NDTV will host YUVA 2026 in Mumbai on September 28 under the theme ‘Young Voices, Bold Dialogues’. The event will bring together voices from politics, governance, sport, entertainment, entrepreneurship, technology and the creator economy to discuss the issues and aspirations shaping young India.
YUVA 2026 has been curated as a window into the questions, aspirations and uncertainties of a rapidly changing India. Technology is changing how people work, learn and create. Politics is finding new participants and new forms of expression. Influence can now be built from a smartphone. Careers are becoming less linear. Old assumptions about success, identity, health, work and public life are constantly being questioned.
It is against this backdrop that YUVA brings together people from very different worlds – each bringing a distinctive experience, perspective or point of view to some of the conversations that matter today.
Speaking about NDTV YUVA, Vaishali Sood, Senior Managing Editor, NDTV, said: “Young India is not a single demographic, and it certainly does not speak in one voice. It is ambitious, impatient, questioning, experimental and often contradictory. That is precisely what makes this moment so interesting.
“YUVA creates a space where different worlds can meet – where politics can sit next to popular culture, technology next to sport, entrepreneurship next to comedy, and governance next to the creator economy. The idea is not to tell a generation what to think. It is to hear the questions it is asking and bring together voices that can make those conversations richer, sharper and more relevant,” Sood said.
Stories of ambition, resilience and reinvention will find space through some of India’s most accomplished sporting voices. Saina Nehwal, Olympic medallist and former World No. 1 badminton player, will reflect on achievement and what comes after it in ‘Champion Ka Naya Chapter’, while Irfan Pathan, former Indian cricketer and commentator, will bring his perspective on pressure, performance and life beyond the scoreboard in ‘Pathan Ki Pathshalaa’. Golfer Ridhima Dilawari will join the line-up with ‘Green Queen’.
Cinema and popular culture will form another strand of YUVA. Sobhita Dhulipala will feature in ‘SSSShhhhh SOBHITA’, while actor Fatima Sana Shaikh will take the stage for ‘Fatima No Filter’. Shweta Tripathi and Sonal Chauhan will come together for ‘Mirzapur Ki Woomanya’, adding their perspectives to a day that explores culture, identity, choices, and changing definitions of success.
Politics, too, will be viewed through questions that engage a new generation. In ‘Abki Baar Gen Z Sarkar’, Anish Gawande, Sidhartha Yadav, Rhiya Ahir and Ayush Nambiar will come together to explore changing ideas around political participation, representation and engagement.
Rohit Pawar, MLA for Karjat-Jamkhed, will take that conversation further in ‘Gen’Satta’, looking at politics and power through the prism of changing expectations from public life. MP Shrikant Shinde will also join the dialogue, adding another significant voice to the day’s conversations.
Governance will move from the political to the civic with two important voices from public administration. Ashwini Bhide, Municipal Commissioner, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, will feature in ‘Civic Culture: Whose Job Is It?’ – a conversation that asks where the responsibility for making a city work really begins and ends. Tukaram Mundhe, IAS, will take the stage for ‘Operation Poison’, bringing his experience of governance, accountability and public systems to the YUVA conversation.
Entrepreneurship and innovation will find expression in ‘Udaan: Naye Bharat Ki’, featuring Ankita Sinha, Co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer, MiCoB, and Deepak Readdy, Founder, Bhaumya Innovations.
The creator economy will be examined through the harder challenge of sustaining relevance. In ‘The Question of Relevance: Jo Dikhega…Woh Bikega?’, content creator Anubhavi, Viraj Sheth, CEO, Monk Entertainment, and model Hema Gill will look at a world where getting noticed has perhaps never been easier, but sustaining attention, credibility, and relevance may never have been harder.
Body language expert and behaviour consultant Kanan Tandi will reflect on ‘Read Between the Moves | Aankhon Hi Aankhon Mein Ishara Ho Gaya’, exploring how much people communicate before they ever say a word. In ‘Code, Click and Kill!’, Yashasvi Yadav, Cyber Crime Commissioner (IAS), will unpack the new vulnerabilities emerging as more of our lives move online.
One of the defining debates of our times – the promise and peril of artificial intelligence – will take centre stage in ‘AI Boom vs Doom’ with Samyak Chakraborty, Co-founder, Nimaya Foundation; Gayatri Agarwal, Founder, ALTRD; and AI educator Ishan Sharma.
The conversation around health will take a very different form with Revant Himatsingka, popularly known as Food Pharmer, in ‘Label Ke Peeche Kya Hai?’ The session will look at what consumers really know about the food they buy, what labels reveal, what they conceal, and why questions around everyday health choices are becoming increasingly important. YUVA will also make room for humour, performance and surprise.
Mentalist Danish Sheikh, aka Dr. M, will bring perception, psychology and performance together in ‘Bheja Fry’. Comedy gets its own conversation in ‘Gustakhi Maaf’, bringing together Kenny Sebastian, Raunak Rajani, Shreya Priyam Roy and Warren Viegas, CEO, LVC Comedy. The session will explore the changing grammar of comedy – what makes people laugh, what makes them uncomfortable, and how humour responds to a culture whose boundaries are constantly moving.
Rohit Vishwakarma, Managing Editor, NDTV India, said: “A new India is finding its voice, and it is doing so in its own language, on its own terms and with very little patience for inherited answers. Young people today are questioning conventions while simultaneously creating new ones – in politics, business, technology, culture and everyday life.
“YUVA is an attempt to listen to that change as it happens. It is a platform for ideas that may agree, collide, or surprise us, but above all, reflect the confidence and curiosity of a generation that wants to participate in India’s future,” Vishwakarma said.
At its heart, NDTV YUVA 2026 is not just another conversation about youth.
It is a conversation about the ideas, issues, and aspirations driving Young India – and the experiences and perspectives that can make those conversations richer.
On September 28 in Mumbai, those conversations will take the stage. And Young India will have its voice.
