Prime Minister Narendra Modi today conveyed to Russian President Vladimir Putin that India believes in peaceful solutions to conflicts, referring to the Russia-Ukraine issue. Both leaders met, and hugged each other, on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit today.

The summit of the informal group of states comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS) is being held in Russia’s Kazan.

PM Modi congratulated the success of the BRICS grouping over the fact that many other nations want to join it.

“We have been in touch with all sides in the Russia-Ukraine problem. It has always been our position that all conflict can be solved with dialogue. We believe there should be peaceful solutions to conflicts. India is always ready to help bring peace,” PM Modi said.

There will be a ‘Kazan Declaration’ at the end of the summit, when five new BRICS members will be formally added.

The BRICS Summit visit is PM Modi’s second visit to Russia this year. He had been to Moscow in July to attend the 22nd India-Russia Annual Summit where he held a bilateral meeting with Mr Putin. He was also conferred with Russia’s highest civilian award, the Order of St Andrew the Apostle at the Kremlin.

India and Russia share a ‘special and privileged strategic partnership’.

“Russian-Indian relations have the character of a particularly privileged strategic partnership and continue to actively develop,” Mr Putin told PM Modi.

India is also a big customer of Russian oil, much to the West’s chagrin. The US and its western allies have been supporting Ukraine and working to hurt Russia in trade. India has said it will buy oil from anywhere it gets a good deal, which will benefit the citizens of India.

Russia has touted the BRICS Summit as a diplomatic triumph that shows Western attempts to isolate Moscow over the Ukraine conflict have failed.

The US has dismissed the idea that BRICS could become a “geopolitical rival” but has expressed concern over Moscow flexing its diplomatic muscle as the Ukraine conflict rages.

Moscow has steadily advanced on the battlefield in eastern Ukraine this year while strengthening ties with China, Iran and North Korea — three of Washington’s adversaries. By gathering BRICS leaders in Kazan, the Kremlin “aims to show that not only is Russia not isolated, it has partners and allies,” Moscow-based political analyst Konstantin Kalachev told news agency AFP.

This time, the Kremlin wants to show an “alternative to Western pressure and that the multipolar world is a reality,” Mr Kalachev said, referring to Moscow’s efforts to shift power away from western nations.

The advance of AI, or Artificial Intelligence, is inevitable, and will bring in “new kinds of jobs… new scales of jobs”, Amitabh Kant, India’s G20 Sherpa, said Tuesday night at the NDTV World Summit.

Artificial Intelligence, Mr Kant also said, must be used to create a “better society (and) improve human development in place of creating LLMs”, referring to Large Language Models, which are a type of machine learning that can carry out natural language processing, or NLP, tasks.

“All this talk about AI is about LLMs. But AI should impact the lives of the citizens. So, you need AI for improving learning outcomes, health outcomes… you need it for improving nutritional standards… AI should be used to improve the quality of lives,” he said at the NDTV World Summit.

“AI should not be used just to create LLMs which could be in conflict tomorrow over ethical concerns because of assumptions on which they are based,” Mr Kant added, “Therefore it is very critical that we divert AI for transforming the lives of citizens.”

Asked if AI will take over existing jobs – a worrying scenario for critics of the technology – Mr Kant responded, “AI is inevitable… but it will bring in new kinds of jobs… and therefore we need to create many more skilled people in these areas (referring to data sciences, machine learning, etc.).”

“And that is what many of our IITs are doing today,” he said.

AI has been a recurring topic at the NDTV Summit, right from the opening remarks by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Speaking on Monday, Mr Modi said his government is committed to increase the use of AI in each sector of the economy.

READ | “India Has Double AI Power”: What PM Said At NDTV World Summit

“This is the era of AI and the future of the world is linked with it,” he said, pointing out also, “India is powered by two AIs. For the world, it is Artificial Intelligence but for us it is ‘aspirational India’ + Artificial Intelligence. When the two meet, it accelerates India’s growth.” 

And, earlier today, in a panel discussion on AI innovation in the country, top business leaders from the private sector called for AI to become part of the education system.

READ | Panel At NDTV Summit On Why AI Innovation Is Yet To Take Off In India

As India, and the world, explores the world of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, there were also some voices of caution at the NDTV World Summit. Bharti Group Chairman Sunil Mittal acknowledged AI will become among the most important drivers of the world economy, but also said new tech will pose new challenges, including potential for misuse and hence need vigilance.

READ | “Have To Protect Society From AI”: Sunil Bharti Mittal At NDTV Summit

Mr Mittal cited a personal anecdote on how a senior finance official stationed in Dubai received a fraudulent call that seemed to mimic Mittal’s voice and tone, and directed a large fund transfer.

“Challenge Is To Create 2 Americas In 5 Decades”

On the larger question of India’s economic development – specifically the target of becoming the world’s third-largest economy by 2030 – Mr Kant stressed the need for reskilling and taking advantage of the country’s younger demographic, as well as jumpstarting manufacturing.

“Growing from a $4 trillion to a $30 trillion economy means your GDP has to grow nine times… your per capita income eight times… and the manufacturing sector by 16 times. That is the challenge… and to overcome that India needs to become a key part of the (global) value chain,” he told NDTV.

“You need to urbanise because 500 million people are going to get into the process of urbanisation in the next five decades (and) that means India’s challenge is to create two Americas…” he said.

Mr Kant also stressed on the need to make the agriculture sector more efficient and allow India to bring down the proportion of people involved in that sector – from the nearly 45 per cent it is now – without affecting food security. 

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