ET WLF 2026: India needs insulation, not isolation, says Sivakumar Sundaram CEO, The Times of India

India does not need protection from a world increasingly defined by geopolitical uncertainty and unpredictable shocks, but the ability to absorb these without closing itself off, Sivakumar Sundaram, CEO, The Times of India, said Friday at the World Leaders Forum. "What India needs is not shelter from the storm, it is insulation," Sundaram said in his welcome address. He drew a distinction between insulation and isolation, saying the former meant "staying open to the world without catching every draught going through it."

Sundaram argued that reforms and institutional changes over the past decade should be viewed through this lens. Individually, measures such as the GST, insolvency reforms and the digital payments infrastructure may not always make for compelling headlines, but collectively they have strengthened India's ability to withstand shocks.

"None of these are headlines. Individually, they are certainly boring," he said, before adding that such mechanisms become important when "the road gets bumpy." And, he said, "the road is getting bumpy" as the world "is running on impulses and on reaction to impulses and increasingly on reactions to reactions."


He pointed to India's economic rise, its position as fourth largest and fastest-growing major economy and the conclusion of a free trade pact with the EU as markers of a country that is simultaneously opening up and building resilience.