Davos Dispatch: Can India do a Yash Chopra for the World Economic Forum?

India’s strong presence at Davos stands in stark contrast to the developed world. German chancellor Olaf Scholz will be the only G-7 leader to attend the World Economic Forum this week, with others choosing to skip the summit.

As a 90s kid hooked on Bollywood movies, Switzerland for me meant snow-capped mountains, picturesque lakes, beautiful mountain passes and Shahrukh Khan romancing a heroine in the snow in a Yash Chopra movie.

While I saw the first three in all their grandeur during my trip to Switzerland this week, how SRK frolicked in just a shirt and trousers in snowy terrain I will never know.

At –6 degrees amid a continuous shower of snow, every CEO, policymaker and delegate here is bundled up in layers and layers of clothes, as they huddle to talk about ways to make the world a better place.

Coping with a polycrisis

While Ukraine dominated the sessions at the World Economic Forum’s annual summit last time around, this time, too, there is expected to be a lot of discussion on whether geopolitics has trumped geoeconomics, if deglobalisation can pave the way for re-globalisation and the future of the global world order.

Add to these, issues such as the climate crisis, a possible recession, the future of work, preparing for the next pandemic, and it looks like the world has problems aplenty.

The World Economic Forum, in fact, used a term called Polycrisis in its Global Risks Report to illustrate this phenomenon — a cluster of related global risks with compounding effects, in a way that the overall impact exceeds the sum of the parts.

Also Read | India at Davos 2023: All you need to know about key attendees, agenda and more

India shining

While developed economies talk gloom and doom, the story is different when you take a walk down the promenade at Davos towards the India lounge and state lounges. From an imposing hoarding of Prime Minister Modi to the beautifully done up India lounge to the orange bright Maharashtra lounge, it is a sight for sore eyes.

In an interview with us, Niti Aayog CEO Parameswaran Iyer echoed the IMF when he said India is the one bright spot amid the gloom, growing at 6.8 percent. “Structural reforms in the Indian economy will stand us in good stead, like the IBC, PLI, GST. We have a very large contingent at the WEF this time, from four Union Ministers to a lot of people in the private sector.”

Invest India’s Deepak Bagla concurred. “Walk down the promenade, you feel proud being an Indian. Look at the India presence, India is everywhere.”

Moneycontrol in conversation with Deepak Bagla, chief executive officer and managing director of Invest India

The country’s global heft is also on the rise, as it has assumed the G20 presidency and will host the G20 Leaders summit for the first time in 2023.

Also Read | World Economic Forum Davos 2023: WEF's mission, milestones in its 50-year history

Only one G-7 leader attending

Interestingly, India’s strong presence at Davos stands in stark contrast to the developed world. German chancellor Olaf Scholz will be the only G-7 leader to attend the World Economic Forum this week, with others choosing to skip the summit. The optics of world leaders huddling in a lush ski resort at a time when the world is battling a cost-of-living crisis is another factor to consider.

In this scenario, India doubling down on WEF will hopefully give it the boost and relevance that Yash Chopra gave to Switzerland tourism, with the country even installing Chopra’s statue at Interlaken as a tribute.

PS: Day 0 pro tip! What I liked in and around Davos!
The Weber family runs an eponymous café cum restaurant that you can spot when you enter Davos. This place has been in the family for over a century now. Their speciality is the Bundner nut cake, which comes with a walnut caramel filling. More on this and the sombre world economy on our Davos bulletin streaming on Moneycontrol. Tune in!