Ambassador Saran is the former Foreign Secretary of India who has served as the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy for Nuclear Affairs and Climate Change. As the keynote speaker he touched upon several aspects of decarbonisation for a developing economy like India, our vulnerability to climate change, international relations and the impact of geopolitics on India’s energy security.

The first session, moderated by Dr. Arunabha Ghosh, the Founder and CEO of The Council on Energy, Environment and Water(CEEW), focussed on “How do we become NET-ZERO”. The panelists of the session were heads of some of our most carbon intensive companies - Mr. Shailesh Chandra, MD, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles and Tata Passenger Electric Mobility Ltd; Mr. T. V. Narendran, MD & CEO, Tata Steel; Dr. Praveer Sinha, MD & CEO, Tata Power and Mr. Vinod Kannan, MD & CEO, Tata SIA Airlines – Vistara. The discussion highlighted that while Tata Power and Tata Motors are reinventing themselves to align with a low-carbon future by focussing on renewables and EV mobility, hard to abate sectors like Steel and Aviation would need to focus on efficiency of use and new technologies like green hydrogen and CCUS, as also sustainable aviation fuels, to realise their Net-Zero aspirations.

The session #Tech4Sustainability explored the role that technology and digital can play in solving social and environmental problems. Moderated by the Chief Digital Officer, Tata Sons - Ms. Aarthi Subramanian, the session featured Mr. Sankha Som, Chief Technology Evangelist at TCS; Dr. Richard Lobo, Chief of Innovation at Tata Chemicals; Mr. Rajendra Petkar, President and Chief Technology Officer, Tata Motors and Mr. Abhay Deshpande, a serial entrepreneur and Founder and CEO of Asia’s first circular economy marketplace Recykal.

To bring in a flavour of technology in action, the next part of the session Tech4Sustainability, ‘Pioneering through Collaboration’ told a tale of serendipity and collaboration involving two of our leading companies - TCS and Jaguar Land Rover. Led by Rossella Cardone –Sustainability Director at JLR and Kripa Subramanian, Industry partner – Sustainability Business Transformation Group, at TCS, the presentation showcased how the two companies joined forces to simplify and scale circular solutions.

Human Rights are the bedrock of all values we hold dear and an integral part of how we do business at the Tata group. Moderated by Ms. Atrayee Sanyal, VP, Human Resources at Tata Steel, the next session led the audience into a discussion on this important and nuanced subject. As panelists, Mr. R. Mukundan, MD & CEO, Tata Chemicals; Dr. Garima Dadhich from Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs and Ms. Inasi K, a coffee picker from Tata Coffee’s plantations in Jumboor and winner of the Prime Minister’s Shram Award shared their insights on the role of businesses in upholding human rights.

The session explored how quality and scale can be built into Tata group’s volunteering programmes, that will help channelise the most valuable resources – our people – for giving back to society. Moderated by Mr. Harish Bhat, Brand Custodian, Tata Sons, the session hosted eminent leaders of the Group such as Mr. Puneet Chhatwal, MD & CEO, Indian Hotels Company Ltd; Mr. Sanjiv Lal, MD & CEO, Rallis; Mr. A.S. Lakshminarayanan, MD & CEO, Tata Communications and Mr. Milind Lakkad, Global Head, Human Resources, TCS.