December 28 (ANI): Focusing on India's experience after Industrial Revolution, Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani on Sunday said that fears that mobile phones and digital technology would destroy jobs proved unfounded.
Speaking at the inauguration of Vidya Pratishthan's Sharad Pawar Centre of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence (CoE-AI) in Baramati, Adani noted that affordable smartphones and low-cost data empowered ordinary citizens and unlocked economic activity at the grassroots level.
He highlighted that between 1991 and 2024, India added over 230 million non-farm jobs, most of them created after the expansion of digital infrastructure. According to Adani, each industrial revolution has ultimately generated far more employment than it displaced by unlocking new business models and industries that were previously unimaginable.
"Looking back, each industrial revolution created far more jobs than it displaced, by unlocking entirely new industries and business models that were previously not imagined. Bharat's own experience offers clear evidence. The mobile revolution, much as everyone had feared, did not destroy jobs. Instead, it multiplied them at massive scale. When smartphones and low-cost data reached ordinary Bharatiyas, it released an enormous surge of economic energy at the grassroots. The numbers are indisputable. Between 1991 and 2024, Bharat added over 230 million non-farm jobs, the majority created after the spread of digital infrastructure," Adani said.
Adani said history consistently shows that technology does not eliminate work in the long term. Instead, it initially disrupts roles before creating entirely new opportunities and industries.
He pointed out that the First Industrial Revolution sharply increased employment; the Second gave rise to mass manufacturing, logistics, and management jobs; and the Digital Revolution fuelled innovation through software, services, platforms, and entrepreneurship, which now employ hundreds of millions worldwide.
"Because history is remarkably consistent on one fact. Technologies do not destroy work - they first disrupt roles and then expand possibility. The First Industrial Revolution increased employment in Britain by over five times. The Second created mass manufacturing, logistics, and modern management jobs, absorbing millions into a new middle-class. The Third, the Digital Revolution, did not eliminate work. It accelerated innovation and produced software, services, platforms, and entrepreneurship that now employ hundreds of millions globally," Adani said.
The Adani Group chairman stressed that every major technological shift brings both opportunity and anxiety, stressing that such fears are natural and deeply human.
Adani stated that new technologies often raise concerns about job losses, loss of relevance, and the surrendering of control to systems not yet fully understood. He emphasised that these concerns must be acknowledged and addressed responsibly.
"What history teaches us is that every such transition carries two opposing forces. Extraordinary opportunity and profound anxiety. Fear of displacement. Fear of irrelevance. Fear of giving up control to systems we do not yet fully understand. These fears are not signs of weakness - they are deeply human. They must be recognised, understood, and addressed with honesty and responsibility," Adani said.
Adani also made a strong case for India building its own sovereign AI capabilities, warning that unchecked dependence on foreign technologies could pose serious economic and strategic risks for the country, as he stressed that artificial intelligence has emerged as a defining force of the fourth industrial revolution.
"Because growth without sovereignty creates dependence. And progress without control creates risk. While job creation is vital, a nation of 1.4 billion people cannot afford to place its jobs, data, culture, and collective intelligence at the mercy of foreign algorithms and foreign balance sheets," Gautam Adani said while addressing students, researchers and policymakers after inaugurating the Sharadchandra Pawar Centre of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence at Vidya Pratishthan in Baramati, Pune district. (ANI)