Schedule Schedule for Bengaluru 2040 Friday, February 20, 2026.
Welcome Address
KV Subramanya, Executive Editor, Deccan Herald
Keynote Address
Rahul Dravid, Legendary Cricketer
CM's Address
Siddaramaiah, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Karnataka
Coffee Break
Special address
Amanda Puravankara, Executive Director - Provident Housing Ltd, Puravankara
AI in Education
Gurucharan Gollerkeri, Director, School of Social Sciences & School of Law, MS Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences | U Dinesh Kumar, Director In-Charge, IIMB | Dr. S. Vidyashankar, Vice-chancellor, VTU | Dr Sanjay Chitnis, VC, REVA University | Gautham Machaiah, Senior Media Professional
What will it take to make Bengaluru a global cultural destination by 2040?
Uma Mahadevan, Addl. Chief Secy and Development Commissioner, Govt of Karnataka| Abhishek Poddar, Founder-Trustee, Museum of Art & Photography | B L Shankar, Chairman, Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath | Nalini Malaviya, Bengaluru-based art consultant, curator, and writer
Public Infrastructure, Private Capital: What Bengaluru Needs to Build Faster and Smarter - Creating a Predictable Framework for City-Building
Lunch
The Future of Jobs
Priyank Kharge, Minister for IT & BT and Rural Development & Panchayat Raj, Govt of Karnataka | Kamal Karanth, Co-founder, Xpheno | Santosh Rao, Partner & Executive Director, IBM Consulting
Can Bengaluru beat traffic?
Dr CN Ashwath Narayan, Former Karnataka Deputy CM & BJP MLA | Dinesh Gundu Rao, Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Govt of Karnataka | Ashish Verma, Convenor of IISc Sustainable Transportation Lab. (IST Lab.) | Gayatri Kuppendra Reddy, Founder, KReate Foundation and NOW Venture Studio | Nithya Ramesh, Director – Planning and Design, Jana Urban Space
Coffee
Stand-up comedy
Atul Khatri, Stand-up artist
For a water-secure Bengaluru
Ram Prasat Manohar, Chairperson, Chairman, Bangalore Water Supply & Sewerage Board (BWSSB) | Satish Mallya, President, Bangalore Apartments' Federation | Veena Srinivasan, Executive Director WELL Labs | H S Sudhira, Founder, Gubbi Labs
AI and Medtech
Manish Deshmukh, CMO, Meril | Dr. Somashekhar SP, Chairman - Medical Advisory Board, Aster DM Healthcare - GCC & India | Harsh Gupta, Principal Secy, Health & Family Welfare Serices, Goivt. of Karnataka | Gita Manjunath, Founder, CEO and VCTO of NIRAMAI Health Analytix
Fireside chat
DK Shivakumar, Hon'ble Deputy CM, Govt of Karnataka