New Delhi, 10 November (H.S.): The Congress will organise the Bharat Summit in Hyderabad on November 13 and 14, bringing together around 1,000 delegates from nearly 70 countries. The participants will include policymakers and prominent leaders associated with progressive movements from different parts of the world.

The summit will deliberate on a range of issues, including the emerging global order, geopolitical realignments, climate change, the role of the media and the credibility of information.

Former External Affairs Minister and Congress Department of Foreign Affairs chairman Salman Khurshid said at a press conference at the Congress headquarters here on Tuesday that the summit was being organised against the backdrop of two significant milestones: the 137th birth anniversary of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and the completion of 80 years of India's Independence.

He said Nehru's vision continued to inspire the Congress's foreign policy and its broader approach to international affairs. The summit aims to deliberate on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's vision for the future of India and the world, as well as his perspective on the emerging global order.

According to Khurshid, the summit will feature 12 international sessions and eight sessions focusing specifically on Telangana.

Telangana Minister for Information Technology, Electronics and Communications, Industries and Commerce, and Legislative Affairs Duddilla Sridhar Babu said the deliberations involving delegates from different countries would benefit the state's governance and its people.

The international sessions will be held at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre (HICC), while the Telangana-focused sessions will take place at HITEX.

The discussions will cover a wide range of subjects, including Future City and urbanisation, economic and social justice, welfare policies, cooperative federalism, culture, youth and sports, and electoral fairness.

Sridhar Babu said participants attending the Bharat Summit would also be invited to the upcoming Invest Telangana Global Summit 2026, scheduled to take place from December 7 to 9. The event will provide an opportunity to discuss potential investment prospects in the state.

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president Bomma Mahesh Kumar Goud said the state was hosting an event of such a large scale for the second time. He noted that progressive thinkers from around 70 countries would participate in the summit and described it as a matter of pride for Telangana.

Congress general secretary Gurdeep Singh Sappal said that over the past 15 years, politics driven by hatred and division had gained ground across India and the world, causing harm to the public. He observed that progressive and liberal political parties worldwide were also recognising the seriousness of this challenge.

He said the Congress had taken the initiative to bring political parties from different parts of the world together to counter such divisive politics. Hyderabad had also hosted the Bharat Summit last year, he added.

Sappal further observed that major information technology companies were increasingly influencing global politics, with corporate entities exerting a growing impact on political processes. In this changing environment, he said, political parties needed platforms for deliberation and intellectual exchange to enable political and social stakeholders to identify practical solutions to emerging challenges.

He said the idea of establishing a think tank involving representatives of progressive political parties from across the world had emerged during Rahul Gandhi's visit to Berlin. The initiative would now take shape through the Bharat Summit in Hyderabad, which would bring together 70 think tanks.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar