Industrialist Gautam Adani visited Baramati on Sunday, December 28, 2025, to inaugurate a new centre dedicated to artificial intelligence, an event that highlighted his deep, decades-long connection with the influential Pawar family.
A Centre Forged by Partnership and Praise
The newly opened Sharadchandra Pawar Centre of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence in Baramati is funded by the Adani Group and established under the Pawar family-run Vidya Pratishthan. During the inauguration, the atmosphere was thick with mutual admiration and personal anecdotes.
NCP (S-P) chief Sharad Pawar expressed his happiness at Adani's personal presence for the inauguration. He lauded the industrialist's prominent place on India's industrial map, noting that Adani started from zero, charted his own course, and reached new heights with an indomitable spirit.
His daughter, Supriya Sule, was effusive, revealing a 30-year bond between the families. "Gautam bhai is like my elder brother," she said, describing a relationship based on love and trust where she shares both good and bad news. She credited Adani's global success partly to the extraordinary patience of his wife, Priti.
Adani's Tribute to a Mentor
In his address, Gautam Adani described Sharad Pawar as his mentor, a relationship spanning over three decades. "What I have learnt from him has no parallel. Beyond his knowledge, it is his wisdom, his affection and deep empathy that leave the strongest imprint," Adani stated.
He praised Pawar's transformative work in Baramati, which goes beyond local development to encompass agriculture, cooperatives, entrepreneurship, and education. Adani framed the new AI centre as a commitment to building integrated, applied technological capability, with Baramati symbolising limitless potential enabled by Pawar's vision.
Ajit Pawar Highlights Adani Group's Scale and CSR
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar also joined in praising the industrialist. He detailed the Adani Group's staggering growth from its start in 1988 to its presence in 20 countries today. He noted the group currently provides jobs to three lakh people in India, a figure Adani reportedly said would rise to five lakh in the next five years.
Ajit Pawar highlighted specific projects, including the acquisition of two lakh acres of barren land in Gujarat for a 30,000-megawatt solar plant. He also pointed to the group's corporate social responsibility, mentioning two hospitals worth Rs 5,000 crore each with 1,000 beds, half reserved for the poor. He revealed the group's CSR fund stands at Rs 1,000 crore and is expected to grow to Rs 3,000 crore in two years.
Opposition Voices Criticism Amid Celebrations
While the event was a celebration of partnership, the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition levelled serious allegations. Shiv Sena (UBT) spokesperson Sanjay Raut alleged that it was Adani who engineered the split in the NCP, a charge he urged people not to forget.
Maharashtra Congress chief spokesperson Atul Londhe criticised the Adani Group's "monopoly on the industrial sector through their BJP connection." He expressed strong opposition to the group's proximity to the Prime Minister, which he claimed was helping establish hegemony in the wrong manner, though he distanced his party from the actions of its alliance partners attending the event.
The inauguration in Baramati, therefore, served as a microcosm of Adani's complex position in India's landscape—a celebrated industrialist and philanthropist to some, and a figure of political controversy to others.
