Union Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Union Minister of New & Renewable Energy and Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Pralhad Joshi will lead the conversation around India's future roadmap on Day 2 of the
Business Standard Manthan 2026 at Bharat Mandapam on Wednesday.
The day’s discussions will focus on India’s food and energy security, as well as the application of artificial intelligence (AI) in creative sectors, with leaders from the government, leading think tanks, and industry engaging in detailed deliberations on these topics.
Here's a look at the full schedule for Day 2 of Business Standard Manthan
Session 1: 09.45 am
Topic: Aligning India with evolving geopolitics
Speaker: Amitabh Kant, Ex-G20 Sherpa, Government of India
Session 2: 10.15 am
Topic: AI for India: From ambition to execution
Panellist:
Jibu Elias, Country Lead for India, Mozilla
Professor Sandeep Shukla, Director, IIIT Hyderabad
Arunima Sarkar, Head, Initiatives, Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (C4IR) India, World Economic Forum
Session 3: 10.30 am
Topic: Data & dominance in a Digital-first India
Speaker: Ravneet Kaur, Chairperson, Competition Commission of India
Session 4: 11 am
Topic: Making India future-ready
Speaker: Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs
Session 5: 11.45 am
Topic: Can India be the world’s food factory?
Panellist:
Ramesh Chand, Member, Niti Aayog
Ashok Gulati, Professor, Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER)
Laveesh Bhandari, President & Senior Fellow, Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP)
Session 6: 11.45 am
Topic: Can startups catalyse the next green revolution?
Panellist:
Adarsh Srivastav, Co-founder, DeHaat
Anand Chandra, Co-founder and Executive Director, Arya.ag
Amith Agarwal, CEO, AgriBazaar
Session 7: 12.30 pm
Topic: Net zero in a Viksit Bharat context: Is India energy-ready for the 2070 target?
Speaker: Pralhad Joshi, Union Minister of New & Renewable Energy and Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution
Session 8: 12.30 pm
Topic: How future-ready are our social infrastructures – health, education, sanitation, and such?
Panellist:
Ashish Dhawan, Founder & CEO, The Convergence Foundation
Vineet Nayar, Founder & Chairman, Sampark; former CEO, HCLTech
Archna Vyas, Country Director India, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Session 9: 02.15 pm
Topic: India’s high tech manufacturing prospects
Panellist:
Kollareddy Ramachandra, CEO, Midwest
Tushar Vikram, CEO, Mashreq Bank
Abhishek Singh, Sr. VP - Defence (India & SE Asia), Rolls-Royce
Session 10: 02.50 pm
Topic: From coal to cells, India’s energy journey
Speaker: Sumant Sinha, Founder, Chairman & CEO, ReNew
Session 11: 03.30 pm
Topic: Smoothing the EV transition
Panellist:
Tapan Ghosh, CEO, VinFast India
Akash Gupta, Co-founder & CEO, Zypp Electric
Raghav Bharadwaj, CEO, Bolt.earth
Mahesh Babu, MD, Olectra Greentech
Saurav Kumar, Founder & CEO, Euler Motors
Session 12: 04.30 pm
Topic: Maintaining "strategic autonomy"
Panellist
Ambassador Sujan Chinoy, Director-general, Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA)
Lt Gen Deependra Singh Hooda (retd), Distinguished Fellow, Delhi Policy Group
Rajinder Singh Bhatia, Chairman, Kalyani Strategic Systems Ltd
Session 13: 05.15
Topic: Cinema in the age of AI
Speaker: Shekhar Kapur, Indian Film Director, Actor and Producer
 "Nirmala Sitharaman, Pralhad Joshi to headline Day 2 of BS Manthan: Schedule")
