Several union ministers, CMs to join world leaders in Davos for WEF meet

New Delhi: Union ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw, CR Patil, Chirag Paswan, K Ram Mohan Naidu and Jayant Chaudhary, alongside three chief ministers -- Devendra Fadnavis, Chandrababu Naidu and Revant Reddy, will join hundreds of government and business leaders from across the globe in Swiss ski resort town Davos next month for the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2025.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Naidu will also be joined by his son and senior minister in his state Nara Lokesh, while Karnataka's Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, Tamil Nadu Minister TRB Rajaa and Uttar Pradesh Minister Suresh Khanna will also be there for the five-day annual congregation of the world's rich and powerful, starting January 20, 2025.

Actor Bhumi Pednekar, known for films like Dum Laga Ke Haisha, Toilet: Ek Prem Katha, Shubh Mangal Saavdhan, Pati Patni Aur Woh, Badhai Do and Saand Ki Aankh, would also be there.

Besides over 50 Presidents and Prime Ministers from across the world, top officials of international organisations like the United Nations, IMF, World Bank, Interpol, NATO, European Central Bank and WTO are also expected to be in Davos for the WEF Annual Meeting 2025.

Senior ministers from Pakistan and Bangladesh, including Bangladesh Government's Chief Adviser and head of the interim government Muhammad Yunus would also be present.

Vaishnaw, Minister for Railways, Information & Broadcasting and Electronics & IT, had also attended the last WEF annual meeting, alongside Smriti Irani and Hardeep Singh Puri from the Union Council of Ministers.

This time, Vaishnaw will be joined by Jal Shakti Minister Patil, Food Processing Industries Minister Paswan, Civil Aviation Minister Naidu and Minister of State for Skill Development and Education Chaudhary.

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 will be 'collaboration for the intelligent age'.

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

Both Modi and Donald Trump 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 the key topics of discussion at Davos.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Fadnavis and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Naidu have been to Davos multiple times, while Telangana Chief Minister Reddy attended the WEF Annual Meeting in January 2024 as well.

Besides government leaders and civil society members, the Indian presence would comprise 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 India has capitalised on this new blueprint and to what extent it can 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.