Political leaders, business executives, medical experts, sports icons, a Bollywood star and singer will be among the speakers at the 18th edition of the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit, which will start from Thursday, to talk about what the future holds for India and the world.

The theme of this year’s edition, which will be held virtually, is ‘Defining a New Era’ as the world grapples with the coronavirus pandemic. The live discussions with leaders across sectors will be spread over four weeks and will be held every Thursday and Friday.

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The Hindustan Times Leadership Summit started in 2003 to raise the level of discourse on critical issues, encourage interaction among leaders in important areas and present quality thought. The last seventeen summits have seen leaders from India and across the world putting across their views.

This year, the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit will start with the session Covid-19; Where Do We Stand with Dr Randeep Guleria, the director of the premier All India Institute of Medical Sciences, and Dr Ashish K Jha, dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health, speaking about the challenges as the pandemic rages across the world. Adar Poonawalla, the CEO owner of Serum Institute of India which is manufacturing the Oxford University Covid-19 vaccine, will be the other speaker for the day. The second session of the week on Friday will feature Kapil Dev, former captain of the Indian cricket team, and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.

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Next week on Thursday, we will have Union minister Rajnath Singh and Dinesh Kumar Khara, the chairman of the State Bank of India, as the speakers. Sharad Pawar, the president of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), will also participate in the session later in the day. On Friday, Ajay Bijli of PVR Limited and the Walt Disney Company’s Uday Shankar with present their views on Business of Entertainment. Nitin Gadkari, the Union minister for road transport and highways, will be the third speaker of the day.

On Day Five, Michelin Star chefs and restauranteurs Gaggan Anand and Massimo Bottura will be in conversation with Ritu Dalmia. Next speakers of the day are Ashish Dhawan, the founder and CEO of Central Square Foundation, and scientist K Kasturirangan. Tennis players Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf will also speak on the day.

Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, YOOX Net-a-Porter Group’s Federico Marchetti and David Andrew Sinclair, a professor of genetics and co-director of the Paul F Glenn Center for the Biology of Aging Research at Harvard Medical School, are going to speak on Day Six on December 4. Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Walmart Inc’s CEO Doug McMillion, Deloitte global CEO Punit Renjen and Nobel Laureate Abhijit Banerjee take part in the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit on Day Seven.

The last day of Hindustan Times Leadership Summit will see Vikram Patel, a professor of global health at Harvard Medical School, actor Priyanka Chopra Jonas and singer Nick Jonas as participants. Singer-songwriter Prateek Kuhad will perform at the closing concert.