BT's India@100 Summit: Navigating India's global leadership trajectory

The second edition of Business Today's India@100 Summit, held on August 26 in New Delhi, brought together luminaries from various fields for a day-long exchange of ideas and insights.

The speakers comprising lawmakers and subject matter experts in attendance, debated on India’s trajectory towards global leadership amidst ongoing geopolitical realignments.

In discussions about India’s economic future, industry leaders emphasised that boosting the country’s manufacturing prowess in critical sectors would be pivotal to achieving high-income status by 2047, coinciding with India’s 100th year of independence.

Nitin Gadkari, Minister for Road Transport and Highways, spoke about the government’s plans for the electrification of national highways. Gadkari presented his vision for national electric highways and revealed that pilot runs were set to commence shortly on the Delhi-Jaipur stretch and along the Nagpur Ring Road.

Brad Smith, Vice-Chair and President, Microsoft, spoke about the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on democracies and jobs worldwide. He stressed the importance of placing guardrails on AI technology to prevent its misuse, particularly in ways that could undermine democracy. On the sidelines of the summit, Smith engaged in a conversation with Sana, India Today Group’s AI-based news anchor—India’s first AI anchor.

Borge Brende, President, World Economic Forum (WEF), said, “India possesses the potential to achieve an impressive growth rate of 8 per cent but to realise this potential, the country must undertake new reforms every year. India is poised to play a prominent role on the global stage, given its demographic advantages and potential contributions to the global order.”

Jyotiraditya Scindia, Union Minister for Civil Aviation, described the rapid growth in the country’s civil aviation industry as “monumental.” He predicted that Delhi airport would soon rank among the top three globally. Baba Kalyani, Chairman & Managing Director of Bharat Forge, emphasised the importance of product manufacturing, especially in semiconductors and medicines. BVR Mohan Reddy, Founder and Chairman of Cyient Ltd., highlighted the progress India has made in IT but stressed that the significance of product manufacturing cannot be ignored.

However, former Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram had a different perspective. He expressed concerns about India’s high poverty rate and disagreed with the idea that becoming the world’s third-largest economy would necessarily benefit everyone. Chidambaram noted that achieving middle-income status with a per capita income of $10,000-12,000 would require sustained annual growth of 7.55-8 per cent, which might be challenging to reach by 2047 at the current rate of 5.7 per cent.

The unveiling of a G20 Special Issue, featured an exclusive interview with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In this interview, the Prime Minister discussed his hopes and vision for India’s G20 presidency, the areas in which India is making a difference, and the impact of India’s G20 ecosystem, among other topics. Union Minister Gadkari unveiled the issue at the event.

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