A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi opened the “NDTV World Summit 2024 – The India Century”, the day 2 of NDTV’s flagship event is here with India’s G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant, British High Commissioner to India Lindy Cameron, and Former Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations TS Tirumurti, among a host of other dignitaries, to discuss global issues.

In his keynote address on Monday, PM Modi spoke about why the 21st Century is ‘The India Century’ and how the country is growing rapidly and how investors from around the world are excited about India being the fastest-growing major economy.

He also launched NDTV World, a new home for global news at the Summit, with the tagline: “The World From Where India Stands”. NDTV World aims to be a leading voice from Asia and India on the global stage.

Here are the live updates on NDTV World Summit 2024:

India’s growth in the manufacturing, healthcare and services sectors over the last decade has made it a force to reckon with. The next thing the country aims for is to become a beacon of sustainable growth. How does India plan to accomplish this goal? At the 2024 NDTV World Summit session titled “Disrupting Indian Industry for Good”, the country’s top industry leaders — Baba Kalyani, Chairperson of Bharat Forge; Sunita Reddy, Managing Director of Apollo Hospitals Group; and Ajay Shriram, Chairperson and Managing Director of DCM Shriram Ltd — explained what needs to be done and how.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered the keynote address at NDTV World Summit.

Manufacturing: “Made in India” for India and the World

Baba Kalyani underlined the significance of the manufacturing sector in achieving India’s Viksit Bharat objectives outlined by the government. According to Mr Kalyani, “Without manufacturing, India cannot achieve its goals.” Bharat Forge, which has been exporting critical components to major global automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) for over two decades, is proof of India’s industrial potential.

The future of manufacturing, Mr Kalyani said, lies in the adoption of new technologies, particularly artificial intelligence (AI), to enhance productivity, efficiency and quality. “AI will make an ordinary worker extraordinary, as access to knowledge will be immediate,” he said, adding how AI can assist in technical problem-solving, optimise management processes and usher in new industries.

Healthcare Innovation: Engineering Affordable Medical Solutions

Sunita Reddy shared Apollo Hospitals’ vision for bringing healthcare and technology together to revolutionise medical device manufacturing. Ms Reddy said India had the potential to engineer medical devices at one-tenth the cost, making healthcare more affordable for millions.

“Our next journey is to combine technology and healthcare to touch 500 million lives using AI, chatbots and drones to deliver medical supplies across India,” Ms Reddy said. She also spoke about the importance of research, saying India currently spends just 0.7 per cent of its GDP on research, adding a greater investment is critical, given the country faces increasing cases of heart disease, stroke, and cancer. “AI technology can help save trillions of dollars in healthcare costs,” she concluded.

Innovation in Agriculture: Disruption through Technology

Ajay Shriram enumerated how innovation was transforming India’s agriculture sector. He praised the government’s efforts in implementing the JAM (Jan Dhan, Aadhaar, and Mobile) Trinity, connecting farmers to essential services and innovations in real time.

Mr Shriram also discussed the role of technology transfer in modernising agriculture and the rise of e-commerce, making agricultural products more accessible. “Disruptions are happening in all aspects of the medical and agriculture industries,” Mr Shriram noted.

Defence Technology: Courage and Complexity

Baba Kalyani discussed India’s strides in defence, a field that demands both passion and perseverance. “Ten years ago, we never dreamt of exporting artillery guns, and today, we have the largest capacity to do so,” he said. Mr Kalyani explained the importance of intellectual capability and the need to produce superior products.

Green Fuel and Sustainability

On sustainability, Ajay Shriram discussed the government’s push for ethanol blending to reduce India’s fuel import bill. He explained the blending target has been raised to 20 per cent, highlighting how green fuel initiatives align with India’s broader sustainability goals.

The panellists were unanimous in their optimism about India’s industrial future. With continued innovation, a focus on technology, and strong government support, India is poised to become a global leader in manufacturing, healthcare, agriculture and defence technology. As Baba Kalyani confidently said, “India will make it happen.”

New Delhi:

The Global South trusts India’s leadership and Prime Minister Narendra Modi can sort out issues between Russia and Ukraine, Bhutan Prime Minister Dasho Tshering Tobgay said at NDTV World Summit today. “The world needs India and I am very happy that you have identified this century as India’s century,” he said, referring to the theme of the NDTV summit.

“India has the largest population in the world, it has a booming economy. It has crossed 3 trillion US dollars, it should have crossed 5 trillion US dollars had it not been for Covid. India has almost 35 million people in the diaspora. By every measure, this is India’s century. But in one measure, you stand out: leadership, and trust in that leadership. Not just Indians trusting India’s leadership, but the Global South trusting India’s leadership,” he said.

“The Global South looks to India for leadership. As a matter of fact, if there is any country that can sort out today’s problems, it is India. For economic problems, the world looks to India as a market, during the Covid pandemic, the world looked to India for vaccines and medicines. Even Russia and Ukraine, if there is any person who can sort it out, I do believe, it is Prime Minister Modi,” the Bhutan Prime Minister said.

Earlier, responding to a question on how his years as a student in the US had moulded him, he said, “The better question would be how India moulded me to serve my country. I was born in India in 1965 in Kalimpong, West Bengal where my parents were serving. I studied for 11 years in India. Many other Bhutanese studied in India in those days because we did not have enough schools in Bhutan. We grew up under the parentage of Indian teachers and I do believe, they taught us well because we have been able to go back home and serve our king, our country and our people.”

Praising India’s fight against climate change, the Bhutan Prime Minister said, “India is being a role model for the world, 1.5 billion people, you need energy to fuel that growth. But India is not shirking its responsibility to fight climate change.”

Speaking on Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness, he said Gross National Happiness is a development philosophy that emphasises the happiness and well-being of our people as the core purpose of growth. “Gross National Happiness recognises that economic growth is important, but that growth must be balanced with social progress, environmental sustainability, cultural preservation and good governance,” he said.

Saying that the Bhutan government measures Gross National Happiness every five years, he said, “The purpose is not to measure the happiness of the people. It is to measure the Gross National Happiness situation of the country as how people perceive it to be. Nine domains are divided into 33 variables and 150 questions and this questionnaire is rolled out. That index has been increasing slightly, indicating that the country’s Gross National Happiness is rising. But that does not mean we are the happiest people in the world.”