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Summary
Top industrialists, including Adani and Mittal, urged for reduced reliance on imports and stronger domestic investments to mitigate economic impacts from global conflicts. They emphasized the importance of renewable energy and AI for future resilience.
India's top business leaders, including billionaires Gautam Adani and Sunil Bharti Mittal, on Monday endorsed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call to reduce consumption of import-dependent commodities like fuel and gold to conserve precious foreign exchange as a protracted West Asia war fuels price rise.
They also called for strengthening domestic investments, accelerating energy transition, and ensuring self-sufficiency in compute for artificial intelligence (AI) to help insulate the economy from future global shocks.
The industry leaders were speaking at the Annual Business Summit 2026 of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
“We need to get away from this obsession of gold. We need to lower our energy cost. We need to move faster towards renewable energy in our industry,” said Mittal, the founder and chairman of Bharti Enterprises, the promoter group of telecom company Bharti Airtel Ltd.
Mittal pushed for more investments in India, citing the example of his company Bharti Airtel Ltd. The company invested ₹31,000 crore in India in FY25, even more in FY26, and intends to top it in FY27, he said.
“This is not the moment to shy away. This is the moment to double down in our own country. Because the underlying growth is there,” he said.
Adani urges energy and AI self-reliance
Adani Group chairperson Gautam Adani made similar remarks. For any country to be truly self-reliant, it cannot depend on foreign sources for its energy and intelligence, he said. To illustrate his point, he cited the example of the world’s two largest economies, the US and China. He emphasized that despite their completely different systems, they converge on two principles - securing energy and data.
“Energy and intelligence are now inseparable. They must be treated as national priorities,” Adani said. “Because a nation that does not build capability in peace is forced to pay for its exposure in a crisis.”
India's biggest advantage is its large domestic market, Adani said.
“India’s advantage is simple,” Adani said. “Everything we build will already have demand waiting for it. The task before us is to build the capacity that can keep pace with the demand.”
India has already made significant strides in renewable energy, with over 500 gigawatts of electricity generation capacity, and more than half of it coming from renewable sources. He urged a similar push on the AI stack across power generation, compute capacity, and application.
Venu Srinivasan, the chairman emeritus of TVS Motor, said that India must have a trade surplus of manufactured goods just like it does in services. That would ensure that events like the West Asia war do not put a strain on the economy.
“To win the war for the world markets, we have to develop products, processes and services that are timely and of high quality at low cost,” he said. “This is the challenge that our country faces.”
PM’s remarks spark market chatter
Modi on Sunday urged Indians to adopt covid-era measures to save foreign exchange amid a global oil crisis, recommending a return to work-from-home (WFH) practices, reducing personal fuel consumption, and avoiding non-essential foreign travel and gold purchases for a year. His comments resulted in the stock markets falling on Monday, with the Sensex closing with losses of 1,300 points, or 1.7%, at 76,015.
At the CII conference, away from the formal speeches, the real buzz was in the huddles and side chats. The PM’s comments, its timing, and the fact that he said it at a public rally got executives talking. Several executives and industry insiders wondered aloud if the government had picked up some fresh information or was quietly recalibrating its approach to the economy and public messaging. “Why say this now?” was a question heard more than once.
There was another theory doing the rounds: that this could be early preparation for higher fuel prices. With global tensions keeping energy markets on edge, some felt retail fuel price hikes may not be far away — and that the Prime Minister was perhaps trying to prepare the public for tougher economic conditions ahead.
About the Authors
Abhishek Law
Abhishek Law has spent 18 years in journalism, which in news industry terms means he has survived several newsroom restructurings, countless “urgent” press releases, and more cups of tea than he can reasonably count. Based in New Delhi, he covers aviation for Mint, a sector where aircraft, oil prices, geopolitics and airline CEOs regularly conspire to make his life interesting.<br><br>Most of his time gets occupied by translating airline jargon like ASKs, yields, load factors and fleet strategies into language that doesn’t require a pilot’s licence. His motto is simple: if readers need a glossary, he hasn’t done his job properly.<br><br>On most days, the quadragenarian is tracking airline strategies, policy changes and the occasional mid-air disruption that suddenly become a stock market story. When planes are behaving themselves (which is not very often nowadays), he strays into other corporate beats like steel, trying to figure out what’s really happening.<br><br>He loves to talk, especially ask—that one more question which people are uncomfortable with, and saving contacts in his phone as a "Source who may or may not pick up calls”. <br><br>But, on a serious note, the goal remains simple: cut through jargon, find that additional detail, and turn complicated business stories into something one can actually enjoy reading.
Nehal Chaliawala
Nehal chronicles India’s top conglomerates for Mint. From navigating the complexities of big-bang mergers and large-scale fundraises to decoding high-profile recruitments and seemingly inexplicable corporate pivots, Nehal focuses on unpacking the long-term strategies of the country’s most influential business houses. He aims to provide readers with a clear-eyed view of how these corporate titans shape the broader Indian economy.<br><br>His professional journey began at The Economic Times in 2018, where he spent over five years before joining Mint in 2023. Over his career, he has tracked diverse sectors like automobiles, metals, cement, power, infrastructure, and renewable energy. He also keeps a close watch on the intricacies of corporate finance and corporate governance. This wide-ranging sectoral experience allows him to better understand India’s large conglomerates that sit at the confluence of these vital industries.<br><br>Nehal studied mechanical engineering from the Pune University and graduated with distinction in 2017. Driven by a passion for storytelling, he pivoted to journalism immediately after, attending the Asian College of Journalism in Chennai. While his time in the newsroom has made him a healthy sceptic, his engineering roots keep him perpetually inquisitive about how things work—and why they fail.<br><br>He actively encourages readers to reach out for feedback, collaboration, or news tips. Nehal can be reached via LinkedIn or directly at nehal.chaliawala@livemint.com.
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