Putin likely to visit Delhi after 4 years as India-Russia Summit 2025 eyes energy, defence, Arctic ties
India-Russia Summit
later this year, paving the way for Russian President Vladimir Putin's first visit to New Delhi since 2021.
The summit agenda is expected to include
defence industry collaboration
, energy ties amid fresh EU sanctions,
civil nuclear partnership
,
Arctic cooperation
, and a joint roadmap for
high-tech sector cooperation
, according to people familiar with the matter.
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"India-Russia Summit is important. The last summit was held in Moscow. It is time for us to host it in Delhi. Dates will be worked out mutually," MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said on Thursday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Putin last spoke ahead of Operation Sindoor, where the Russian leader backed India's counter-terror measures. Russian platforms like the S-400 missile defence system and Indo-Russian BrahMos joint venture played a significant role in neutralising Pakistani military assets, largely of Chinese origin.
If Modi attends the
SCO Summit
in China, the two leaders could also meet there. Putin, who has limited his international travel since the Ukraine war, is likely to visit India in the last quarter of 2025.
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Food security may also feature prominently. Putin recently said that, following Modi's request, Russia increased fertiliser exports to India.
Other key areas of discussion may include: Expanding Indian presence in the resource-rich Arctic region and finalising a second site for a Russian-built nuclear power plant
Meanwhile, India reaffirmed its stance on energy security and rejected unilateral sanctions in response to EU sanctions on Rosneft's Indian refinery operations.
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Rahul Mehta: The decision to focus on IITs stemmed from personal familiarity and their reputation. My sister graduated from an IIT, which gave me early exposure to them. IITs attract India's brightest students and some of the best undergraduate talent in the world. Our initial focus was on biosciences and bioengineering, later followed by a Center for Engineering in Medicine at IIT Kanpur and the School of Health Science and Technology at IIT Guwahati. In 2017, we recognised artificial intelligence (AI) as the next frontier. I wrote a paper urging IITs to prioritise AI, as it was becoming a transformative force globally. At the time, AI was not as mainstream as it is now. ChatGPT's release in 2022 brought it into the spotlight, but we saw its potential early. We funded AI schools at IIT Guwahati, Roorkee, and Palakkad, focusing on domain-specific applications like AI in healthcare, material science, and chemical engineering. The third pillar of our strategy is sustainability. 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At IIT Roorkee, we have been focusing on innovative, AI-driven, urban mobility transportation solutions and have successfully launched a few products. Researchers at the centre have also developed a new method called Zero-Shot Knowledge Distillation (ZSKD), which is an easier way to make smaller, faster machine learning models without needing the original training data, which is often kept private or secret for safety or business reasons. This groundbreaking method has found a mention in over 300 research papers. Venkatesh Kannaiah: What are your thoughts on the university-research-innovation ecosystem in India? Rahul Mehta: The ecosystem has potential but needs improvement. India funds a large number of PhDs, which is a strength, but the focus needs to be on impactful research. Indian faculty also need to collaborate more within the country, not just internationally. It is about translating research into economic and social benefits. Venkatesh Kannaiah: Where is the Mehta Family Foundation headed 10 years from now? Rahul Mehta: I hope to expand our reach to support 10,000 students, up from 3,000 today, in cutting-edge fields like AI, robotics, global health, and sustainability. Venkatesh Kannaiah: What are your three asks from the government? Rahul Mehta: First, dramatically increase educational capacity to provide opportunities for more students. Second, promote research collaboration, both within India and globally, to drive innovation. Third, focus on translating research into economic prosperity and social impact by creating jobs.
