India Likely to Have Strong Presence at WEF's Davos Meet

New Delhi: The annual congregation of the global elite for the World Economic Forum (WEF) in the coming week will have a strong India presence with senior Union ministers Arun Jaitley and Piyush Goyal, along with over 100 top corporate leaders, set to leave for the Swiss ski resort town of Davos.

Other prominent names from India would include Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian as also Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandra Babu Naidu.

Among other engagements, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is expected to talk at WEF on how new leadership is transforming the business, political and social landscape of India.

Besides, he would discuss with global leaders the near-term and long-term priorities of the BRICS block of emerging countries in the context of their trade and investment partnership.

In another session, Mr Jaitley would participate in a discussion on how India as the world's most populous democracy will revive and accelerate economic modernisation, growth and job creation.

Power and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal will discuss on how new business models are scaling energy decentralisation and emissions reduction, besides his other engagements.

Meeting against the backdrop of the world economy facing multiple challenges, the 45th edition of the WEF annual meet would discuss 'The New Global Context' as this year's theme.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande, Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang, Pakistan Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif and Switzerland President Simonetta Sommaruga would be present among top global leaders.

Among Indian business leaders, those expected at the annual meeting of the rich and powerful from across the world include Tata Group' Cyrus Mistry, Reliance Industries' Mukesh Ambani,

ICICI Bank's Chanda Kochhar, Jet Airways' Naresh Goyal, Tata Consultancy Services' N Chandrasekaran and State Bank of India's Arundhati Bhattacharya.

They also include Bharat Forge's Baba Kalyani, Essar Group's Shashi and Ravi Ruia, and Infosys's Vishal Sikka, as also eminent names like Azim Premji, Sunil Mittal, Uday Kotak, Rahul Bajaj, Adi Godrej, Naveen Jindal and Sajjan Jindal.

Jubilant Bhartia Group co-chairman and founder Hari S Bhartia is among the six co-chairs for this year's WEF meet.

Other co-chairs are World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, Oxfam International Executive Director Winnie Byanyima, UK-based Alliance Trust's CEO Katherine Garrett-Cox, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt and Brazil's Itau Unibanco's vice chairman and CEO, Roberto Egydio Setubal.