At Davos 2022, Gautam Adani brought before the global business community a paradox to solve. Expressing concerns about the growing closemindedness and coercion, the Adani Group chairman, while batting for self-reliance, underlined that if there is a rejig of the world order, that needs to be based on multipolarity.

Adani stated that while there is considerable panic and uncertainty in the backdrop of unfolding events of climate change, followed by the covid pandemic, global supply chain disruptions, the Ukraine war and inflation rates the world has not seen in decades, "there is little alternative to effective, confident self-reliance."

"As a response to global conditions, I am convinced that our Prime Minister's Atmanirbhar Bharat scheme is precisely the catalyst India needs to step up and strengthen self-reliance across all sectors - be it vaccinations, defence or semiconductors," he said, adding that India is no onto the era of self-reliance.

Speaking on the theme of ‘History at a Turning Point: Government Policies and Business Strategies’ at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting, Adani came down on the countries setting targets for India on emissions and lecturing on climate change to the world, stating that they "now appear to be less censorious as their own energy security is threatened and prices spiral."

Adani revealed more than climate change, a topic that gained prominence at the Davos discussions was defence. "Almost every leader I spoke to acknowledged, and some even explicitly stated, that a new and more sophisticated arms race may now be coming on," he said.

"On one side we are too connected now, bound together by trade and the brute logic of the supply chain. But on the other, a combination of the pandemic, followed by the war in Ukraine and the effort to limit climate change, has exposed the limits of global cooperation," he said, highlighting the state of affairs with some of the economically developed nations, who he said were scrambling to find alternatives to a world they have largely brought about.

Hinting at the over-dependence of the developed world on China for cheap sourcing of manufactured goods, Adani stated that the nations have realised belatedly that "in the quest for hyper efficiencies, they have become too reliant on some nations to meet manufacturing needs and too reliant on others to meet energy needs."

"A flat world, we now know, was largely a fantasy," he said, asking the world to learn to navigate the bumps and the curves.

The way Chinese dependence on semiconductor supplies has disrupted global manufacturing. According to Adani, the road ahead is to rejig the world order that is based on multipolarity.

"The world need not be flat. Not when flatness really just means that the world has been forcefully flattened."

"Instead, let’s seek a more stable world order built around countries that are self-confident, self-reliant and willing to speak to each other in terms of mutual respect rather than coercion and condescension," he said.