The CII Business Summit 2025's inaugural session witnessed a rousing standing ovation and a felicitation ceremony for the defence top brass sending a strong message about India's rising military industrial complex and hghlghting that security is a top-of-the-mind issue for India Inc.
It is not too unusual for defence ministers to kick off business conclaves. But when Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh delivered the inaugural address at industry body CII's annual general meeting on Thursday, he was also flanked by the defence secretary, the air force and the navy chiefs, and the vice chief of the Army Staff.
Coming soon after India's Operation Sindoor hit terror camps across Pakistan to retaliate against the horrific attack on tourists in Pahalgam, the significance of this unprecedented dais sharing by India's top defence officials with industry captains, is not hard to fathom.
The inaugural session that witnessed a rousing standing ovation and a felicitation ceremony for the defence top brass not only sent a strong message about India's rising military industrial complex but also demonstrated that security is a top-of-the-mind issue for India Inc.
The US' tariff tantrums dominated mindspace as well, with the Confederation of Indian Industry President Sanjiv Puri expressing hopes of an expeditious conclusion of a bilateral trade deal being negotiated with the US to avert its reciprocal tariffs that have been paused till July.
When Rajesh Agrawal, special secretary at the commerce ministry, joined a session on global trade, a co-moderator remarked he had the toughest job in India, barring, of course, the security forces. Agrawal is the chief negotiator for the trade deal with the US.
In a late evening parley, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal assured industry: "We are well on track on trade talks with the US..."
While the defence minister did not directly refer to tariffs, Chief Economic Adviser V Anantha Nageswaran said industry need not be too worried by such global uncertainties as India's domestic market is large and resilient.
While there is anxiety about what happens after the 90-day pause period comes to an end, and the similar pause effected by the US with China on May 12, the CEA said these tariffs will likely create an advantage for India -- later, if not earlier.
He also outlined the implications of AI on the economy and the job market.
Rajnath Singh did speak on Operation Sindoor and landed sharp jibes at Pakistan, along with an assertion that most people in Pakistan occupied Kashmir identify with India so will eventually come into its fold.
He also underlined that India displayed its strength with a sense of responsibility and restraint this time, and could have inflicted a lot more damage to its pesky neighbour had it chosen to.
With the Durbar Hall at New Delhi's Taj Palace packed to the brim, CII had to make arrangements in another couple of halls for hundreds of other attendees.
By noon, when the session wound up, as many as 2,500 delegates had registered at the venue, an organising team member told Business Standard.
"This is probably one of the most well-attended annual business summits in a long time... in a way, reflecting the India story of 2025. That it was opened by none other than the defence minister shows that Indian industry and the people of India stand with the country and Operation Sindoor," Goyal remarked later.
Beyond defence issues, Singh also touched upon broader issues clouding the economic landscape, linking the increasingly fractious global order marked with rising conflicts, and the concomitant sharp spike in uncertainty levels, to the fraying of trust.
"The whole world is under a cloud of uncertainty -- the fundamental reason is lack of trust," he emphasised, adding that India's economic performance is a result of the trust placed by the world in its abilities.
"Moreover, GST was an exemplar of 'federal trust' between the Centre, states and the Union territories, and the UPI (Unified Payments Interface) was a result of 'trust-building'," the minister said.
"After the Second World War, there may have been a bipolar world order, but there was a semblance of normalcy. But now we are seeing a lot of fluidity in international relations," Singh said.
Bharat Forge Chairman Baba Kalyani also invoked World War II history, and recalled that the US had built 324,000 fighter planes in four-and-a-half years after the administration asked American industry, beginning with General Motors, to help develop a thriving military industrial ecosystem and ensure the country's security.
This, he said, had been critical in helping the Allied forces defeat the Axis powers, and emphasised the need for India to scale up defence manufacturing.
Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff
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