10 states, 4 Union ministers to take part in World Economic Forum summit

The huge Indian delegation to the WEF Annual Meeting, to be held from January 19 to 23, comes in the context of India's efforts at diversifying its exports and its search for rare earth minerals

At the World Economic Forum (WEF) later this month in Davos, Switzerland, India will see participation from 10 states, including five represented by chief ministers and two deputy CMs, as well as four Union ministers, led by Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Ashwini Vaishnaw, along with top business leaders from public sector undertakings (PSUs) and private firms. 

This huge delegation to the WEF Annual Meeting — to be held on January 19-23 — comes as India steps up efforts to diversify exports and search for rare earths. 

According to sources, apart from Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Chouhan, Information and Technology and Railways Minister Vaishnaw, other Union ministers slated to attend the WEF annual congregation are Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy Pralhad Joshi, and Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu. The CMs slated to attend the WEF meet are Maharashtra’s Devendra Fadnavis, poll-bound Assam’s Himanta Biswa Sarma, Madhya Pradesh’s Mohan Yadav, Telangana’s A Revanth Reddy and Andhra Pradesh’s N Chandrababu Naidu. 

Karnataka and Gujarat’s Deputy CMs DK Shivakumar and Harsh Sanghavi, respectively, are also scheduled to attend the annual event.  Delegations from Uttar Pradesh, which could include its Minister of Industrial Development, Export and Investment Promotion Nand Gopal Gupta ‘Nandi’, Jharkhand and poll-bound Kerala are set to fly to Switzerland for the event. 

Of these states, Andhra Pradesh — as it did at the WEF Annual Meeting in 2025 — will have a separate pavilion with its IT Minister Nara Lokesh driving the southern state’s push for investments and looking at export markets for its produce. This is especially for shrimp, which is one of the worst hit after the US’ stiff tariffs. 

Earlier this month, Assam’s Sarma said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has recognised the Northeastern state as the fastest growing economy in India with a 45 per cent growth during the last five years. 

He said Assam’s gross state domestic product (GSDP) is set to be ₹7.42 trillion in 2025-26 from ₹4.11 trillion in 2020-21. 

Sarma said the Centre has recognised Assam’s economic growth by including it in the delegation to the WEF meet along with industrially-advanced states, such as Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. “This will give us an opportunity to talk about Assam with leading industrialists,” Sarma had said at a press conference in Guwahati on January 1.  

As many 60 heads of state and government will attend this year’s WEF global summit. US President Donald Trump will be one of the global leaders scheduled to attend. He couldn’t attend the previous WEF Annual Meeting as it coincided with the inauguration of his presidency in January 2025. 

Indian business leaders likely to attend the annual congregation in Davos are Tata group's N Chandrasekaran, Reliance Industries Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani, Bajaj group's Sanjiv Bajaj, Godrej Industries' Nadir Godrej and JSW Group's Sajjan and Parth Jindal. 

There would also be top leaders from Bharat Forge, Vedanta, Apollo, Zerodha's Nikhil Kamath, Bharti group's Sunil Bharti Mittal, Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani, Wipro's Rishad Premji, Essar Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Prashant Ruia, and Renew CEO Sumant Sinha. Several PSU heads, including Indian Oil Chairman Arvinder Singh Sahney, GAIL's Sandeep Kumar Gupta, State Bank of India’s Challa Sreenivasulu Setty, NTPC's Gurdeep Singh and REC Ltd's Jitendra Srivastava, will also attend. 

The WEF Annual Meeting’s theme this year is ‘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 innovations defining the future, the WEF said. 

The summit will focus on five global challenges where public-private cooperation can make a difference. 

These are 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.