HTLS 2023: PM Modi on mental, perceived and exaggerated barriers

Alia addressed all the trolling she has faced but decides to never react to them. She says there is a difference between constructive criticism and straight up spreading hate. “I can't do anything if someone just doesn't like my face.”

“I've never even in my life spoken back or said that you can't say this about me. Sometimes lies, complete lies are spoken. I have never said anything back because that's not the way I want to conduct myself. I will be openly vulnerable and openly kind.”

“I don't want it to seem like I am hiding my daughter. I am proud of her. If the cameras were not rolling right now, I would put a giant image of her on the screen. I love her. I am proud of our baby. But we are new parents. We don't know how we feel about her face splashed out all over the internet, she's barely a year old,” Alia said about revealing Raha's face to the world. However, she promised that she would do it when they feel comfortable with the idea.

“I do accept the comfort of professional help if I am unavailable. A lot of women don't have that and I can't imagine how difficult that might be,” Alia said about being a parent to daughter Raha and also keeping up with her hectic work.

Alia said PM Modi's words that no one is ever a loser, just winners and learners, resonated with her. “I believe I am a learner,” she said.

Alia thought a little and said ‘never say never’ to a role like Shanaya from Student of the Year. “I never limit myself, I really go with my instincts,” she said but added that her personality would have evolved over the last 10 years.

Alia accepts there was a ‘nervousness’ in not just Bollywood but also in other industries when coming out of the pandemic.

Alia Bhatt says one has to be ‘mindful that you don’t have to always buy a new outfit', as she talks about recycling her wedding outfit for the National Awards ceremony.

Alia Bhatt is now in conversation with Sonal Kalra. She begins by talking about her recent National Award win.

Jindal mentioned the increasing shift towards electric vehicle (EV) batteries and the rapid development of the hydrogen economy. He highlighted the growing importance of water conservation as a significant concern for every country.

Nishant Arya acknowledges the importance of ESG but stresses the need to ensure that the benefits reach the grassroots level and have a positive impact on everyday people.

He highlights the growing importance of digitization as a tool to track and understand how these benefits are being delivered to the common man.

Hebbar notes the relatively recent introduction of ESG as a framework that provides companies with a structured approach to set and achieve environmental, social, and governance goals. She highlights a specific achievement from 2020, when the legal framework allowed women to work underground in India.

Arya shares his perspective on the journey of addressing the challenge of making businesses sustainable. He notes that the focus has shifted from mere compliance with sustainability standards to achieving desired outcomes.

Hebbar draws attention to the significance of India's natural resources in the context of achieving net zero emissions by 2070. Hebbar highlightes the substantial demand for metals, approximately 3 billion tonnes, to achieve the goal of net-zero emissions by 2070.

She raises the important question of whether India should invest in importing these metals or harness its rich natural resources to produce them domestically.

Priya Agarwal Hebbar, Chairperson of Hindustan Zinc & Non-Executive Director at Vedanta Limited, highlighted the importance of the mining industry.

Hebbar emphasized that the mining sector has often been stigmatized, but it plays an indispensable role in our modern lives. She noted that nearly everything in our contemporary life originates from beneath the Earth's surface. Hebbar lamented the growing disconnect from the mining industry and underscored that mining is the foundation of many aspects of our daily lives.

Get ready for an engaging session featuring Priya Agarwal Hebbar, Chairperson of Hindustan Zinc & Non-Executive Director, Vedanta Limited, along with Nishant Arya, Vice Chairman of JBM Group, and Abhyuday Jindal, Managing Director of Jindal Stainless. They will be in conversation with Ravi Krishnan, Editor-in-Chief of Mint.

Expectations have raised and its is good, but we need to look at it in a very positive manner. Couple of years back no one expected anything from dpubles. We will go and give our best shot and return with a medal.

“I knew Mathias Boe from 2013. He used to come and train with us. Back then he was the world no. 1. To train with him when I was a junior was big learning expereinece for me. He was very supportive and that was the quality that I felt would be beneficial for us. After Covid lockdown he told us that he wanted to coach us. Although he did bot have any experience in that role, we knew he was the one.”

Chirag: “We've never been satisfied people. The first quarters we played in syprseries was by the first indian. a lot of people would've been satisfied with that but we were not. we wanted to be the best i the world. That came naturally to us. We kept raising the bar. We are still starting. there are many more things to come and bigger things to achieve.”

Chirag: Why not doubles? We've always been a lot of country with a lot of singles players Prakash sir, Gopi sir, Saina, Sindhu, Prannoy, Srikanth. We haven't had great people who have picked up doubles and been in the top five or something. Jwala and Ashwin were good. We chose dou bles not because we wanted to earn money. We didn't get paid that well. We always had that passion for doubles. We always had that drive that was the main thing to play doubles.

Satwik: I always wanted to be a doubles player. I always heard India doesn't have doubles players. India used to lose during team event.s That's what my moto was. I wanted to change that. Thing started to change slowly. Me and Chirag had common goals. Singles is kind of boring. Doubles is exciting.

“Don't think much about it. Anyone can beat anyone. We don't care about the rankings. We only want to win more titles. Luckily when we won in Asian Games it was a double bonanza for us with the no. 1 rankings.”

The mornings have a lot to do with building our partnership on the court. Evenings are lot more tactical. Doubles pairing is not about how good you are individually. You need to coordinate with you partner as well

Chirag on partnering Satwik: It wasn't personally though. We both are tall and lanky players and hence wanted to play at the back court. So we found it difficult adjusting to this partnership because no one wanted to play in the front court. The first few montsh we weren't able to find who will play in the front court and we lost in the very first rouynd in the first three tournaments we played. Our then coach took us out and explained how important this pairing is and urged us to give a little more time. But something changed, psychologically, because earlier we were forced to become partners. They we won four titles in a row."

Satwisksairaj opens up on partnering Chirag: "He was my opponent in the junior stage. He was my enemy 5-6 years back. I wanted to beat him all the time because he beat me all the time and I was keen to get that revenge. But never imagined that he would become the most important person in my life. "

Flaherty discussed the strengths and challenges within India's healthcare landscape.

He noted that India has the potential to lead the diagnostic revolution effectively on its own.

However, when it comes to therapeutics, access remains a significant issue. Many impactful cancer therapies are beyond the reach of the vast majority of Indians.

Flaherty emphasized the importance of addressing this issue and the need for partnerships to enhance access to therapeutic treatments.

Wadhwa expressed that if everything aligns as planned, India has the potential not only to lead the world in curing cancer but also to become the global hub for artificial intelligence (AI).