India set for strong presence at Davos with ministers, CMs and CEOs
India will have a strong presence at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos from January 18-24, with four Union ministers, five Chief Ministers and over 100 business leaders participating in global discussions on growth, cooperation and innovation
New Delhi: India is set for a power-packed presence at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in the Swiss ski resort town of Davos next month, with four union ministers, including Ashwini Vaishnaw and Shivraj Singh Chouhan, set to join five CMs and over 100 CEOs from the country.
K Ram Mohan Naidu, Minister for Civil Aviation, and Pralhad Joshi, Minister for New & Renewable Energy, Consumer Affairs, and Food & Public Distribution, will also be part of the Indian delegation at the five-day annual meeting from January 18-24, which will be held under the theme of ‘a spirit of dialogue’.
The Chief Ministers include Devendra Fadnavis of Maharashtra, N Chandrababu Naidu of Andhra Pradesh, Assam’s Himanta Biswa Sarma, Madhya Pradesh’s Mohan Yadav, and Telangana’s A Revanth Reddy.
While Reddy is from Congress and Naidu is from Telugu Desam Party (an ally of the BJP), the other three CMs are from the BJP. Among the Union Ministers, Naidu is from TDP, while the other four are from BJP. Vaishnaw is Minister for Railways, Information & Broadcasting, and Electronics & Information Technology, while Chouhan is Minister for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, and Rural Development.
Besides, Gujarat’s Deputy Chief Minister Harsh Rameshbhai Sanghavi and a high-level delegation from Uttar Pradesh will also visit Davos for the annual jamboree of the rich and powerful from across the world.
More State delegations are expected to be announced in the coming days for the global summit, which will host a record number of nearly 3,000 global leaders from close to 130 countries, including more than 60 heads of State.
Business leaders from India expected in Davos for the annual congregation of the rich and powerful from across the world include Reliance Industries Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani, Tata group’s N Chandrasekaran, Bajaj group’s Sanjiv Bajaj, and Jubilant Bhartia Group’s Hari S Bhartia. Other Indian corporate leaders expected to be there are Axis Bank’s Amitabh Chaudhry, Godrej Industries Group’s Nadir Godrej, JSW Group’s Sajjan Jindal, Zerodha’s Nikhil Kamath, Bharti group’s Sunil Bharti Mittal, Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani, Infosys CEO Salik S Parekh, Wipro’s Rishad Premji, Essar CEO Prashant Ruia, Paytm’s Vijay Shekhar Sharma and Renew CEO Sumant Sinha.
Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade Secretary Amardeep Singh Bhatia, as well as several PSU heads, including Indian Oil Chairman Arvinder Singh Sahney, GAIL’s Sandeep Kumar Gupta, SBI’s Challa Sreenivasulu Setty, NTPC’s Gurdeep Singh and REC’s Jitendra Srivastava, will also be there.
Former Union Minister Smriti Zubin Irani will also be there as founder and chairperson of Alliance for Global Good: Gender Equity and Equality, which was founded a few years ago in Davos itself.
Global leaders attending the summit include World Bank President Ajay S Banga, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, UNESCO Director General Khaled el-Enany, WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and London Mayor Sadiq Khan.
From Pakistan, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, and Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari will also be there.
Under the theme ‘a spirit of dialogue’, the meeting will seek to harness the need for an impartial platform that connects leaders to confront shared challenges and drive the innovations defining the future, according to the WEF.
The meeting will focus on five global challenges where public-private cooperation can make a difference: cooperation in a more contested world, unlocking new sources of growth, better investment in people, deploying innovation at scale and responsibly, and building prosperity within planetary boundaries.
Public figures expected to attend include leaders from G7, G20, BRICS countries and beyond, as well as heads of international organisations.
