Ancient wisdom must address contemporary challenges to meaningfully transform lives, declared Dr Priti Adani, Chairperson of the Adani Foundation, while delivering the keynote address at the World Symposium on “Ancient Wisdom for Modern Challenges” in Varanasi on Monday.
“Ancient wisdom does not become valuable simply because it is ancient. It becomes valuable when we discover its relevance to contemporary problems,” she said while speaking along the banks of the Ganges, calling for civilisational knowledge to be preserved and applied to address suffering, inequality and conflict.ย
Preserving civilisational knowledge via technology
Highlighting the importance of cultural identity, Dr Adani announced that the Adani Group has committed over USD 10 million to the Bharat Knowledge Graph, an initiative dedicated to digitising and enabling interdisciplinary academic research on India’s ancient texts.ย
It makes India’s civilisational knowledge accessible to interdisciplinary research and supports 14 doctoral scholars.
Philanthropy and community developmentย
Reflecting on her 30-year journey leading the Adani Foundation, she detailed the organisation’s outreach across 7,000 villages in 22 Indian states, impacting over 13 million lives annually.ย
She revisited the Adani family’s pledge of over USD 6 billion toward social welfare, made on Gautam Adani’s 60th birthday under the guiding philosophy of ‘Seva Hi Sadhna Hai’ (Service is Worship).
Dr Adani referred to Greek philosopher Aristotle and his ideas on human flourishing; Lord Buddha, whose teachings addressed suffering; and Confucius, the ancient Chinese philosopher, whose teachings emphasised ethical conduct, moral responsibility and social harmony.
“… Our Prime Minister Narendra Modi chose this holy city as his parliamentary constituency. Under his visionary leadership, Varanasi has become a confluence of cultures and a symbol of India’s growing global presence. We have seen the late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe experience the holy chants in this city. We have seen the French President Emmanuel Macron take a boat ride along the riverside… Ancient wisdom does not have to remain… It becomes valuable when we discover its relevance to modern-day problems…” she added.
The Varanasi symposium is part of an international series that began in Greece, with meetings in Athens in 2022 and Stagira in 2023, followed by gatherings in Qufu and Beijing, China, in 2024.
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