Top business leaders and senior policymakers from India will join the rich and powerful from across the globe in this snow-laden Swiss mountain town to discuss the world economy at the five-day World Economic Forum (WEF) annual congregation.
While the Indian team, comprising top CEOs like Mukesh Ambani, Azim Premji, Adi Godrej, Rahul Bajaj and Sunil Mittal, as also Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, will get an opportunity to present the India growth story on a global platform, the discussions about the global economic scenario are likely to remain gloomy.
Ahead of this year’s Davos meeting, based on the theme “The Great Transformation: Shaping New Models”, everybody is adding their two cents to the debate on the state of the world.
A senior Indian delegate said it would be interesting to watch whether the business leaders from India would raise the issue of a policy paralysis and slowing pace of reforms at the WEF meeting as well, or continue with their usual praise for the India growth story.
About 100 Indian business leaders are expected to be present here, making them one of the largest teams after the US, the UK and Japan. While the exact numbers for other countries are not available, the number of business leaders from China is expected to be lower.
Among other issues, the meeting would discuss ‘India’s Tall Ambitions’, its preparedness to deliver inclusive growth for a huge population, while achieving effective governance at Central and state levels and promoting its model of democratic capitalism. The meeting would also have a discussion on ‘How Immune Is India?’ in the backdrop of Europe, Japan and the US facing serious structural and societal challenges.
Ahead of the event, the WEF has released its latest Global Confidence Index, which shows a majority of global experts are fearing a geopolitical disruption in 2012. “Fear among international experts of a major geopolitical disruption over the next 12 months has risen significantly to 54 per cent, just as confidence in the state of global cooperation has dropped,” found the WEF’s third Global Confidence Index.
The respondents also remain pessimistic about the global economic outlook, as the crisis of confidence reflected in the previous two quarters continues unabated.
Meanwhile, as the World Economic Forum urges presidents and bankers to “rethink capitalism”, neighbouring Klosters, a resort favoured by the British royal family, held its eighth annual snow polo tournament.
While young Swiss socialists protested against the power of the political elite in igloos outside Davos, rock band Duran Duran sang “A View to a Kill” to several thousand polo enthusiasts revelling in a bar and nightclub made out of shipping containers and snow.
Police arrested two men suspected of scrawling "SMASH WEF" on the walls of the Swiss National Bank in Zurich last week. They also stopped an unauthorised anti-WEF demonstration in the capital Berne on Saturday.
In its Global Risk Report earlier this month, the WEF showed it was aware of a possible backlash against rising inequality.
"The middle class is thinning out," said Lee Howell, the WEF managing director behind the report. "It's no longer simply cyclical, with everybody down and everybody getting to go back up. This time, some people may not get up."
WEF founder and executive chairman Klaus Schwab said, "Capitalism, in its current form, no longer fits the world around us. We have failed to learn the lessons from the financial crisis of 2009."
Besides top business leaders, young Indian leaders like Jyotiraditya Scindia and Sachin Pilot would also be here. Global leaders expected to be present include German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister David Cameron, as also the chiefs of organisations like IMF, World Bank, OECD and WTO.
Citigroup chief Vikram Pandit is one of the six co-chairs of the WEF Annual Meeting 2012, along with Unilever CEO Paul Polman and Royal Dutch Shell CEO Peter Voser.
