So it's Davos time again! Snowy Alps, freezing weather, Swiss hospitality and a super-packed three days. It's the World Economic Forum 2016. With global markets falling to some of their worst starts ever, one can't help but think that many are already looking to 2017 longingly. One wonders what is the mood among the cream of the global financial elite who will converge here for the three-day conference beginning Wednesday? Will they have noticed the small drawdown in their wealth? For the rest of us, the ordinary folk, it's pretty clear that the 'Happy New Year' that we have all wished each other and hoped for already seems to be fading.
The official theme for the conference is "mastering the fourth industrial revolution". You can call it digital disruption, the digital economy, the new economy or by any number of other names. What is clear though is that this "digital economy" is one of the very few bright spots for the global economy right now. Ruchir Sharma, head of Morgan Stanley Emerging Markets, recently in an interview to Dr Prannoy Roy described the rise of 'FANG' - Facebook, Amazon.com, Netflix and Alphabet (formerly known as Google). Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg, Satya Nadella of Microsoft and Jack Ma of Alibaba will be just a few of the top tech executives here in Davos for the conference.
What does all of it mean for India? For a country where by some estimates a million young people enter the workforce every month, is the digital revolution an opportunity or a challenge? A question that is asked quite regularly now is whether we are heading towards "a world without work" as some reckon that one in two jobs could eventually be taken by intelligent automation. Is India ready? Even as the e-commerce juggernaut rolls ahead in India, data from a recent NSSO survey on the proportion of young people (aged 14-29 years) who can do basic online activities is instructive. Only half the urban youth and less than a fifth of those in rural India can operate a computer/smartphone; the proportions of those who can do complex activities are lower. The government's massive digital education push will certainly help. But it's also pretty clear that a digital revolution alone won't pick up the slack we are seeing in traditional and core industries.
This brings us back to what I began with. Macro-uncertainty and falling global markets. Expect China, global growth scare, oil uncertainty, recession fears and geopolitical risks to dominate discussions here in Davos.
(Prashant Nair is Senior Executive Editor - News at NDTV)
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