By: Ninad Kashyap
CUNY BPL is proud to support and promote our staff’s achievements both in and out of the workplace. In mid-January, Junior Engineer, Ninad Kashyap was selected through a highly competitive national process to participate in the Viksit Bharat Young Leaders Dialogue 2026, held at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi, India, January 9–12, 2026.
The National Youth Festival is an annual event that brings together youth between the ages of 15 and 29 to compete in a series of competitions addressing various real-world challenges. Challenge topics include rural development, healthcare, and environmental sustainability, among many others.
Below is Ninad’s personal account:
Young Leaders Dialog 2026 Cohort (Ninad seated third from lower right)
This prestigious platform brought together young leaders from across India to develop ideas for India’s roadmap toward 2047. India 2047, also referred to as Viksit Bharat, translates to “Developed India”. The roadmap’s development goals focus on several key pillars: economic growth, manufacturing and technology, energy transition, infrastructure & urbanization, and social & economic reform.
During the Dialogue, my three team members and I presented proposals on small modular nuclear reactors. We discussed the feasibility of grid integration and long-term maintenance planning over the next 100 years. We also discussed smart waste management technologies for urban clusters and the role of civic responsibility in maintaining public infrastructure. Our team was selected to move up to the final round of presentations in Delhi.
Before the final event in Delhi, my team and I were personally congratulated by the Governor of Assam, Shri Lakshman Prasad Acharya, in Guwahati. Finalists had the opportunity to interact with senior leaders and experts, including Cabinet Ministers such as Sarbananda Sonowal (Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways) and Shivraj Singh Chauhan (Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare), the National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, CEOs, and technocrats—reinforcing the spirit of youth-led nation building. We also had the opportunity to interact with Shubhanshu Shukla and Prasanth Nair, two of the three astronauts selected for India’s upcoming human spaceflight mission, Gaganyaan.
Participating in the 2026 Viksit Bharat Young Leaders Dialogue was a truly humbling and edifying experience. Through this experience, I learned from experts and leaders as well as my peers, young people committed to improving the state of the world. The highlight was the final round of closed-door presentations of our proposal to the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, an honor of a lifetime.