Bommai, Jagan and Thackeray: State leaders line up for WEF’s Davos annual meet

PTI, Apr 24, 2022, 7:24 PM IST

New Delhi: As the rich and powerful from across the globe gear up for their annual talk-fest in the Swiss ski resort town of Davos, a number of state leaders from India are planning to join them to tell the world their respective growth stories.

Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj S Bommai and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jaganmohan Reddy are expected to be in Davos for the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting 2022 from May 22-26, while Maharashtra minister and chief minister Uddhav Thackeray’s son Aditya Thackeray as also Telangana minister and the state chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s son K T Rama Rao would be there.

Besides, the Tamil Nadu government is also likely to set up a special lounge in Davos for the duration of the WEF summit, while leaders from some other Indian states are also likely to visit the Swiss resort town at that time.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and some senior union ministers are also expected to participate in the WEF’s Davos summit, one of the most high-profile congregations of the world leaders globally, but there has been no official announcement so far regarding their participation.

At least 100 Indian CEOs, as well as hundreds of business and political leaders from across the world are already registered for the five-day event.

The annual meeting is expected to be attended by over 300 public figures, including heads of state and government from across the globe.

The annual summit, which was originally scheduled to be held in January but had to be postponed due to the emergence of the Omicron variant of the deadly COVID-19 virus, will start on May 22 and will continue till May 26.

The meeting will be held under the theme of ‘History at a Turning Point: Government Policies and Business Strategies’ and the organisers expect it to ”offer time and space for meaningful, in-person exchange that has been impossible on this scale since the onset of the pandemic”.

”More than 2,000 participants, including global leaders from business, media and civil society, will contribute their expertise and insights to over 400 sessions. The meeting will also convene 300 public figures, comprising heads of state and government and heads of international organizations as well as ministers of foreign affairs, economy, finance, trade, energy and a range of additional portfolios from G7, G20 and other relevant economies,” the WEF said in an update.

Geneva-based WEF, which describes itself as an international organisation for public-private cooperation, has been hosting its annual meeting in Davos every January for nearly 50 years, but it could not take place in a physical format in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, while the 2022 edition had to be postponed from January to May.

The participants already registered from India include a large number of CEOs and other public figures.

These include Adani Group’s Gautam Adani, Reliance Industries’ Mukesh Ambani and his two children Isha and Akash, Bajaj Finserv’s Sanjiv Bajaj, Aditya Birla Group’s Kumar Mangalam Birla, Tata Sons’ N Chandrasekaran, Axis Bank’s Amitabh Chaudhry, HCL Tech’s Roshni Nadar Malhotra, Infosys’s Salil Parekh, Serum Institute’s Adar Poonawalla, Wipro’s Rishad Premji, Paytm’s Vijay Shekhar Sharma, ReNew Power’s Sumant Sinha and Tata Steel’s T V Narendran.

It is expected to be the first event of this scale attended by international leaders from all sections of the society including from the government, business and civil society sides.

Several sessions at the week-long summit are expected to focus on India, in addition to issues of global importance such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

More than 100 Indian participants are expected to participate, making it one of the biggest blocks globally at the event, which is also expected to be attended in large numbers by the government and business leaders from the countries such as the US, UK, Germany, France and China.

One of the official sessions would be on ‘Strategic Outlook on India’, while there would be another one on ‘India’s energy transition’.