NDTV World Summit 2026 Live Updates: PM Modi Set To Arrive, Jaishankar Urges Diversified Energy Strategy Amid Global Volatility

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said countries can no longer take stability in trade, energy and geopolitics for granted, as the world has become increasingly turbulent and unpredictable. He said governments and businesses must factor this volatility into their planning and build resilient strategies around it. Drawing a parallel with portfolio management in volatile markets, Jaishankar stressed the need to avoid overdependence on a single source and instead diversify across multiple options. He added that growing uncertainty around trade, energy supplies, sanctions, conflicts and resource restrictions has prompted countries to reassess their energy sourcing strategies.

Jaishankar stated that India is moving closer towards the US trade deal, he stated that 'the last mile or penultimate mile' do 'pose their challenges'.

"It's never done till it's done," he said.

VFS Global Founder and CEO Zubin Karkaria said the company's long-standing relationships with governments are rooted in the high-security nature of the visa services business. He noted that many governments have partnered with VFS for more than 20 years, reflecting the trust the company has built over time. Karkaria said VFS Global's presence across 169 countries gives it a significant advantage, while its operations are subject to around 10,000 internal and external audits each year, including reviews conducted by governments.

VFS Global Founder and CEO Zubin Karkaria said India is among the world's top source markets for international students and could soon become the largest. While destinations such as the US, Canada, Australia and the UK continue to attract the majority of Indian students, he noted that interest in European countries has risen sharply over the past two years. According to Karkaria, the number of Indian students heading to Europe has been growing by 60% to 70% annually, driven by greater awareness about academic programmes and a stronger focus on course quality and content.

VFS Global Founder and CEO Zubin Karkaria said the travel and tourism industry has repeatedly demonstrated its resilience, overcoming challenges ranging from SARS and H1N1 to the COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical tensions. He said people continue to travel despite disruptions, highlighting the sector's enduring strength. Karkaria added that, according to the latest World Travel & Tourism Council report, the industry contributes about $12 trillion to the global economy and supports one in nine jobs worldwide, either directly or indirectly.

Raymond Group Chairman and Managing Director Gautam Singhania said Mumbai is becoming a much better city to live in, driven by the government's focus on infrastructure development. He said improved infrastructure has helped ease traffic congestion, while new micro-markets are emerging across the city. Singhania added that Mumbai is also witnessing demand from people relocating to the city, further supporting growth in the real estate market.

"We came out of an economic crisis since 2022, and India greatly supported us with a lot of financial assistance and was there for us in all these difficult years. So I would like to give my gratitude and thanks to the people of India," Chaturanga Abeysinghe, Deputy Minister of Industry and Entrepreneurship Development said.

Sri Lanka received significant financial assistance from India during its economic crisis and remains grateful for the support, Deputy Minister of Industry and Entrepreneurship Development Chaturanga Abeysinghe said. He noted that India stood by Sri Lanka throughout the difficult period that began in 2022, providing critical assistance and backing the country through its recovery efforts. Abeysinghe also expressed his gratitude to the people of India for their support.

LSL Capital CEO Samyukta Nair said Jamavar is a contemporary restaurant that also pays tribute to India through its design and heritage. She noted that the restaurant's name draws inspiration from Kashmir's famed Jamawar craftsmanship and said it was never conceived as an ethnic dining concept. Nair added that while the restaurant has evolved significantly over the years, the experience it offers today is vastly different from what it was when it first opened in 2006.

Veteran journalist Vir Sanghvi said the reputation of Indian cuisine in the UK has suffered over the years due to the proliferation of low-quality restaurants serving dishes that do not reflect authentic Indian food. He said many such establishments created their own versions of dishes in London, resulting in a distorted perception of Indian cuisine. Sanghvi added that several of these offerings bear little resemblance to food that people in India would actually eat.

Speaking at the NDTV World Summit 2026, Michelin-starred chef Himanshu Saini said that around 25 years ago, many people entered the culinary profession only if they were unable to pursue other careers. He said his own journey began in a similar way. However, Saini noted that perceptions are now changing, with more parents encouraging their children to follow their passions and pursue careers of their choice.

Germany's support for Ukraine is also aimed at safeguarding its own security, German Ambassador to India Jasper Wieck said. He noted that Berlin views assistance to Kyiv as both support for a partner under attack and a measure to strengthen broader European security.

India has moved beyond the role of a spectator and is playing a more active part in global affairs, Italian Ambassador to India Antonio Bartoli said. He noted that the country is shifting from non-alignment to multi-alignment and taking a more proactive stance on the world stage. Bartoli welcomed India's growing international profile, while adding that greater influence comes with greater responsibility.

"It is not on us to judge the nix of security alliances of other nations," Jasper Wieck, Ambassador of Germany to India, on India-Russia ties said.

Software engineering is among the most impacted professions, as per British-American computer scientist and Deeplearning.AI Founder Andrew Ng.

British-American British-American computer scientist and Deeplearning.AI Founder Andrew Ng stated that concerns regarding AI spurring layoffs could be addressed via upskilling.

"If you keep learning new skills, jobs will be there." he said.

"If I were 17 today, I'd probably build something around the technological changes happening in the West," investor and entrepreneur Nikhil Kamath said on what he would do if he were starting out now, speaking at the NDTV World Summit 2026.

Nikhil Kamath said, "The money going into AI and the money going out of AI: there is a big gap in between. I think maybe now $1 trillion a year is going into AI. The amount of money coming out of AI, through the enterprise way, is maybe between $100 billion and $200 billion. That gap of $700 billion, $800 billion a year has to be bridged from somewhere," Nikhil Kamath said.

"If one were to argue, in the last cycle, I don't know, the Middle East: a lot of oil money went into AI. A lot of foreign capital went into AI in America and took these bets. To find that new capital every year, and this is significant, right? This is like $1 trillion of fresh money; it's tough."
 

In a direct message to India's wealthy, Nikhil Kamath said rising inequality is unsustainable. "Fix inequality, before you're forced to," he said, adding that philanthropy and wider wealth distribution are no longer optional if social stability is to be maintained.

AI funding is about to dry up, says Nikhil Kamath warning that the AI funding boom won't last. "Raise money now, it's about to get harder," he said, predicting a correction in private market valuations for AI startups as investors start demanding real revenue over hype.

On AI and jobs, Kamath said India's core advantage hasn't changed. "Labour arbitrage isn't dead, AI has just upgraded it. India's edge in the AI era is still cheap talent," he said, adding that the country should lean into its services strength while it builds product capabilities.
 

Nikhil Kamath called for a shift in how traders are taxed. Instead of taxing every transaction through STT and stamp duties, the government should tax final income, he said at the NDTV World Summit 2026.

On market speculation, the Zerodha co-founder defended the role of traders."Speculators provide a very valuable resource in a modern market. They should not be reprimanded," Nikhil Kamath said.

He, however, questioned privileged market access. "Should colocation exist? In my view, no. Every retail investor should get a level playing field," he said, referring to the practice where trading firms place servers close to exchange servers for faster execution.

Nikhil Kamath said, "The aspiration is to build a new kind of social media. We have been experimenting with different applications...Like China has its own version of everything... I wouldn't be surprised if more of the world goes in that direction and, at some point in time, India might have its own social media."

Nikhil Kamath suggested India could learn from China by encouraging greater competition among its 28 states, with chief ministers operating like chief executives.

“Maybe the chief minister of a state could operate like the CEO of the state,” he said, adding that such a model would require states to retain the gains from their economic efforts.

He called for examining whether this approach could work within India’s governance structure, arguing that the country should be willing to learn from others’ successes.

On his personal philosophy, Kamath struck a reflective note."Nobody knows what they want from life," he said. "The people I find most appealing are the ones who are not certain.

"The 40-year-old billionaire said he is no longer chasing scale or status. "I am optimising for freedom and peace of mind," he added.

Investor and entrepreneur Nikhil Kamath said China's system often appears capitalist at the state level, despite the country's claims to the contrary.

"Every municipality or the mayor of each province competes with another province like he were a capitalist organisation," the Zerodha co-founder said, pointing to contradictions between China's stated policies and how they work in practice.

He cited land ownership as an example, noting that while people cannot own land outright, long leases function much like ownership.

"When I am in China, it feels like a capitalist nation," Kamath said, contrasting the country's execution speed and entrepreneurial drive.

Investor and Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath, spoke the NDTV World Summit 2026. He said, "I would try to build something on the top of technology tech."

NDTV's CEO and Editor-in-Chief @rahulkanwal welcomes entrepreneur and investor Nikhil Kamath (@nikhilkamathcio) at #NDTVWorldSummit2026 for an insightful conversation on business, innovation, and the future #NDTVWorldSummit https://t.co/ynUtYgFq4Z

— NDTV (@ndtv) October 22, 2026

Swami Sarvapriyananda recounted conversations with researchers at Anthropic, the company behind Claude. He described them as young and exceptionally wealthy, yet deeply concerned about the technology they were developing.

He also discussed “persona drift”, a concept explored in AI safety research that describes how a model’s behaviour can shift as it adopts a particular role or pattern of reasoning.
 

Swami Sarvapriyananda, a monk of the Ramakrishna Order, said artificial intelligence should be treated as a person, but with a qualification: There is no need to worry about its spirituality.

Speaking at the NDTV World Summit during a session on the mind in the age of AI, he explored questions of consciousness and the unexpected behaviour AI systems can display.

“Let me answer that with a yes and a no. Yes, AI should be treated as a person,” he said, before explaining why the question needed closer examination.
 

Recalling Sigmund Freud's theory of three great "narcissistic wounds" inflicted by science on human ego, Swami Sarvapriyananda said the first was when Nicolaus Copernicus showed that Earth is not the centre of the universe, the second when Charles Darwin proved that humans were not specially created apart from nature, and the third when Freud himself showed that the conscious ego is "not master in its own house".

AI could be the fourth, Sarvapriyananda said. "We thought we were the creative intelligence. Now we see that AI can do what the greatest human mind can do, and better.

"We are at a critical moment. We have to ask ourselves what is it that distinguishes us, makes us unique? Where should we invest ourselves?" he said at the NDTV World Summit 2026.

Swami Sarvapriyananda, the New York-based monk whom Anthropic flew to San Francisco to discuss consciousness, is now in New Delhi to speak on 'Can Code Be Conscious? Rethinking the Mind in the Age of AI' at the NDTV World Summit 2026.

Bass player and composer Mohini Dey, who opened the NDTV World Summit 2026 with a song she wrote as a child, said she went shopping in Delhi after arriving from New York.

Born and brought up in Mumbai, the 29-year-old musician said she started working at the age of nine and recently moved to the US.

"I moved to the US because people told me I need to explore the world. I have played with a lot of artists, such as AR Rahman and Salim-Sulaiman. Now, I've been touring with my world tour for the past three years," she said.Dey, who was accompanied by her mother, performed at the summit with her band.

Bassist Mohini Dey has taken to the NDTV World Summit stage.  Born and raised in Mumbai, Dey received her first bass guitar at the age of nine and began performing by the time she was 11.Her talent was spotted early by her father's friend, Ranjit Barot, who took her on tour with his band. She was later mentored by jazz legend Louis Banks.

The NDTV World Summit 2026 — A World Between Orders brings together global leaders, policymakers, economists, business leaders, thinkers, innovators and cultural voices to examine a world caught between an established order and an emerging one.

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the NDTV World Summit 2026. Stay with us for the latest updates, key speeches and highlights from the summit.

The NDTV World Summit 2026 will begin at 10 am on Thursday, October 22, with a high-energy performance by Mohini Day, bassist and music composer. Watch the event live on YouTube and Live TV.