CMs, state ministers to join over 100 Indian CEOs in Davos next month for World Economic Forum meet

Andhra Pradesh minister Nara Lokesh, Karnataka's Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, Tamil Nadu Minister T R B Rajaa and Uttar Pradesh minister Suresh Khanna will also attend the five-day annual congregation in the Swiss ski resort town starting on January 20, 2025.

New Delhi: At least three chief ministers -- Devendra Fadnavis, Chandrababu Naidu and Revant Reddy -- will join over 100 CEOs and other leaders from India in Davos next month for the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2025.

Naidu will also be joined by his son and senior Andhra Pradesh minister Nara Lokesh, while Karnataka's Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, Tamil Nadu Minister T R B Rajaa and Uttar Pradesh minister Suresh Khanna will also be there for the five-day annual congregation in the Swiss ski resort town starting on January 20, 2025.

Some senior Union ministers are also expected to attend the meeting, but their names are still being finalised. Those who attended the last WEF annual meeting from the central government included Ashwini Vaishnaw, Smriti Irani and Hardeep Singh Puri.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also attended the meeting in the past, but there is no official word so far about his participation in the high-profile summit, for which the main theme this time would be 'collaboration for the intelligent age'.

Expected to be attended by nearly 50 heads of states and governments from across the world, the annual meeting would take place in the backdrop of a change of regime in the US and various geopolitical and macroeconomic issues including the Ukraine war and the continuing West Asia crisis.

Both Modi and Donald Trump had attended the WEF Annual Meeting in 2018 for the first time as India's Prime Minister and the US President, respectively.

While Modi became Prime Minister of India for the third consecutive term earlier this year, Trump is set to assume office for the second time on January 20 and his return is expected to be among key topics of discussion at Davos.

Maharashtra CM Fadnavis and Andhra Pradesh CM Naidu have been at Davos multiple times, while Telangana CM Reddy attended the WEF Annual Meeing in January 2024 as well.

Besides government leaders and civil society members, the Indian presence would comprise of top executives of business conglomerates like Reliance, Tata, Adani, Birla, Bharti, Mahindra, Godrej, Jindal, Bajaj and Vedanta groups.

Besides Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani, the next-generation leaders from their groups are also expected to be present, while technology leaders including Salil Parekh of Infosys, Rishad Premji of Wipro, as also Sumant Sinha of ReNew, Vijay Shekhar Sharma of Paytm and Adar Poonawalla of Serum Institute are expected in the Swiss Alpine resort town.

Geneva-based WEF, which describes itself as an international organisation for public-private cooperation, will convene leaders from government, business and civil society as well as scientific and cultural thinkers for its 55th annual meeting under the theme of 'Collaboration for the Intelligent Age'.

According to the WEF, the meeting will serve as a trusted global platform for dialogue and cooperation, bring together a diverse community of stakeholders, seek to connect the dots in an era of complexity and be firmly future-oriented -- both in terms of insights and solutions.

Several sessions are expected to be attended by Indian leaders, including one on 'India's Economic Blueprint'.

As one of the world's fastest-growing major economies, India has been growing at over 8 per cent and this growth has been buoyed by a focus on promoting local innovation and startups in technology and manufacturing, representing a departure from traditional export-oriented models.

The leaders would deliberate how has India capitalised on this new blueprint and to what extent can it continue to drive global growth.

According to the WEF, the annual meeting will take place at a time when geo-economic fragmentation, geopolitical polarisation and divisions over values continue to impact countries and communities across the world.

At the same time, exponential innovation and deployment around whole sets of inter-connected technologies -- from AI and quantum to energy tech, biotech and health tech -- offer an unprecedented opportunity to increase productivity and hence standards of living.

Reviving and reimagining growth is critical to building stronger and more resilient economies and the meeting would seek to discuss how to avoid an Age of Fragmentation and instead work together on a can-do, people-centred agenda for an Intelligent Age.

The global leaders would also deliberate on how to reinvent the muscle of collaborative innovation to get out of the current low-growth, high-debt world economy and address common challenges from climate change to the ethical use of AI.