An enduring partnership between CII and WEF has seen the annual meeting come a long way.
This must be one of the biggest regrets for the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham). In 1985, the European Management Forum, as the World Economic Forum was then known, decided to hold its first annual meeting on India. Why look at India? It was a relatively closed economy and the international business community was yet to be enamoured of the Indian market. An initial assessment showed that India was not yet ready for such an international summit.
Two factors, however, changed the Forum's mind. One, Rajiv Gandhi, who would later become India's prime minister, impressed it with his vision of a modern India, with an open economy thriving on its rich technical talent pool. Gandhi invited the Forum chief Klaus Schwab and his colleague Collette Mathur to come to India. Two, Rahul Bajaj of Bajaj Auto and N. Kalyani of Bharat Forge, who were regulars at the annual meeting of the Forum at Davos, were also keen on such a summit on India.
The venue, it was decided, would be New Delhi. But who would be its partner organisation to host the summit? Bajaj, one of the key members of the Association of Indian Engineering Industry (AIEI) and its former president, suggested that the Forum could collaborate with AIEI for the summit. But he also clarified that AIEI was only a national association of engineering industry and there were national industry associations like FICCI and Assocham, which too could be roped in for the India summit.
Thus, the first India Economic Summit was jointly organised by four organisations: Eureopan Management Forum (EMF), FICCI, Assocham and AIEI. However, FICCI and Assocham dropped out when the second summit was organised as AIEI and EMF came closer during the year and recognised that the two organisations had a lot of similarities in the professional way they were run.
Indeed, the two forged an arrangement - a unique tie-up for the Forum - under which they would jointly organise the annual India summits. In no other country, where the Forum organises such country-specific summits, does it have such a partnership with the local industry association. That relationship continued even as EMF rechristened itself the World Economic Forum in 1987 and AIEI went through two transformations - once in 1986, when it was renamed the Confederation of Engineering Industry, and later the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in 1992.
Not much is known why FICCI and Assocham dropped out. Or whether it was AIEI's aggressive relationship-building drive, quite natural for a new organisation that was itching to make a national mark, which made sure that all the successive 24 India Economic Summits were held as a joint venture between the Forum and CII. FICCI and Assocham may have lost out, but the gains for Indian industry were immense, even more than those for CII and the Forum.
The journey of India Economic Summits over these years has seen highs and lows. It began modestly. Rounding up global business leaders for these meetings was a task in the early years of the Summit. Thus, instead of the chief executive officers of large foreign multinationals, the Summit’s foreign participation was largely limited to middle-level managers from foreign companies. As a veteran participant in the Summits confessed, the middle-level managers were asked to just take notes on what all was happening on the economic policy front in India and whether India should figure on their global investment plans.
Equally difficult was to convince ministers in the Indian government to attend the Summit meetings. Those were the days when prime ministers attending industry meetings had not yet become fashionable. The relationship between the government and industry was one of distrust - the former doubting the motives behind every move by the latter and vice versa. In such an environment, getting ministers to speak to a group of global business leaders was even more challenging. Thus, many closed-door sessions were planned and ministers and even leaders of the opposition political parties would be invited to share their views - completely off-the-record -- which would never get published in the media.
Things turned for the worse during the late 1980s, when the Indian economy was slipping into a crisis under the twin pressures of a worsening balance of payments situation and a rising fiscal deficit. India was on the verge of bankruptcy and the world was preparing to give it up as a basket case. While the India Economic Summit kept its annual tryst with Indian industry and policy makers intact during the crisis years, the nature of the engagement between policy makers and global business leaders became sharply focused on the need for reforms and liberalising the economy. In a way, even during those crisis years, the India Economic Summit remained an annual exercise at reiterating how reforms could unlock the hidden value of the Indian economy.
What happened during the 1990s -- the Narasimha Rao-Manmohan Singh duo unshackled the Indian economy -- was a vindication of what the India Economic Summit stood for. The nature of the Summit also changed. Getting ministers to speak at the various sessions was not that difficult any more. The number of participants from foreign multinational firms rose steadily, as global business leaders realised it was important to be in India. The quality of participation also improved, with more CEOs registering for participation, even offering to chair the Summit, evincing serious interest in investing in India.
For the India Economic Summit, it appeared there was no looking back, barring a minor hiccup in the latter half of the 1990s. The South-East Asian crisis unnerved global investors. The nuclear tests in 1998 evoked sharp reactions from major industrialised countries and many companies, which had planned investments in India, put them on hold. Those were trying times. But the India Economic Summit kept its flag flying. Indeed, the participation level continued to rise as India recovered from that shock and displayed its resilience as an economy.
The Summit's sessions in the last few years have also undergone a change in character. The effort is no longer to get ministers to attend the Summit and make some policy announcements. Yes, ministers are in demand, but they are now expected to interact with participants and share their perspectives on public policy issues. Far from being a Summit with a one-way message — from the minister to the participants — the Summit sessions in the last few years have become a forum for two-way communication.
The obsession with Central government ministers is also over. State chief ministers or their ministerial colleagues are equally in demand at the Summit these days. As the reforms agenda moves from the Centre to the states, the Summit sessions have also shifted their focus to policy and governance issues in different parts of the country. Not surprisingly, the age profile of Indian participants has changed, a clear sign of a young India embracing entrepreneurship in large numbers. The agenda for the Summit sessions have also kept pace with the government's insistence on inclusive growth.
The big transition the India Economic Summit has made over the years is in the nuancing of the agenda for its many sessions. Instead of remaining narrowly focused on economic policies, the India Economic Summits for the past few years have dwelt more on non-economic issues such as education, irrigation, health, environment and the role of civil society. The day does not seem to be far off when the India Economic Summit will be simply called the India Summit!
