E-Paper
Leaders to talk about ‘The Irreversible Rise of India’ at HT Summit 2017
For 14 years now, the summit has been a platform for historic ideas.
What leaders say at the Hindustan Times Summit makes headlines. It was at the summit last year that former British prime minister David Cameron acknowledged he had lost his job because of a “populist upsurge” and said the struggle against racism and intolerance is “never entirely won”.
Union minister Piyush Goyal said the government didn’t have enough time to prepare for demonetisation in order to maintain secrecy, but was confident that the decision would help the economy. “This decision will have a long-lasting impact on the economy. It makes the honest feel respected for the first time,” said Goyal on December 3, 2016.
It was at the summit that sport legend Sachin Tendulkar proposed a radical solution to make bilateral cricket series more competitive; economist and Nobel laureate Paul Krugman urged India and China to step up and maintain the post-Second World War order; and Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son explained why it’s “too sad to be too rich”.
For 14 years now, the summit has been a platform for historic ideas: for the time in 2003 when prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee suggested a unified currency in SAARC countries to 2015 when chief minister Arvind Kejriwal announced the odd-even car rationing system in Delhi.
Leaders at the summit this year will speak about ‘The Irreversible Rise of India’. It’s a theme that is relevant and crucial. Not since independence has India been confronted with change of the magnitude and complexity it’s experiencing today. Whether in politics or social mores, old certainties are being challenged – and often, turned on their heads – by Indians yearning for change and to see their country rise.
More and more, change is coming from the ground up, rather than the top down, as young people deploy new digital tools and communications technologies to disrupt the old order. The task for our leaders is to get ahead of this curve, and provide guidance where it is needed, but taking care to become conduits for change rather than barriers to it. The Hindustan Times Leadership Summit will bring together prominent and thoughtful figures from different walks of life, to dissect and discuss the ways India is rising and changing.
