India show gets bigger at Davos

DAVOS: The Davos show of the world’s top corporate titans and thought leaders is getting bigger and bigger. And so is the Indian delegation, which has not allowed the relative slowdown in the Indian economy to affect its enthusiasm. This year around, India’s delegation has grown with the country’s burgeoning economic muscle, and has even surpassed that France with 113 people. Top IT honchos, including senior executives from Wipro Ltd. and HCL Technologies Ltd, are part of India’s Davos pitch.

With the global financial crisis not showing any visible sign of abating, bankers are expected to outnumber those from other sectors. The US delegation is expected to be the biggest and the one from China is likely to be nearly half of the 100-plus team heading for the mecca of top honchos.

India-born Indra Nooyi of PepsiCo Inc is likely to be at Davos and so is Mike Duke of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Wal-Mart was in news in India following a political storm over reports on lobbying by the retail giant to open the way for foreign equity in retail trade in India.

Later this year, the 29th World Economic Forum on India, will be organised to focus on the growing strength of the south Asian economy.

The meet, almost a year before the critical national elections in 2014, would place emphasis on the increasingly important role of Indian states in shaping the national economic and political agendas, given the scale of their markets and the growing influence of regional parties.

At the same time, the prospect of enhanced trade relations in the region presents new economic opportunities for India within South Asia, as well as with other key emerging growth regions such as Africa and the Middle East.

The meeting will bring together key decision-makers to discuss initiatives aimed at building stronger consensus among business, civil society and government to accelerate efforts to promote state and national competitiveness, equitable growth, enhanced trade relations, and infrastructure and human capital development.

As for the agenda at the mega event at Davos, the Outlook on the Global Agenda 2013 report shared recently to outline the key problems of the future and provide insights into how they might be tackled today, as leaders pour in for the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting.

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