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Tuesday, July 14
 

9:50am IST

Grand Ballroom: Session III: Keynote - The Great Employability Myth of Two Indias: The Tech Dream and The Reality
Tuesday July 14, 2026 9:50am - 10:10am IST
Grand Ballroom
India's technology sector is creating some of the world's most advanced AI, digital, and engineering capabilities, yet it continues to draw talent from a workforce where employability remains a persistent challenge. As AI reshapes skill requirements and the demand for specialised talent intensifies, the gap between the needs of the tech industry and the realities of the broader labour market is becoming harder to ignore. This session explores the weaknesses of India’s education/skills ecosystem; the implications for the continued growth in employment in the IT sector; and the precise roles government and  industry leaders must redefine for themselves for India’s talent and its tech industry to emerge a winner in an increasingly uncertain international environment.
Speakers
avatar for Santosh Mehrotra

Santosh Mehrotra

Lead Research Fellow, Institute of Education, Higher School of Economics, Moscow
Santosh Mehrotra, a human development economist, was a Prof of Economics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and Chairperson, Centre for Labour at JNU. He has lectured at the Universities of Florence, Italy; American University, Cairo; & the Higher School of Economics, Moscow... Read More →
Tuesday July 14, 2026 9:50am - 10:10am IST
Grand Ballroom
  Keynote

10:35am IST

Grand Ballroom: Session V: Keynote - Governing the Second Workforce
Tuesday July 14, 2026 10:35am - 11:00am IST
Grand Ballroom
AI agents, autonomous systems, hybrid teams. How do you set accountability, permissions, escalation, and quality standards for a workforce that isn't entirely human? The governance conversation most organisations are not having yet.
Speakers
avatar for Tanmay Bakshi

Tanmay Bakshi

AI & Software Architect, IBM
Tanmay Bakshi is an internationally recognized AI and Software Architect, educator, author, and keynote speaker whose work explores the future of intelligent systems, human capability, and emerging technologies. Recognized by The Toronto Star as Newsmaker of the Year after developing... Read More →
Tuesday July 14, 2026 10:35am - 11:00am IST
Grand Ballroom
  Keynote

11:35am IST

Grand Ballroom: Session VI: Keynote - Fluid, Distributed, Augmented: The New Workforce Paradigm
Tuesday July 14, 2026 11:35am - 11:55am IST
Grand Ballroom
The workforce is not waiting for the future to arrive, it is already being reshaped. Fixed roles are giving way to skills-based work, distributed teams are becoming the norm, and AI is increasingly becoming a collaborator in how work gets done. As organisations rethink talent, productivity, and workforce models in real time, this session explores the shifts already underway and what leaders must do today to build organisations that can thrive in this new reality.
Speakers
avatar for Kathy Diaz

Kathy Diaz

Chief People Officer, Cognizant
Kathy leads all aspects of people strategy at Cognizant, guiding how the company attracts, develops, engages and rewards its diverse global workforce in the age of AI. She is focused on designing the future of work, providing an exceptional associate experience for talent at all career... Read More →
Tuesday July 14, 2026 11:35am - 11:55am IST
Grand Ballroom
  Keynote

2:00pm IST

Grand Ballroom III: Deep Dive Track II: Culture, Inclusion & Wellbeing: Session IXB: Interactive Session - Ibasho – A Belonging Blueprint
Tuesday July 14, 2026 2:00pm - 2:45pm IST
GBR 3
Inspired by the Japanese philosophy of Ibasho—a place where people feel accepted, valued and safe, participants engage in a rapid design-thinking exercise to identify what makes people feel excluded versus valued and co-create a practical 12-Point Belonging Blueprint for an inclusive, psychologically safe and high-performing workplace culture.
Speakers
avatar for Siddhant Shah

Siddhant Shah

DEI & Access Enabler, Access For All
Siddhant Shah is a National Award-winning Disability Inclusion and Accessibility Leader, Universal Design Expert, and the Founder of Access For ALL, Asia's leading accessibility and DEI consultancy. Over the past decade, he has partnered with leading multinational corporations, financial... Read More →
Tuesday July 14, 2026 2:00pm - 2:45pm IST
GBR 3
  Keynote

2:50pm IST

Grand Ballroom III: Deep Dive Track II: Culture, Inclusion & Wellbeing: Session XIB: Keynote - The Desk Athlete: High Performance For The Human Body That Goes to Work
Tuesday July 14, 2026 2:50pm - 3:30pm IST
GBR 3
The body you bring to work is the instrument you think with.
Most of the people in this room sit for long hours a day. They make decisions that affect thousands of people. They are, in every meaningful sense, performance athletes, except nobody treats them like one. This session changes that.
Speakers
avatar for Ryan Fernando

Ryan Fernando

Founder, Qua Nutrition
With 20+ years of experience in the nutrition field, Ryan Fernando is considered among the elite thought leaders in the field of health and nutrition. Ryan's clientele includes prominent cricketers like Harbhajan Singh, Shikhar
Dhawan, Virat Kohli and famous Bollywood actors Aamir... Read More →
Tuesday July 14, 2026 2:50pm - 3:30pm IST
GBR 3
  Keynote

4:30pm IST

Grand Ballroom: Session XIV: Keynote - Measuring What Matters: Beyond Productivity, Performance, and Utilisation
Tuesday July 14, 2026 4:30pm - 4:50pm IST
Grand Ballroom
Quarterly targets, engagement scores, productivity metrics, utilisation rates, and thousands of other instruments of modern management have become so refined that we can measure almost anything. And yet, the central question often goes unasked: are we measuring genuine value, or simply rewarding what is most visible?
As AI begins to reshape how work is performed and how productivity is generated, many of the measures organisations rely on today are being put to the test. This session is a challenge to the measurement culture we have inherited, and an invitation to rethink whether the metrics that have long defined success remain fit for a rapidly changing world of work.
Speakers
avatar for Krish Shankar

Krish Shankar

Independent Director, Indira IVF Hospitals and Founding Mentor, Crossmentors
Krish Shankar is an HR professional with around four decades of experience and has led HR functions in organizations like Hindustan Unilever/Unilever, Bharti Airtel, Philips and Infosys, where he retired as Group Head of Human Resources. He is an Independent Director with Indira IVF... Read More →
Tuesday July 14, 2026 4:30pm - 4:50pm IST
Grand Ballroom
  Keynote
 
Wednesday, July 15
 

9:25am IST

Grand Ballroom:Session XVII: Keynote - Nothing Like This Has Happened Before. Except It Has.
Wednesday July 15, 2026 9:25am - 9:45am IST
Grand Ballroom
Every era believes its disruptions are unprecedented. Yet history tells a more complicated story. It rarely offers clear lessons, instead, it is a record of competing narratives, contested outcomes, and unanswered questions. That is precisely what makes it useful.
In this thought-provoking session, we look at the patterns of technological change that repeat across centuries, the assumptions we continue to make about progress, talent, and power, and what history can reveal about navigating moments of profound transformation. As we navigate the age of AI, what can the past help us understand, and what makes this moment genuinely different from anything that came before?
Speakers
avatar for Anirudh Kanisetti

Anirudh Kanisetti

Historian, Author and Columnist, Independent
Anirudh Kanisetti is a public historian specialising in the political, commercial, and cultural history of ancient and early medieval South India. He is the author of Lords of Earth and Sea: A History of the Chola Empire (Juggernaut, 2025) and the award-winning Lords of the Deccan... Read More →
Wednesday July 15, 2026 9:25am - 9:45am IST
Grand Ballroom
  Keynote

10:15am IST

Grand Ballroom:Session XX: Keynote - Innovation Through Openness: Making India a Global Talent Magnet
Wednesday July 15, 2026 10:15am - 10:35am IST
Grand Ballroom
As global innovation ecosystems decouple and redraw their lines, India faces a defining geoeconomic moment. This session will explore the critical policy, institutional, and regional shifts required to build a truly open innovation ecosystem and how streamlining immigration pathways, deepening regional academic corridors within South Asia, and strengthening institutional openness can unlock India's potential as a premier destination for global innovators, researchers, and tech leaders. 
Speakers
avatar for Constantino Xavier

Constantino Xavier

Senior Fellow, Centre for Social and Economic Progress
Dr Constantino Xavier is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP), New Delhi, where he directs the program in Foreign Policy and Security Studies. He is also a non-resident fellow in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution, in Washington... Read More →
Wednesday July 15, 2026 10:15am - 10:35am IST
Grand Ballroom
  Keynote

2:20pm IST

Grand Ballroom: Session XXIV: Keynote - Failure Made Me
Wednesday July 15, 2026 2:20pm - 2:40pm IST
Grand Ballroom
We're taught to avoid failure, fix mistakes, and chase perfection. Yet the moments that shape us most rarely arrive that way. They come disguised as setbacks, detours, disappointments, and impossible odds.
This is the story of how life's glitches can become its greatest gifts. Through a remarkable personal journey, this session explores why resilience often matters more than certainty, why growth begins when plans fall apart, and why our greatest breakthroughs may emerge from the moments we never wanted in the first place.
Speakers
avatar for Dr. Sreedhar Bevara

Dr. Sreedhar Bevara

Author & CEO, BMR Innovations
Dr. Sreedhar Bevara is an internationally recognised leadership author, TEDx speaker, entrepreneur, innovation adviser, and former senior corporate leader. From humble beginnings as a street vendor and waiter to contributing in corporate boardrooms and global innovation ecosystems... Read More →
Wednesday July 15, 2026 2:20pm - 2:40pm IST
Grand Ballroom
  Keynote

3:00pm IST

Grand Ballroom: Session XXVI: Keynote - Your New Manager Doesn't Sleep
Wednesday July 15, 2026 3:00pm - 3:45pm IST
Grand Ballroom
Real stories of AI as an everyday collaborator. The new colleague who quietly changes everything about how work gets done. 
What happens to accountability, team design, and culture when the team is no longer entirely human? 

Speakers
avatar for Akhilesh Tuteja

Akhilesh Tuteja

 Partner & National Leader, Clients and Markets, KPMG, India
Akhilesh Tuteja is a senior Partner and the National Leader for Clients & Markets at KPMG in India. As a key member of the India Leadership Team and with nearly three decades of professional experience, he spearheads the firm’s market-facing strategy, strengthening client relationships... Read More →
Wednesday July 15, 2026 3:00pm - 3:45pm IST
Grand Ballroom
  Keynote
 

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Tuesday, July 14
Wednesday, July 15
Conrad, Bengaluru
GBR 1 & GBR 2
GBR 3
Grand Ballroom
Junior Ballroom 2
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