PRNewswire
New Delhi [India], September 21: charcha, curated by the*spark forum, concluded its seventh edition on 16 September at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. 2,000+ attendees came together each day, across two days, to share learnings around livelihoods, technology, inclusion and innovation, and to discover common agendas and shared pathways to accelerate growth in the development sector. The convening featured 250+ speakers from 40 co-hosting organisations, including Atal Innovation Mission (NITI Aayog), PRADAN, Eternal, SEWA, DBS Foundation, EkStep Foundation, Meta, Meesho, Janaagraha, Mahindra Rise, J-PAL, Central Square Foundation, The/Nudge and others. Panel discussions, workshops and plenaries ran across eight core themes: Inclusive Livelihoods, Tech4Good, Policy & Governance, Entrepreneurship & Informal Livelihoods, Rural & Agri Livelihoods, Education & Skilling, Climate & Green Jobs and Philanthropy & CSR.
At its core, charcha is built on aligning samaaj (civil society), sarkaar (government) and bazaar (markets) with intent to drive large-scale, sustainable change. Sessions ran at full capacity throughout both days, with eminent speakers such as K T Rama Rao, S Niranjan Reddy, Renana Jhabvala, Meenakshi Ramesh, Dr. Saurabh Garg IAS, Rohit Kansal IAS, Jayesh Ranjan IAS, Mekin Maheshwari, Prabhakar L, Raj Gilda, Shobini Mukherji and Vidit Aatrey taking the stage.
The convening opened on a musical note, with a performance by the contemporary percussion ensemble Tāl Fry. As the applause settled, Jerold Pereira, Managing Director of the*spark forum, welcomed delegates with a call to ensure intelligence and technology are built for Bharat from the start, rather than retrofitted onto it later. The opening plenary that followed, 'Intelligence Infrastructure: How India Can Build the World's First AI Development State', set the tone for the two days, with panellists arguing that India's real AI advantage lies in its data rather than in compute or models, and that trust, more than technology, will decide whether that data ever reaches the people it is meant to serve.
A highlight of the event was the model of an AI-empowered village that delegates could walk through. Co-created with Jan AI, the 'Bharat AI Experiential Centre' brought together 12 of India's leaders in 'AI for Bharat', including the Ministry of Rural Development (Government of India,) Noora Health, Piramal Foundation, Leap 300, Haqdarshak, Meesho, Karya, Wadhwani AI, EkStep Foundation, Rocket Learning, Jan AI and ITC MAARS. Together, they gave people a chance to experience a day in the life of a rural Indian citizen, seeing how the ASHA worker, the farmer, the kirana owner and children used AI solutions made with their needs in mind. With live solutions across five thematic areas covering health, market access, education, employability and agriculture, it was the most visited and talked-about corner of the convening.
Alongside the AI Village, charcha 2026 also served as a launchpad for new tools for the ecosystem. GxD Hub and The/Nudge, working with the Gates Foundation, NextWealth, Karya and Myna Mahila, launched the AI-Data Skills Framework (AISF), the first attempt to map the millions of Indians who annotate, enrich, audit and improve the data that trains AI systems into five defined roles, to enable a path toward recognised careers rather than fragmented gig tasks. The event also saw a clutch of new research shape the conversation: the Global Alliance for Mass Entrepreneurship (GAME) launched its 'Women's Listening Study Report'; Generation India Foundation released 'India's Workforce Ecosystem', mapping pathways and gaps across the country's workforce landscape; and The/Nudge's EIP programme unveiled 'Livelihoods at the Margins', a compendium of livelihood research and programme design for the country's most vulnerable households.
charcha 2026 was also the launchpad for seven new Jan AI Cafes across Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh. Rohit Kansal IAS, Secretary of the Ministry of Rural Development (Government of India,) inaugurated these community-run centres, where trained local entrepreneurs help close the last-mile access gap by serving rural citizens in their own language.
The closing session, 'Samriddh Gaon: The Village that is Never the Same', brought the two days full circle. It reframed samaaj, sarkaar and bazaar not as separate actors but as enablers, orchestrators and diffusion partners for transformation, echoing the convening's opening argument that trust, not technology, will decide whether growth can be inclusive, sustainable and responsive to the needs of all Indians in the next decade. The conversations gave way to celebration as this year's edition closed on a vibrant note, with renowned singer and composer Shekhar Ravjiani in conversation with Sarthak Kaushik. The organisers also confirmed that charcha will return to New Delhi in September 2027.
That continuity is part of charcha's story. Since its inception in 2020, charcha has grown into one of India's foremost platforms for cross-sector dialogue and collaboration. And this year's event, marked by the enthusiastic participation of sector leaders and powerful voices from across the development ecosystem, was a vote of confidence in the timeliness and relevance of the*spark forum's mission.
About the*spark forum
the*spark forum is India's leading platform for dialogue and collaboration on livelihoods, curating cross-sector convenings that inspire ideas, partnerships and action toward a poverty-free India.
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