Sustainability, digitisation to create next set of unicorns

Hyderabad: Convergence of sustainability and digitisation will establish new disruptive business models that will create the next set of unicorns, said Gautam Adani Chairman of Adani Group while virtually addressing TiE Sustainability Summit 2021 organised by TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) Hyderabad on Monday.

He said, "Organisations like TiE become essential to enable collaboration across entrepreneurs and investors who see opportunities wherever intersections and friction exist. And the only way we can reduce the friction that sustainability generates in today's businesses is through the intersection with technology." Gautam Adani said, "At the upcoming 26th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 26) in Glasgow in November, the world's most powerful countries will lay the foundation for a series of global policy changes. I believe these will be transformational and will accelerate the economic opportunities arising out of the global effort to combat climate change."

"As technologies evolve rapidly, these opportunities will equate to trillions of dollars of investments," he said. "These will include next-generation high-efficiency solar panels, low carbon materials that make the largest offshore wind turbines affordable, mainstreaming of carbon capture technologies, various fit-for-purpose battery technologies, algorithm-driven smarter and distributed grids, electric mobility, and hydrogen-related technologies."

"Of all these technologies, solar is the fastest-growing source of power. Over the past decade, the price of solar panels has dropped by 90 per cent and possibly over the next decade we will see price drops of the same magnitude as panels become even more efficient and new materials come into play. The fact is that the marginal cost of solar power is moving towards "zero" and this is both transformative and disruptive." He further said, ''The TiE platform must take the responsibility to trigger a movement that brings together an ecosystem of entrepreneurs and investors that work together to build equitable solutions for a sustainable world."