Rising Bharat Summit 2025 Live: Example of Modi govt’s diplomatic strength, Amit Shah on Tahawwur Rana's extradition

Amit Shah said India will not cede ‘an inch’ of its territory and emphasized the government’s commitment to the development and connectivity of the northeastern region while addressing the rcent remarks by Bangladesh’s Chief Adviser, Muhammad Yunus, who said India’s northeastern states as ‘landlocked’ with no access to the ocean.

The successful extradition of Tahawwur Rana showcased the Modi government’s strong global diplomacy and commitment to justice, said Home Minister Amit Shah.

250 km of the border cannot be fenced due to terrain and another 400 km remains unfenced because the West Bengal government has not provided land, making it difficult to curb infiltration in nearly 600 km, said Home Minister Amit Shah on Mamata Banerjee’s accusations over infiltration.

Home Minister Amit Shah asks West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee about alleged infiltration, on who was responsible for providing Aadhaar cards to those entering India illegally.

Home Minister Amit Shah emphasized that India’s economy is resilient and assured that external pressures would not cause panic among Indian citizens.

Amit Shah said he has always spoken in favour of Indian languages and mother tongues, not just Hindi. Taking a swipe at Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, he remarked, “What can I do if someone’s mother’s language is not Hindi?”

Amit Shah: Delimitation process hasn't started yet. Delimitation to be done via parliament.

Amit Shah:  We will win assembly elections in Tamil Nadu, Bihar

Congress’ Rahul Gandhi and INDI Alliance members created an atmosphere where violence spread following the passage of the CAA, said Home Minister Amit Shah.

Congress leaders Priyanka Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi did not choose to address the parliament on the Waqf issue despite being given ample time to debate, said Home Minister Amit Shah

Amit Shah: Minority Muslim sects empowered by the Waqf Act.

Amit Shah: 1500-year-old temples were claimed by the Waqf Board.

The Old Waqf Act denied rights to Muslim women.

Congress brought changes to the Waqf Bill to appease vote bank in 2013, months before the 2014 elections, said Home Minister Amit Shah.

Those opposing the Waqf Act have vested interests. 21 lakh acres of land have been added to the Waqf property after 2013.

Youth must reject appeasement politics, says Amit Shah

Amit Shah: Appeasement is a poisonous ideology

Amit Shah: Those indulging in appeasement are against the nation

Piyush Goyal: I was at the Startup Mahakumbh for all three days. We had estimated 1 lakh participants, but we had a footfall of 2.3L

Piyush Goyal: I have asked SIDBI to give more grant-based funding, let the founders enjoy the equity.

Piyush Goyal's message to startups: Go for it, Innovate in India, the country is behind you

Piyush Goyal: Those who were critical of the startup comments were part of an ecosystem who were part of an ecosystem who bash the Modi government on any issues. The Congress ecosystem does not want our startups to succeed.

Piyush Goyal: We need to encourage our scientists and our people, they have the potential. That's what I did.

Piyush Goyal: Our startups have done us proud.

Piyush Goyal: We produce the highest number of STEM graduates

Piyush Goyal: We have grown from 400 startups to over 1.7 lakh startups

Piyush Goyal: For us, it is India first. Our goal to make India developed nation by 2047 is paramount in our mind when we engage with any country be it US, UK, New Zealand and others. We are doing bilateral deal with many developed countries and every trade deal is a win-win, there is a lot of give and take that happens. But can assure that the final outcome will be in India's interest

Piyush Goyal : India's decision to buy Russian oil helped bring down crude prices and helped the entire world and protected them from inflation

India did not need to have tariffs on them because we were already doing a trade deal with them. But I think the US has not differentiated. But we are in constant engagement and I think we will working with them to take off these additional tariffs in the days to come

Piyush Goyal: US move opens up opportunities for India and majority of sectoral stakeholders and exporters in India agree

Piyush Goyal: Wherever we see dumping or unfair trade practices, steps will be taken via anti-dumping tools

Piyush Goyal: US move opens up opportunities for India and the majority of sectoral stakeholders and exporters in India agree

Piyush Goyal: US problem is not directed towards India. It is an issue of fair trade

Piyush Goyal: PM Modi has deftly managed the situation, he was the first one to bring back his old friendship with President Trump

Accidents have been reduced and more efforts are being taken to reduce accidents, says Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.

Vande Bharat trains were meticulously designed with passenger comfort and safety in mind, said Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.

Vaishnaw: Any country or company that wants to come and work in India has the full freedom to do so. Companies generally prefer JVs more than they want to go up the learning curve at a faster pace.

Vaishnaw on critics of PLI:  Electronics manufacturing is giving employment to 25 lakh people. Many of this employment is from rural areas

Vaishnaw: Every country that got into electronics manufacturing got into it in the similar fashion -- by starting manufacturing finished goods, then modules, then component stage.

Ashwini Vaishnaw: In the last 10 years, electronics manufacturing has grown 5 times, and electronic exports have grown 6 times. We also released the components PLI scheme. The ecosystem is deepening very well.

Vaishnaw on Allahbadia/Samay Raina controversy: We are all staying in a society. We must, as users of technology, whether we are content creators or consumers of technology, we should understand our responsibility. I should see what my boundary should be.

Vaishnaw on Elon Musk's petition: This is not the first time that a social media platform has challenged the government. It is a very common thing. Ultimately, platforms have to follow Indian laws

The government has played a big role in fostering startups in the country. There are 1.5 lakh startups in the country as opposed to a few hundred a few years ago.

Vaishnaw: In our economy there is space for everything. Some of the startups are working on very difficult technologies.

Western governments were very prescriptive in their approach.

We wanted the process to be very consultative

We had 35,000 inputs from various stakeholders

We are using the same process for the rules. We should now be able to do the draft

Ashwini Vaishnaw: We are not late in the AI race. We are very much in the race,. We will be among the top few countries that will be able to harness its powers

Ashwini  Vaishnaw: Bias in AI can be very dangerous. It can play out very negatively.

Ashwini Vaishnaw on Made in India chip: All the five unit construction are going on. We are on track to release by end of the year.

Ashwini Vaishnaw: India has the highest talent nation. If you look at how we are democratising access to GPUs, our model has been appreciated by everybody.

14,000 GPUs already empaneled. We are going for more

Nitish Kumar will continue as Bihar’s Chief Minister for the next five years if the NDA-JD(U) alliance wins the upcoming elections, says Sanjay Kumar Jha, National Working President of Janata Dal (United).

Sanjay Kumar Jha, National Working President of Janata Dal (United) and Rajya Sabha MP, said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi 'does not have clear idea' of caste or caste-based census

The alliance between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and JD(U) is a natural partnership, says Sanjay Kumar Jha, National Working President of Janata Dal (United) and Rajya Sabha MP.

Awais: So we have launched six satellites. 3 more will be launched in June. We plan on launching 18 more satellites till 2027 which will enable 24 hour coverage of the planet.

Anirudh Sharma: Only four percent of space activities are being tracked. We are looking to build largest catalogue of space objects. We are moving towards defence contracting, intelligence.

Awais: Most of our customers are global. In India most of our clients are in the government. More than 99 per cent, are from US and Europe

Ravichandran: In 5 years, we should be able to do one launch every month if not 2.

Ravichandran: It is almost easy to raise 5 million dollars for space in India. That is a big change, indicative of the ecosystem opening up 5 million to 100 million dollars is the journey.

Awais: In 2025, $5-$10 million dollars you can get from Indian investors. For capital beyond that, you are looking at international investors

Ravichandran: The biggest change from the sector standpoint, is that people have started seeing space as a platform and not just as a destination

Ravichandran: Space is a tool, and not just a destination very rich boys or girls

Awais Ahmed, CEO of Pixxel Space: When we were there at SpaceX headquarters, it was my Eureka moment — if a private company can do it in US, why cannot we do it in India.

Ahmed: Few months back, we launched India’s private satellite constellation. We launched 3 hyperspectral imagery satellites.

Anirudh Sharma, CEO, Digantara: We want to create GPS for space.

Anirudh Sharma: There are around 13,000 satellites in lower earth orbit. So we wanted to create a system where we can track where these objects are in space — by collecting data and creating a map.

Srinath Ravichandran, CEO, Agnikul Cosmos: Our rocket engines is a single piece of hardware, made by a 3D printer. It contributed to the rocket being cheap. Our rocket flight was controlled and it lifted off from our private launchpad.

Former NASA astronaut Scott Kelly emphasizes the importance of mental health, highlighting that astronauts must develop strategies to cope with isolation and confinement during extended periods in space. Kelly noted that taking ‘mental health days’ was crucial for maintaining overall well-being while aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

Vikram Sampath: There is space for multiple voices to be heard today. There's a committee which is trying to correct the school textbooks

We cannot achieve Rising Bharat without solving the wounds of the past, says Vikram Sampath.

Sanjeev Sanyal: Hinduism itself is not monolithic. It is about diversity. There are many views of history, I do not have any issues with different perspectives of history.

Sanjeev Sanyal: The problem is when there is no agreement on basic facts. But I understand that the Bengali view of history may not be the same as the Kannada view of history

Vikram Sampath: History offers a place for the healing of communities.

Vikram Sampath: Need to have a truth and reconciliation committee in India like they had in South Africa.

Vikram Sampath: We should not whitewash history to suit our present needs with the caveat that we are not holding today's communities responsible for the barbarians of the past neither should they glorify them

Sanyal: Pakistan named their missiles after Ghazni and Ghori. That's what happens when you glorify barbarians of the past.

Vikram Sampath: Itihaas means it thus happened, so we cannot sugarcoat history for vote banks.

Sanjeev Sanyal: The primary facts are that Aurangzeb did carry out a large number of massacres of Hindus for religious bigotry

Sanjeev Sanyal: Now what Aurangzeb did in the past does to the politics of today, that is for politicians to decide.

Sanjeev Sanyal: We won't have peace of any kind if we don't confront the past

Vikram Sampath: Our popular history narrative falsely assume that talking about the truths of the past will upset our present communities. Muslims of today are not responsible for what the barbarians did in the past

Vikram Sampath: We should not idolise barbarians of the past such as Tipu Sultan

Vikram Sampath: History is a constant dialogue between historians and their sources and interpretations.

Vikram Sampath: Indian history has had a terrible trend to deny the uncomfortable truths of our past.

History is completely different from what we have been told, says Sanjeev Sanyal

Sanjeev Sanyal: The largest Hindu temple in the world is in Cambodia. Hinduism was clearly everywhere in the world.

Sanjeev Sanyal: I simply want to present history the right way.

Sanjeev Sanyal: We are building a Gupta period ship and that ship will be tested and in December we will sail it to Oman.

Vikram Sampath: Orwell had said best way to destroy people is it deny their understanding of their past. That's what has happened with our history

Sanjeev Sanyal: The way history has been taught, the narrative is that India had a long history of defeats. Even our freedom struggle is taught in a peculiar way where British were asked to politely leave by Gandhi

Hitesh Oberoi, Founder & Trustee, Plaksha University: AI can be used to educate every Indian. With new technology, new opportunities come up.

Pramath Raj Sinha, Founder & Trustee, Ashoka University: AI is going to be a game changer for India. The country needs to be prepared to be educated for the technology.

Hitesh Oberoi, Founder & Trustee, Plaksha University: Earlier most of the jobs outsourced to India were low-end jobs. This is changing now. We now have research jobs, technical jobs, etc.

Hitesh Oberoi, Founder & Trustee, Plaksha University: In every 10years, you have a new technology. Today we have AI. In my view, AI is a vertical technology which means it will be used in every sector.

Pramath Raj Sinha, Founder & Trustee, Ashoka University: On raising funds- You are seeing a large accumulation of wealth in the country, and many of them are interested in giving back.

Pramath Raj Sinha, Founder & Trustee, Ashoka University: If you look at the biggest universities of the world, no one particular entity own the institution. The point of Collective philanthropy is that nobody owns it but everybody owns it.

Pramath Raj Sinha, Founder & Trustee, Ashoka University: You don’t have decision-making power based on your donations.

Hitesh Oberoi, Founder & Trustee, Plaksha University: An increasing number of students are going overseas now. Indian institutions (for higher education) have been unable to evolve in terms of curriculum and infrastructure.

Pramath Raj Sinha, Founder & Trustee, Ashoka University: We (at Ashoka) are trying to bring back the purest form of education. We want to give people the choice to do what they would like to do.

Hitesh Oberoi, Founder & Trustee, Plaksha University: The biggest challenge in higher education is that there is a huge disconnect academia and industry.

Pramath Raj Sinha, Founder & Trustee, Ashoka University: The core problem (in education) is we are unable to get education to large section of our society.

Hitesh Oberoi, Founder & Trustee, Plaksha University: We don’t want to just add another college in the country.

iPhones will be significantly more expensive because of Trump’s tariffs on India, says Abhishek Chakraborty, CEO, DTDC

Shrinath Ravichandran: IPO is a logical next step, but we are not under pressure.

Shrinath Ravichandran: Short term impact of Trump’s tariffs is confusion.

Sahil Goel: Very focused on India for India and building for Indian businesses.

Sahil Goel: IPO brings in a lot of discipline in the organisation.

Shrinath Ravichandran: GST has also impacted the manufacturing sector. But the PLI movement has pushed India’s manufacturing capacity.

Shrinath Ravichandran: In the next 5 years, semiconductors is going to be the space that will see a lot of indigenisation.

Shrinath Ravichandran: But for us to move up the value ladder, we need to focus on skilling otherwise this is going to challenge India’s manufacturing initiative.

Abhishek Chakraborty, CEO, DTDC : Global trade disruptions present an opportunity for Indian trade industry to grow and show it's resilience.

Abhishek Chakraborty, CEO, DTDC: India's logistics cost has reduced significantly due to implementation of GST.

Abhishek Chakraborty, CEO, DTDC : Delhi to Mumbai average transit time has reduced to 12-15 hours from 40 hours before COVID.

Chirag Paswan said that discussions on seat-sharing in Bihar for the upcoming elections have not yet taken place. . “We trust the leadership and the alliance. When the time comes, everyone will get their due,” Paswan said, underscoring the unity within the NDA bloc.

My uncle is elder to me, don't want to speak against him beyond a point. But I feel the pain, says Chirag Paswan, minister, Ministry of Food Processing Industries:

Chirag Paswan, minister, Ministry of Food Processing Industries: We are going to establish the third NIFTEM in Bihar soon, this year

Have to strengthen food processing sector. In today's time, the sector has negligible presence in India, says Chirag Paswan.

Chirag Paswan: Whenever I have expressed my concerns to PM Modi, it has been respected and heard.

Chirag Paswan: As a soft power, through food processing, we can have a major footprint across the globe

Chirag Paswan: What is wrong in giving the right to Muslims to protest in courts if their land is taken away by Waqf Board.

Chirag Paswan:  Nothing is above nationalism, politics cannot be over nationalism. He (Rahul Gandhi) practices politics of division.

Chirag Paswan: Should Indian citizens support anyone (Rahul Gandhi) who talks about separating India?

Chirag Paswan: I am friend to BJP, I am not part of BJP. I have my own priorities, I am an ally to the BJP, I am not part of them

Chirag Paswan, minister, Ministry of Food Processing Industries, says give time, things will change, no citizenship was taken away after 370 abrogation, or CAA.

Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) chief Chirag Paswan urged political parties to focus on issues of development, employment and infrastructure instead of engaging in religion-based politics.

Want to establish a system where religion and politics are separate, says Chirag Paswan.

Nobody should comment on how I practise my religion, says Chirag Paswan

Swapan Kataria, Co-Founder and CEO of Crown LNG, delivered a compelling message about India’s energy outlook at the CNN-News18 Rising Bharat Summit 2025. During a fireside chat titled “Powering Tomorrow: Energy Security for India’s Youth,” Kataria emphassed that securing affordable, reliable, and clean energy is essential for India to harness its demographic dividend and achieve the vision of becoming a Viksit Bharat by 2047.

India's digital revolution isn't merely keeping pace — it's setting the standard. Speaking at the CNN-News18 Rising Bharat Summit 2025, Vivek Wadhwa — CEO of Vionix Biosciences, academic, entrepreneur, and author — made a bold statement: “India’s digital infrastructure is significantly ahead of what we see in Silicon Valley.”

Former Infosys CFO and IT industry veteran Mohandas Pai has slammed “tax terrorism”, saying the income-tax oppression is “enormous”. “Today, there is Rs 30 lakh crore of tax amount stuck up in disputes, Rs 15 lakh crore for which the cases are in court. Of this, 80-85 percent happened in the last five years,” Pai said during a panel discussion at the Rising Bharat Summit in New Delhi on April 9. (Read More)

The RBI, the people in Mint Street, think that they are the only people saving this country from all the marauders outside, who want to take away India's foreign exchange. And everyone is a crook in this country except them. - Mohandas Pai, Chairman, Aarin Capital Partners

In the last four years, we have collected Rs 75 lakh crore in direct taxes. How much of black money have they found? How much is the tax they have collected for black money? We had Angel Tax for 8 years...Every time they change a law; they give more powers (to tax authorities). Because the political establishment is very weak, it does not look at all this. The saddest thing for this country is tax oppression.

Monhandas Pai, Chairman, Aarin Capital Partners: I have been in business 40 years. I suffered regulatory oppression all those 40 years. After we gained independence, one set of imperialists left this country, whole another set of brown imperialists took out in Delhi. They looked down on the people. We are subjects and victims of government in Delhi, and Bangalore, and other places, because they think they are rulers and we are their subjects and victims. And that wears off into regulations. The income tax oppression is enormous. Today there is Rs 30 lakh crores of tax amount stuck up in disputes, Rs 15 lakh crore for which the cases are in court. Of this, 80-85 percent happened in the last five years.

Jaitley promised us, in 2014 that he is going to stop tax terrorism. But unfortunately, the Finance Minister has given more power to the tax authorities to oppress us than any Finance Minister has seen in the last 35 years.

Vivek Wadhwa, CEO, Vionix Biosciences: Kris Gopalakrishnan, I respect him immensely. He is one of the greatest entrepreneurs in the world, not only in India. But he said that, "Vivek, you are going to have a hard time finding machine learning talent in India. This is a deficiency that we have here." Complete BS my friend, Kris. I have been able to find better AI/ML talent in India than I could find in Silicon Valley.

Harsh Jain, Dream Sports: In the US, majority of unicorns would have non-American founders who've migrated. In India, from the 100+ unicorns, all of them have Indian founders. Dealing with uncertainty is also a competitive advantage

Monhandas Pai, Chairman, Aarin Capital Partners: Modi 1.0 was all about the bottom of the pyramid, correcting the mistakes of the past. And we spent Rs 35 lakh crore on DBT, and others, and helped the poor. Modi 2.0 was all about infrastructure. State and Centre spent $250 billion in infrastructure. Modi 3.0 should be at the top of the pyramid, on innovation, R&D, fighting the battle in the digital revolution, and become the dominant digital power.

People always criticize (India) and say there is no Google from India, Facebook from India, Nvidia from India. It is only in the United States. Because the US has a $32 trillion GDP. It spent $2.5 trillion in digital and IT. It is only then it can happen.

Monhandas Pai, Chairman, Aarin Capital Partners: To grow a country, we need three things. One is human capital, and we have that. Second is, we need financial capital, we don't have enough. That is what I told Piyush Goyal. In the last ten years, between 2014-2024, India invested $160 billion in startups and venture capital. In China - $845 billion, and US - $2.3 trillion. Piyush (Goyal) should get us to put more money into deeptech startups.

"Priority will be to approve projects which are pro-environment. Green building projects are given priority. Unless cities are sustainable, there is no sense of making concrete jungles," says Shree Laxmi.

Shree Laxmi spoke about the next phase of NCR's urban expansion, stating that development began with Noida and Greater Noida, and has now progressed to New Noida.

“We are developing New Noida to meet the growing land demand for industries, the real estate sector, the IT industry, and educational institutes,” she said, highlighting its role as a future-ready hub for integrated growth.

Max Estates has successfully raised Rs 800 crore through Qualified Institutional Placements (QIPs), Vice Chairman and Managing Director Sahil Vachani stated.

“Our ideology is simple - we aim to create spaces where people can live well and work well. That clarity reflects in our sharp focus on asset classes and regional priorities,” he said.

Highlighting upcoming projects, Shree Laxmi noted, "Eastern and western freight corridors are here, a multimodal transport and logistics hub is being developed at the confluence of these corridors. IITGNL township being developed there."

Sahil Vachani also stated, "Lots of traction from manufacturing sector. Mobile handset firm Nothing manufacture in Noida. Noida is emerging as a big centre for GCCs, banking firms. We can see a huge inflow of investment, companies and services in Noida."

"Awareness at city level, deeper level of PPP are some steps that can be taken to address current issues," said Sahil Vachani, Vice Chairman and MD, Max Estates.

Vachani further noted, "Prognosis of NCR in my views is very very bullish. It’s infra hub and lots of activities happening. Noida has evolved as a twin city. With MNCs like Microsoft coming it’s evolved much".

In a candid chat at the Rising Bharat Summit, Shree Laxmi, Noida Authority, stated, "Getting an airport in NCR will decongest the region and bring more investors in IT, Real Estate, Industry. So, Jewar airport will boost the economy. It will bring investment in the region".

Sahil Vachani, Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Max Estates, speaking at the Rising Bharat  Summit today, expressed strong optimism about the transformative potential of infrastructure-led development, citing the example of the upcoming Jewar Airport.

Speaking on urban planning and future-ready cities, Vachani said, “America progressed because of the rise of suburban cities. There’s a global shift towards the model of 15-minute cities, where everything you need—work, schools, healthcare, recreation—is accessible within a 15-minute radius. We are confident that Jewar Airport will play a pivotal role in catalysing such growth in the region.”

Siddharth Srinivasan, Go-to-Market India lead at ElevenLabs, tackled rising concerns around voice cloning and privacy during the discussion.

“We have our framework and processes in place when it comes to privacy and consent,” he said, underscoring the company’s proactive stance.

Chandrachud, speaking at the Rising Bharat Summit 2025, addressed the debate on whether judges’ assets should be made publicly accessible.

He stated that while judges are citizens like everyone else, the decision to disclose assets online should be left to their individual discretion.

“There can be a broad diversity in the income of judges and lawyers. Whether assets should be put on a website or not must be a personal choice,” Chandrachud said, highlighting the nuanced nature of transparency in the judiciary.