The 25th summit takes place at a time when confidence in the Indian growth story is intact.
Every year as the winter starts cooling the Delhi air, it is time for the conference season to begin. Quite different from the snow clad Davos, which plays host to the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in the peak of winter, the Indian Capital presents a pleasant backdrop to the India Economic Summit. Global business leaders delve into the past in search of answers to the future, and seeking to assure them at the summit are Indian government and business leaders.
For the 25th year now, the Confederation of Indian Industry and the WEF are organising the summit in New Delhi. This year’s summit, on from November 8-10, will take place at a time when India has bucked the trend to post a growth of 6.7 per cent in 2008-09 and 6.13 per cent in the April-June 2009 quarter. Though the global slowdown did pull down its growth from 9 per cent in 2007-08, confidence in the Indian growth story remains intact.
The curtain raiser report, India Competitiveness Review 2009, shows that the country has moved up one rank to 49 out of 133 economies in the global competitiveness index. Though it fares badly in the basic sub-index comprising health and primary education, it has competitive advantages in institutions, financial market sophistication and innovation. The overall sentiment of the report is in contrast to last year’s, when the curtain raiser report itself was titled the India@Risk 2008.
This year’s report, however, notes that the Indian economy is still the smallest among the four emerging market BRIC economies. “There is a major difference in the sentiment compared to last year, when we met just as the global economic crisis had started unfolding. Now, we have seen that India is one of the few economies to post a GDP growth which is more than 5 per cent,” says Sushant P. Rao, director and head of Asia at WEF.
The Sunday morning beginning to the summit will see two crucial issues — agriculture and health risks — being discussed in parallel update sessions. The theme for the session on agriculture is the farm sector’s continued dependence on rain and the consequent vulnerability of the harvest, creating food security risks. With agricultural growth expected to dip this year due to a deficient monsoon, participants will discuss new approaches, technologies and partnerships for ensuring water security and stable food prices.
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In line with the fact that India continues to grow despite the basic issues remaining unresolved, the theme for the opening session that follows the two parallel sessions will be Resilient India: 25 Years of Economic and Social Progress. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will deliver the special address during the session. Singh has lately been highlighting the importance of inclusive growth in the wake of the spurt in Maoist attacks. His address will send out signals to the global business community on the government’s growth strategy.
The remainder of the day will see minister of commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma, road transport and highway minister Kamal Nath and deputy chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Ahluwalia, take part in sessions that focus on trade, economic growth and the challenges of inefficient infrastructure. The potential of producing 200 million graduates and skilled manpower numbering 500 million will be the theme of another session attended by C K Prahalad, professor of corporate strategy at Michigan University, and Raghuram Rajan, professor of finance at the University of Chicago. The power-packed day will be wrapped up with a session on the Commonwealth Games that will be held in New Delhi next year.
There will be sessions on the financial sector, education, energy, and media and entertainment, spread across Monday and Tuesday. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee will be the high point of Tuesday’s programme, when he will share his views on striking a balance between the regulatory and oversight mechanism and India’s reform agenda. Home minister P Chidambaram will attend the closing plenary, which will focus on the next generation of growth in India. Two reports on gender gaps and education for creating the next generation of entrepreneurs will be launched during the summit.
The three-day event will see participation from 300 global and 480 Indian senior corporate executives. With nine Union ministers attending the event besides the prime minister, the summit is expected to see an exchange of industry-government perceptions on the road ahead for the country.
WEF has organised five regional summits, besides the India Economic Summit, to complement the annual meeting in Davos-Klosters over the past one year. The platform has provided industry input on hard core economic and business issues, and also on social themes.
Between last year and now, the world has gone through one of the most difficult phases in economic history, but with recovery in sight, experience sharing can be important. Large numbers are waiting to be employed, after the turmoil. The next 12 months may lack the pre-slowdown buoyancy, but this year’s summit could well spell out what can be done to return to the high growth path.