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The India-US Forum

About The Event

  • 19 - 20th June 2026

The India-US Forum is a platform for both American and Indian leaders from across the spectrum to shape the future of India-US strategic partnership through consultation and collaboration. It is convened by the Ananta Centre in partnership with the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India. 

The discussions are held under the Chatham House Rule, and participation, by invitation only, is limited to Government representatives, industry leaders, domain experts, academics and private-sector stakeholders.

Over its 8 editions so far, the Forum has emerged as a coveted space to exchange ideas and set the bilateral agenda for cooperation.

Delegates

Agenda

DOWNLOAD AGENDA

The Forum is closed-door and held under the Chatham House rules.

Badge Pick-Up Attendance is by invitation only. Access to sessions is limited to badge holders.
8:00 hrs Taj Mahal Hotel
Welcome Remarks

Indrani Bagchi, CEO, Ananta Centre

9:00 hrs
Opening Remarks

Jamshyd N. Godrej, Forum Co-Chair, Founding Trustee, Ananta Centre and Chairman & MD, Godrej & Boyce

9:02 - 9:05 hrs
Session 1 │ Keynote Conversation

Admiral Krishna Swaminathan, PVSM, AVSM, VSM, Chief of the Naval Staff, Indian Navy
and
Vice Admiral Sanjay Jasjit Singh, SYSM, PVSM, AVSM, NM, Director General, USI

9:05 - 9:40 hrs
Session 2 │ Code and Combat: Navigating Tech, Trust and Innovation
  • RK Singh, Defence Secretary, Government of India
  • ACM NAK Browne (Retd), Director, Tata Advanced Systems
  • Vivek Lall, Chief Executive Officer, General Atomics Global Corporation
  • Frank Morley (V. Admiral Retd.), Vice President - International, Northrop Grumman
  • Abraham Denmark, Partner, Co-Chair of Defense & National Security Practice, The Asia Group
  • Pankaj Chadha, Executive Vice President and Head Marine Systems, L&T
  • Michael Fernandez, Country Head, India, Lockheed Martin

Moderator: Sameer Lalwani, Senior Advisor, Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP)

9:45 - 10:55 hrs
Session 3 │ Conversation

Sergio Gor, US Ambassador to India and Special Envoy to South & Central Asia (proposed)
and
Indrani Bagchi, CEO, Ananta Centre

11:00 - 11:30 hrs
Break
11:30 - 11:45 hrs
Session 4 │ Promises and Partnerships: Stress-testing the India-US trade relationship
  • Darpan Jain, Chief Negotiator, Ministry of Commerce, Government of India
  • Janmejaya Sinha, Chairman, Boston Consulting Group India
  • Arun Kumar, Partner, Celesta Capital
  • Rick Rossow, Chair, India and Emerging Asia Economics, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)

Moderator: Rajan Navani, Chairman & MD, Jetline Group India

11:45 - 12:30 hrs
Lunch
12:30 - 13:30 hrs
Session 5 │ Ctrl + Alt + Secure
  • Ylli Bajraktari, Founder & CEO, Special Competitive Studies Project
  • Sharad Sanghi, Founder & CEO, Neysa AI
  • Srikanth Velamakanni, Co-Founder and Group Executive, Fractal AI
  • Fariba Wells, SVP, Global Affairs at Kyndryl
  • Sunil Gupta, CEO, QNu Labs (tentative)
  • Sudeep Shrivastava, COO, India AI Mission (tentative)

Moderator: Aman Khanna, MD and Partner, The Asia Group

13:30 - 14:30 hrs
Session 6 │ Power Play: Securing Our Energy Future
  • Neeraj Mittal, Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, India
  • Peter Lavoy, Senior Director, International Government Relations, ExxonMobil
  • Gurdeep Singh, CMD, National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC)

Moderator: Pramit Pal Chaudhuri, South Asia Practice Head, Eurasia Group

14:45 - 15:30 hrs
Session 7 │ Shipping the Future: IMEC and the new geography of trade
15:30 - 16:15 hrs
Session 8 │ Capitol Calculus: Roundtable
  • Stephen Leighton, Deputy Chief of Staff, Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL)
  • Ethan Pido, Legislative Assistant, Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-NJ)
  • Alec Daman, Legislative Director, Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-MI)
  • Anna McDonald, Policy Adviser, Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-CA-37)
  • Joshua Buckingham, Legislative Director, Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-MI-13)
  • Preeti Turpuseema, Senior Legislative Assistant, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA)
  • Julie Singleton, Senior Adviser, Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH)
  • Sara Katsnelson, Deputy Staff Director HFAC, Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA)
  • Abigail Jung, National Security Advisor, Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA)
  • Constantino Xavier, Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy and Security Studies, Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP)
  • Happymon Jacob, Founder and Honorary Director, Council for Strategic and Defence Research (CSDR)
  • Pramit Pal Chaudhuri, South Asia Practice Head, Eurasia Group
  • Rudra Chaudhuri, Vice President, ORF

Moderator: Dhruva Jaishankar, Executive Director, Observer Research Foundation America (ORF America)

16:30 - 17:30 hrs
Session 9 │ India to U.S. in 22 yards

Ishan Chatterjee, CEO-Sports, JioStar
and
Ashok Malik, Partner and Chair of the India Practice, The Asia Group

17:45 - 18:30 hrs
Session 10 │ The Closest of Strangers: Re-imagining the India-US Relationship

S Jaishankar, Minister of External Affairs, Government of India
and
Indrani Bagchi, CEO, Ananta Centre

18:30 - 19:30 hrs
Inaugural Reception and Dinner All Badge Holders i.e. Forum attendees are cordially invited.
19:30 hrs

The Forum is closed-door and held under the Chatham House rules.

Session 11 │ US-India: The Indispensable Partnership, Reconsidered

Vikram Misri, Foreign Secretary of India and Forum Co-Chair
and
Pramit Pal Chaudhuri, South Asia Practice Head, Eurasia Group

9:00 - 9:30 hrs
Session 12 │ Neutrons are forever: Civil Nuclear Cooperation
  • Mike Goff, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of Nuclear Energy, US Department of Energy
  • Jamshyd Godrej, Forum Co-Chair; Founding Trustee, Ananta Centre and Chairman & MD, Godrej & Boyce
  • Annat Jain, CEO, Holtec Asia
  • Caroline Anderson, Director of External Affairs, Fusion Industry Association
  • Amit Sharma, MD, Tata Consulting Engineers
  • John Hopkins, President & CEO, NuScale (tentative)

Moderator: C Raja Mohan, Contributing Editor, Indian Express; Former Director, Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore (NUS)

9:35 - 10:35 hrs
Session 13 │ Beyond the Capitals: Investment Pipelines
  • John Lenhart, Vice President, Global Government Affairs, Walmart
  • Rick Rossow, Chair, India and Emerging Asia Economics, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
  • Atman Trivedi, Partner, DGA-Albright Stonebridge Group
  • Aaron Demerson, President & CEO, Texas Economic Development Corporation
  • Prerna Sharma, ACEO, Invest UP
  • Manoj Jaiswal, Partner, Premji Invest

Moderator: Anuj Poddar, MD and Asia Co-Head of Global Portfolio Solutions, The Carlyle Group

10:40 - 11:40 hrs
Session 14 │ Regulatory-Governance Reforms in India
  • V. Anantha Nageswaran, Chief Economic Advisor, Ministry of Finance, Government of India
  • Rahul Matthan, Partner, Trilegal

Moderator: Arghya Sengupta, Founder and Research Director, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy

11:45 - 12:30 hrs
Session 15 │ Fabs to Data Centres: Building Tech Infra
  • Arvind Chandrasekar, Senior Director - Government Affairs, AMD - India
  • Mihir Bhaskar, SVP R&D, IonQ
  • Vrinda Kapoor, Co-Founder and CEO, Bharat Semi
  • Dhruv Varma, APAC Regional Leader, Data Center Liquid Cooling, The Chemours Company
  • Sunil Gupta, MD & CEO, Yotta
  • Sandeep Aurora, Group Director & Head of Public Policy & Government Affairs, Microsoft India & South Asia

Moderator: Pranay Kotasthane, Chair, High Tech Geopolitics Programme and Deputy Director, Takshashila Institution

12:30 - 13:15 hrs
Lunch
13:15 - 14:00 hrs
Session 16 │ Conversation

S Krishnan, Secretary, MEITY, Government of India
and
Virat Bhatia, Managing Director, Apple India

14:00 - 14:30 hrs
Session 17 │ The Scale Bet: India's Race to Anchor the World's Next Supply Chain
  • V. Anantha Nageswaran, Chief Economic Advisor, Ministry of Finance, Government of India
  • Alexander Gray, CEO, American Global Strategies
  • Rohit Kumar Singh, Chair, Global Value Chains, US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF)
  • Josh Foulger, President of IT Hardware and New Projects, Dixon

Moderator: Virat Bhatia, Managing Director, Apple India

14:30 - 15:15 hrs
Session 18 │ Fractured Order: Great-Power Flux and the Contest for a Multipolar World
  • Aparna Ray, Joint Secretary, Policy Planning & Research Division, Ministry of External Affairs
  • Asha Jadeja, Founder, Motwani Jadeja Foundation
  • Zack Cooper, Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute
  • Jason Isaacson, Chief Policy Officer, American Jewish Congress
  • Joe Wang, Vice President for Global Affairs, SCSP

Moderator: Dhruva Jaishankar, Executive Director, Observer Research Foundation America (ORF America)

15:15 - 16:15 hrs
Session 19 │ Conversation

How India and the United States are recalibrating strategy, technology, trade, and power in an era defined by disruption, competition, and hard bargaining.

Nagaraj Naidu, Additional Secretary, Americas Division, Ministry of External Affairs
and
Paul Kapur, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia

Moderator: Indrani Bagchi, CEO, Ananta Centre

16:15 - 16:45 hrs
Closing Remarks

Indrani Bagchi, CEO, Ananta Centre

16:45 hrs

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