charcha 2026: India's largest collaborative convening returns to Delhi for its 7th edition

• To be held on 15-16th September 2026 at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, charcha is curated by the*spark forum to convene samaaj, sarkar and bazaar on shared problems and coordinated action toward inclusive, resilient development.
• 40 co-hosts across government, markets and civil society, including Atal Innovation Mission - NITI Aayog, Meta, DBS Foundation, PRADAN, Mahindra RISE, SEWA Bharat, Meesho, American India Foundation, the Gates Foundation, Lend A Hand India, J-PAL, Pratham, Eternal, Central Square Foundation, YuWaah (UNICEF) among others and 200+ speakers over two days.
• Eight fronts of collective action, new participatory formats and the Bharat AI Experiential Centre, co-created with Jan AI.

NEW DELHI, Sept. 8, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- charcha returns for its seventh edition on September 15-16, 2026, at the India Habitat Centre. Curated by the*spark forum, charcha is India's largest collaborative convening on livelihoods. It brings samaaj, sarkar and bazaar to the same table to work on problems none of them can solve alone.

Over two days, charcha 2026 will feature 200+ speakers and 40 co-hosts across 50+ hours of programming. Programming runs along eight fronts: Philanthropy & CSR, Tech4good, Inclusive Livelihoods, Policy & Governance, Entrepreneurship & Informal Livelihoods, Rural & Agri Livelihoods, Education and Skilling, and Climate & Green Jobs.

Jerold Pereira, Managing Director, the*spark forum says: 

"India's hardest problems don't sit inside samaaj, sarkar or bazaar. They sit in the gaps between them. These gaps do not close because one side works harder. They close only when the people who can actually act on a problem are in the same room, at the same time and are willing to do something collaboratively and differently. This room does not build itself. Someone has to convene it, and keep convening it, until convening to find collaborative solutions stops being an 'event' and becomes a habit."

The 40 co-hosts span the width of the sector, with this edition drawing a deeper and more varied participation from the social sector than any before it. From government and public institutions: Atal Innovation Mission - NITI Aayog and eGov Foundation. From markets: Meta, Meesho, Eternal, Mahindra Rise and WhatsApp. From philanthropy: the Gates Foundation, DBS Foundation, Atlassian Foundation, AIF, Central Square Foundation and The Bridgespan Group. And from across civil society, research and implementation: BAIF, ek kutumb, EkStep, Generation India, GAME, IDEA, Jan AI, J-PAL, Janaagraha, Kaabil, KhushiBaby, Lend A Hand India, Magic Bus, MITTI Café, NuSocia, PCI India, Pradan, Pratham, RestoringVision, Samagra, Sattva, SEWA Bharat, Sol's ARC and YuWaah, The/Nudge, the^delta and the*spark.

Shri Rohit Kansal IAS, Secretary, Ministry of Rural Development - Government of India, adds:

"charcha 2026 comes at a moment when technology, markets and society are being reshaped at unprecedented speed. Its strength lies in bringing policy, practice and business onto one platform. It is through such dialogue that ideas and policy can translate into partnerships, and partnerships into outcomes at scale."

Speakers span all three sectors. From government and policy, charcha 2026 will see Hon'ble Tejasvi Surya, Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha; Hon'ble Thamizhachi Thangapandian, Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha; Hon'ble S. Niranjan Reddy, Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha; Hon'ble K.T. Rama Rao, Member of the Telangana Legislative Assembly; Rohit Kansal, IAS, Secretary, Ministry of Rural Development - Govt of India, Dr. R Balasubramaniam, Member, NITI Aayog - Govt of India, and Sri Ritvik Ranjanam Pandey, IAS, Principal Secretary, Department of Health & Family Welfare, Government of Karnataka to name a few. From markets and business: Vidit Aatrey (Co-founder & CEO, Meesho), Anjalli Ravi Kumar (Chief Sustainability Officer, Eternal), Prabhakar L (Exec VP and Head - Social Investments at ITC Limited), Mohit Bhatnagar (MD, Peak XV) and Divya Khemani (Strategic Programs & Partnerships Lead, Meta). And from civil society, philanthropy and research: Padma Shri Renana Jhabvala (SEWA), Mekin Maheshwari (Founder & CEO, Udhyam Learning Foundation), Manu Chopra (Co-Founder & CEO, Karya), Shobhini Mukerji (Executive Director, J-PAL), Jayant Rastogi (Global CEO, Magic Bus India Foundation), Alina Alam (Founder & CEO, MITTI Café), Gaurav Goel (Founder & CEO, Samagra), Srikanth Viswanathan (CEO, Janaagraha), Azeez Gupta (Co-Founder, Rocket Learning), Madan Padaki (Managing Trustee, Jan AI) and Rathish Balakrishnan (Co-Founder & Partner, Sattva Consulting) - among more than 200 voices across the two days.

Renana Jhabvala, Chairperson, SEWA Bharat, states:

"I have spent fifty years watching what changes a poor woman's life, and brings her onto an upward track. As a worker, as a woman, she is at the base of the socio-economic pyramid, and so to bring her up the pyramid, to flatten and make it more equal requires change of the ecosystem around her. This requires a joint effort of civil society, government and the private sector understanding the need for change, the levers of change and co-operating together towards change. That is where charcha leads."

charcha is also its texture. The Bharat AI Experiential Centre, co-created with Jan AI, lets participants walk through one rural household's day - a crop advisory at dawn, a symptom check in the evening - each running on intelligence infrastructure built for Bharat from the start, rather than retrofitted onto it. Laid out as thematic huts covering health, market linkages and financial access, education, employability and entrepreneurship, agri and rural livelihoods, and a village square, the Centre brings together Wadhwani AI, Piramal Foundation, ITC MAARS, Meesho, Leap 300, Noora Health, Rocket Learning, Karya, Haqdarshak | DBS Foundation, EkStep Foundation, Jan AI and the Department of Rural Development, Ministry of Rural Development, across 15+ solution exhibitions and six AI-specific sessions. Networking across the two days is curated by MASH, alongside performances, screenings and sidebar gatherings.

Vidit Aatrey, Chairman, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Meesho, notes:

"Technology can be a powerful equaliser when it removes the barriers that prevent people from participating in the digital economy. The next phase of India's growth will depend on making technology simpler, more accessible and more relevant to people, regardless of geography, language or scale. At Meesho, we have seen how expanding access can enable entrepreneurs and small businesses across India to reach customers, grow their businesses and build sustainable livelihoods. Building on this progress requires businesses, government and civil society to work together to create an ecosystem that enables broader participation. Platforms like Charcha 2026 play an important role in bringing these perspectives together and translating shared ideas into collective action."

Since 2020, charcha has convened 15,000+ attendees and 1,000+ speakers across six editions. The 2026 edition widens that table to 40 co-hosts and eight fronts, at a moment when India's demographic dividend peaks in 2040 and the decisions taken between now and then are the ones that compound through 2047.

ThePrint is the official media partner for charcha 2026. Teamwork Arts is the line producer. For more information and registration, visit charcha26. thespark.org.in 

About the*spark forum

the*spark forum is India's leading platform for dialogue and collaboration on livelihoods, curating cross-sector convenings that build alignment infrastructure across government, markets, and civil society, toward a poverty-free India.