Rising commodity prices, global economic risks and increasing unemployment would be on the main-course menu for 2,500 global leaders, including 130 from India, who have gathered for the annual World Economic Forum meeting at the snow-white skiing resort here.
Though Russian President Dmitry Medvedev would formally open the five-day annual meeting in the evening, the business sessions began early morning.
India, the second fastest expanding economy of the world after China, is fielding the biggest-ever delegation of 125 CEOs and senior ministers like Home Minister P Chidambaram, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma, Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath and Heavy Industries Minister Praful Patel.
Besides, the leading lights of India Inc like Azim Premji of Wipro, Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries, Sunil Bharti Mittal of Bharti Enterprises, and Kiran Mazumdar Shaw of Biocon are being involved in discussing 'new economic reality', future of employment and making growth over-arching.
The Geneva-based WEF is playing host to 1400 from top 1,000 companies around the world, 30 heads of state or governments, renowned academicians, artists and the faith leaders, including head of the Chinmaya Mission in New Delhi Swami Nikhilananda Saraswati.
The masters of the corporate world, governments and intellectual and spiritual world are meeting against a global economic environment which is yet to fully recover from the severe setbacks received in 2008 and 2009.
The recovery in the developing world is largely driven by domestic demand but is quite considered fragile in the western economies.
According to the World Bank, though the global economy recovered by 3.9 per cent in 2010, the pace is not enough to create adequate jobs.
Among 30 heads of government, the limelight is bound to be stolen by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev, British Prime Minister David Cameron and South African President Jacob G Zuma.
The who’s who of India Inc will rub shoulders with the global CEOs not only in the brainstorming sessions in the main venue Congress Centre but also at the ‘Night Caps’ parties and fun-filled evenings,including the ‘Bollywood Music Night’.
Noted music director A R Rehman will be making a serious presentation about his work.
India has been given a unique honour of co-chairing this year’s meeting by the country’s top woman CEO. ICICI Bank’s Managing Director and CEO Chanda Kochhar will be in the company of Mitsubishi Corporation Chairman Yorihiko Kojima, Nestle CEO Paul Bulcke, DuPont CEO Ellen Kullman and CEO of China Ocean Shipping Group Company Wei Jiafu.
Sharing her thoughts about the Indian and global economy, Kochhar said that the growth of the Indian economy would continue to be driven by consumption demand by millions of aspiring young people and increasing investments.
"India is a very young nation and will continue to remain young for decades. What this means is that millions of workforce would be aspiring to consume and create demand. That is the consumption drive which is going to drive India's growth," she said.
With high unemployment, close to 10 per cent in the US, for instance, the cliché of ‘inclusive growth’ has caught on with the frontline economies as well. Creating jobs along with maintaining growth is the main challenge of 2011.
The Davos discourse is sure to highlight the role of Asian powerhouses like China and India in achieving this common task. China is growing above 10 per cent with India runner up at around 8.8-9 per cent.
Though the World Bank has a forecast of 3.3 per cent world economic growth, challenges like rising food inflation have risen, particularly in countries like India. More and more countries are resorting to export controls of food articles which can make things worse.
Then, there are risks from some of vulnerable economies in Europe like Greece, Spain and Portugal, which need to be tackled.
The common message sought to be conveyed would be "sharing". The WEF which has been organizing the annual event in freezing temperature for the last 40 years on this ‘village’ has chosen an apt theme this year.
Seeking to capture the global mood, WEF has given the theme: Shared Norms for the New Reality.
"The theme is founded on four interconnected pillars-responding to new reality; the economic outlook and policies for inclusive growth, supporting the G20 agenda and building a global risk response mechanism", it said.
When it comes to India presence, given the unfolding of several scandals and scams back home, in the past few months, the Indian team will have to face certain unsavory questions on corruption and the "governance deficit".
"We cannot hide, we will answer all these questions honestly," CII chief Hari Bharatiya said. Since the corruption is a worldwide menace, the WEF has fixed a full-fledged session on the subject.
