As The World Searches For A New Order, Its Defining Voices Come Together At NDTV World Summit 2026

As the world confronts competing visions of its future, NDTV World Summit 2026 will bring together some of the most consequential voices in contemporary politics, diplomacy, business, technology, and culture to examine the choices that will define humanity's collective future.

On October 22-23 in New Delhi, leaders and thinkers across disciplines will reflect on 'A World Between Orders'-- a conversation that captures the uncertainty of an era in which familiar structures are losing their authority while the contours of the future remain unsettled.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will headline the summit and deliver a keynote address. Over two days, this thought-leadership dialogue will bring political authority, diplomatic experience, scientific inquiry, entrepreneurial ambition, and creative imagination into conversation, offering perspectives on a world undergoing profound change.

The Summit will also host international leaders, diplomats, and thinkers to discuss the economic and strategic shifts shaping a world between orders. UAE Minister of Economy and Tourism Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri, Nepal's Federal Minister of Finance Swarnim Wagle, and Sri Lanka's Deputy Minister of Industry and Entrepreneurship Development Chaturanga Abeysinghe will bring perspectives from countries whose relationships with India are increasingly economically and strategically significant.

General David Petraeus, former Director of the CIA, Partner at KKR and Chairman of the KKR Global Institute, will bring decades of military and strategic experience to the discussion on conflict and technological change. Shashi Tharoor, Member of Parliament and Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs, will offer his reading of the historical and political forces shaping the present.

They will also be joined by Dr Jasper Wieck, German Ambassador to India; Jean-Eric Paquet, Ambassador of the European Union to India; and Philip Green, Australian High Commissioner to India. Djalal Khimdjee, CEO of Africa50's Principal Investment Fund, will contribute an African perspective on investment, development and international cooperation.

The Summit's technology conversations will feature Andrew Ng, founder of DeepLearning.AI, Managing General Partner of AI Fund, and Chairman and Co-Founder of Coursera. His participation will bring a distinctive perspective on the opportunities emerging as artificial intelligence becomes increasingly embedded in business and everyday life.

Joining him in the wider examination of AI will be Mike Walsh, futurist and AI specialist; Alex Turner, AI researcher and former research scientist at Google DeepMind; and Nicholas Butts, Director of AI and Cybersecurity Policy at Microsoft. Together, their contributions will span the organisational, societal and strategic implications of a technology advancing faster than the institutions seeking to understand and govern it.

India's role in this evolving international landscape will be central. Dr S Jaishankar, Minister of External Affairs, will bring his perspective on the diplomatic choices confronting India, while Sanjay Malhotra, Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, will address the economic conditions shaping the country's prospects.

Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union Minister for Railways, Information and Broadcasting, and Electronics and Information Technology, will bring a policy perspective to India's technological ambitions. His participation will place semiconductor manufacturing, artificial intelligence and digital infrastructure within the wider discussion on India's economic competitiveness and its role in global technology supply chains.

Shivkumar Kalyanaraman, CEO of the Anusandhan National Research Foundation, and Professor Duvvuri Subrahmanyam of the Indian Institute of Science will bring research and scientific capability to the discussion of India's future.

"At the NDTV World Summit, we are bringing together people whose experience and expertise can help make sense of what we see as a very complex geopolitical reality.  We have never seen such uncertainty, experienced such technological disruption in the way AI is manifesting itself, or questioned the very existence of humanity as we do now.  The range of speakers allows us to examine the changes underway from several perspectives and ask questions that go beyond the daily news cycle," said Shiv Aroor, Managing Editor, NDTV.

These questions will take on a deeper philosophical dimension with Swami Sarvapriyananda, Resident Minister of the Vedanta Society of New York, and Brahmavihari Swamiji, international spokesperson of BAPS and Head of the BAPS Hindu Mandir in Abu Dhabi. Their contributions will place consciousness, faith and human purpose within a conversation often dominated by technological capability.

The business line-up includes Nikhil Kamath, investor and entrepreneur; Gautam Singhania, Chairman and Managing Director of Raymond Group; and Zubin Karkaria, Founder and CEO of VFS Global. Their experiences will bring questions of capital, institutional longevity and international mobility into focus.

Puneet Chandok, President of Microsoft India and South Asia; Dominic Taylor, Vice President and Regional General Manager, Rides, Uber APAC; and Akis Evangelidis, Co-Founder of Nothing, will contribute perspectives on innovation, enterprise, and the changing relationship between Indian ambition and global opportunity.

The programme will also draw on the experience of leaders across energy, aerospace, finance, payments and healthcare, including Vineet Mittal of Avaada Group, Vikram Rai of GE Aerospace, Sachin Jain of the World Gold Council, Deep Agrawal of PhonePe, Tushar Vikram of Mashreq India and Ashish Singhal of CoinSwitch and Lemonn.

Culture and creativity will be integral to the gathering. Bassist and composer Mohini Dey will bring musical expression into dialogue with the Summit's broader ideas. Himanshu Saini, Executive Chef and Culinary Director of Tresind Studio; Samyukta Nair, CEO and Creative Director of LSL Capital; and journalist and author Vir Sanghvi will offer perspectives on Indian cuisine's international influence.

Commenting on the contours of the Summit, Rahul Kanwal, CEO and Editor-in-Chief, NDTV, said, "The world is changing on several fronts at once, and the consequences are closely connected. Technology decisions now shape economic competitiveness and national security; developments in one region can reshape prospects in another. At the NDTV World Summit, we want to examine these connections and ask what they mean for India and the wider world."

Eline van der Velden, founder and CEO of Particle 6 and creator of AI actor Tilly Norwood, will bring the changing relationship between technology and creative expression into the discussion. Kriti Sanon, actor, producer, and entrepreneur, will share her perspective on contemporary cinema, enterprise, and the evolving nature of public influence.

A constellation of women sports stars, including Kumkum Mohod, Neeru Dhanda, Lovlina Borgohain, Pranavi Urs, Savita Punia and Neha Goyal, will bring first-hand perspectives on competing at the highest level, handling pressure and achieving success on the international stage.

Through this range of voices, the third edition of NDTV World Summit will examine how decisions made across governments, businesses, laboratories and cultural institutions are converging to shape a shared future.

In a world between orders, the quality of those decisions -- and the depth of the dialogue informing them -- will matter profoundly. Over two days, NDTV World Summit 2026 will examine these questions through conversations with leaders across government, business, technology and culture. The proceedings will be broadcast live across the NDTV Network, bringing the discussions to audiences in India and around the world.