HTLS 2025 highlights: Over 2,336 Maoists surrendered, 487 killed in two years, says Vishnu Sai

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CM Vishnu Deo Sai, while speaking at the 23rd Hindustan Times Leadership Summit, announced that the state government is introducing a new, stringent, anti-conversion law. “There is a law in place but there is a need to make it more stringent. I am confident that the bill will come up in the assembly session between December 14 and 17 where it will be supported and passed. Our country is secular but if anyone takes advantage of a person’s circumstances, conditions and indulge in conversion then that is incorrect. It should be condemned. Because such crimes are happening despite the existing law in place, there is a need to make it stringent,” he said.

Chhattisgarh CM Vishnu Deo Sai on Thursday spoke of the probe regarding the Mahadev App saying the central agency is investigating the case. “The main accused, Ravi Uppal, is missing, and his associate Saurabh Chandrakar has been arrested in Dubai and is currently under house arrest. India is seeking his extradition. It is a central agency — how long can someone run? Eventually, they will be caught,” he said.

Chhattisgarh CM Vishnu Deo Sai said the government’s priority is not only to end Naxalism but also to ensure that development reaches the affected regions. “We are running the Niyanar Yojana, and through it, we are prioritising the delivery of government schemes to those areas. As security camps are opening, we are succeeding in delivering government facilities. So far, we have been able to provide all kinds of government services, roads, electricity, water, ration cards, schools, hospitals, in more than 327 villages. There are immense possibilities for tourism in the Bastar region, and in our new industrial policy, we have given tourism the status of an industry. We will also greatly promote homestays,” he said.

Speaking of Chhattisgarh's rehabilitation policy for Naxalites, CM Vishnu Deo Sai, said, “We have created a very good rehabilitation policy, and under this, those who surrender will be provided financial support of ₹10,000 every month for three years. We are already providing skilling. We are working to connect them with employment… Also, in rural areas, under the rehabilitation policy, we have made provisions for one hectare of land for farming. In urban areas, we have provided four dismil (of land) for building houses.”

Chhattisgarh chief minister Vishnu Deo on Thursday said over 2,336 Maoists have surrendered, 1,853 arrested, and around 487 Maoists neutralized in last two years.

Chhattisgarh chief minister Vishnu Deo Sai on Thursday said Naxalism remained a major obstacle to the state’s development, adding that the Centre was committed to eliminating it nationwide by March 31, 2026.

“Naxalism was a very big obstacle to the development of Chhattisgarh. The government took oath on December 13, 2023, and after the formation of the double-engine government, our forces began fighting Naxalism vigorously. We received the blessings of Union home minister Amit Shah, and our jawans are fighting with great enthusiasm. Union home minister Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have resolved to eradicate Naxalism from the entire country by March 31, 2026, and our jawans are fighting very strongly,” Sai said at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit.

Chhattisgarh chief minister Vishnu Deo Sai will be in conversation with Sunetra Choudhury, National Political Editor at Hindustan Times from 6:30 pm.

Ridham Desai on Thursday reasoned why multinational companies are excited about India. Speaking of India's unique income pyramid, he said, "India has cohorts running into millions of potential consumers across income baskets, right from the bottom, where we have few very poor people living in sub-Saharan conditions, to the top, where we have 5 million households that can afford anything on the planet. This unique income pyramid makes India extremely attractive for anyone who wants to increase their business."

On a question regarding recent IPOs giving early exit to investors, Ridham Desai said, "Of course, there are investors who exit, that capital then gets re-invested...If you look at what venture capital and private equity funds are saying, they are actually increasing their commitments to India."

Ridham Desai, Managing Director for India at Morgan Stanley, said gold and bitcoin should not be termed assets, adding that an asset by definition must yield an income.

“For me, an asset by definition is something that yields an income. Equity yields dividends, bonds yield coupons, fixed deposits give you interest, but bitcoin and gold do not yield any income. So, they are essentially stores of value, not assets,” he said.

Ridham Desai has said that the biggest risk to the Indian equities is the slowdown in global growth. “I think the biggest risk is slowdown in global growth which incidentally we are not anticipating...We are entering into 2025 with unprecedented stimulus across all the major economic zones,” Ridham Desai said.

Ridham Desai is excited about India’s consumption economy, so much so that he believes it’s the story of the decade—driving growth in manufacturing to services sectors, as well as the stock market. “The singular reason why multinational companies (MNCs) are so excited about India is the consumer of this country,” Desai, managing director and chief equity strategist for Morgan Stanley in India, told Mint’s Editor-in-Chief Ravi Krishnan during a session at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit 2025 on Thursday. “Depending on what product or service you sell to your consumers, India could be between 10% and 100% of an MNC’s growth over the next 10 years.”

OpenAI's Srinivas Narayanan, who has earlier worked at Meta, also spoke of OpenAI's plans in the future, including talks of an IPO. While speaking on the global attention the AI platform is receiving, he said, “While all the attention is interesting, we're also heads down (in work). But I would add that some of our best moments happen when we have launches that are really moving the needle for the world.”
After his session, next to speak would be Ridham Desai, Managing Director and Chief Equity Strategist, India, at Morgan Stanley.

On PM Modi and other celebrities posting Ghibli-style images, Open AI's Srinivas Narayanan said, "We launched image-generation back in March-April (2025). There were so many people who were creating really interesting artifacts — Ghibli-style images. The Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) posted something. (Cricketer) Sachin Tendulkar posted something. Those are also really inspiring moments for us, where it shows the impact that we are having on the world.”

“India is going to be very central to how AI is deployed in the real world,” Srinivas Narayanan said, noting that excitement for AI is “really high” in the country. He listed AI startups in farming and legal sectors, for instance.

Asked about the AI industry's themes for the future, specifically for the year 2026, Srinivas Narayanan listed the major ones.

He said AI models might take longer to think — “humans sometimes take hours or weeks thinking about a problem,” he noted — to answer complex questions. That would mean an enhancement in accuracy and quality of answers.

He also listed “agentic use” as another marker for the future, where AI won’t just answer questions, “but act on your behalf”. “Multi-modality” will evolve, too, he said, wherein new AI models become better at specific tasks, such as video generation.

While speaking on the question of AI taking over the workplace, Srinivas Narayanan said the AI adoption is in the early stages. Calling an AI takeover a 'hyperbole', he said, "I think you see a hyperbole in the press on the one end that AI is going to take over everything and on the other end, you see studies that 95% of the AI enterprise fail...The truth is in the middle. We are in the early stages of AI adoption spreading across the world."

Srinivas Narayanan, while speaking at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit 2025, said that the AI platform's aim in India is to remove every barrier in adoption. "We are making our technology more affordable, more accessible, and more capable for India,” he said. Sharing OpenAI's plans, he added, "On the affordability side, we launched ChatGPT Go earlier this year. It's a new, affordable plan for $3.99 a month, and we're also giving it out for free for a year.”

While speaking on how OpenAI balances speed with accuracy and online safety, Srinivas Narayanan said the AI platform think about safety at every step of the game.

"We think about safety at every step of the game. From using the right data, to its constant training after launch, and aligning all its training with human values. We have a very high bar for evaluating these models around these capabilities for what can be risky when we launch them,” Narayanan said, adding that OpenAI monitors these models “for what happens in the real world, so that we can take action when we see models that might not be complying with the rules”.

Srinivas Narayanan, CTO, B2B Applications at OpenAI, on Thursday said Artificial Intelligence (AI) is now focused on uses that go beyond just answering questions, and India is central to this future. While speaking at the inaugural session at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit 2025, Narayanan spoke on the future of OpenAI, its plans for India and how ChatGPT aims to become a significant tool for education.

The 23rd Hindustan Times Leadership Summit has officially kicked off with the opening session featuring Srinivas Narayanan, CTO of B2B Applications at OpenAI. Watch the session here

The key speakers at the 23rd edition of the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit include Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Delhi chief minister Rekha Gupta, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Actor Hugh Grant, and Bharti Enterprises Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal.

On Day 1, the speakers include Srinivas Narayanan, CTO of B2B Applications at OpenAI; Ridham Desai, Managing Director and Chief Equity Strategist for India at Morgan Stanley; and Vishnu Deo Sai, the chief minister of Chhattisgarh.

• 5:30 PM – 6:00 PM: Srinivas Narayanan- CTO, B2B Applications, OpenAI
• 6:00 PM – 6:30 PM: Ridham Desai- Managing Director and Chief Equity Strategist, India, Morgan Stanley
• 6:30 PM – 6:50 PM: Vishnu Deo Sai- Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh

Welcome to the 23rd edition of the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit (HTLS).

Srinivas Narayanan, Chief Technology Officer for B2B Applications at OpenAI will shortly discuss the growth of ChatGPT, the future of Artificial Intelligence and OpenAI’s plans for India.