From India, industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla will not be attending the meet, despite his initial confirmation. Besides, his compatriots Chanda kochhar and Anand Mahindra had already decided to skip this year's WEF annual extravaganza despite being regulars here for the many past years.

The Geneva-based WEF would host its 44th Annual Meeting here beginning tomorrow, wherein more than 2,500 leaders from across the world including 40 heads of government are expected to indulge in a high-profile talk fest for five days.

Ahead of the gathering of political and business leaders in the Swiss resort of Davos, the public relations firm Edelman found that only 44 percent of university-educated people participating in the survey trusted government, down 4 percentage points from the previous year. As recently as 2011, trust in politicians stood at 52 percent.