Claude-less summit

IES kicks off without critical voice

The 17th India Economic Summit — organised jointly by the World Economic Forum and the Confederation of Indian Industry — has got underway as usual, but with a big difference this year. Perhaps for the first time, this annual event has not been kicked off by the customary address on the Indian economy by the WEF’s Claude Smadja, no longer its managing director. For those who have heard it all these years, the Smadja speech has always been a bravura performance: apparently delivered extempore, with a deadpan expression, the MD’s address often has been extremely critical of India’s flagging reform agenda. But never devoid of balance and hope that matters would improve in the future. This sort of constructive criticism wasn’t received well by India’s finance minister and other mandarins. But Mr Smadja remained unfazed by all this and the show carried on every year without fail until 2001. The other important change has been Mrs Colette Mathur — an institution of sorts and no less integral to the success of the summit than Mr Smadja — stepping down from the WEF board and focusing on India-related activities.

Times are a’changing at the WEF. A major organisational revamp is underway with a new set of officials at the helm. Its annual jamboree will also shift from Davos to New York next year. It is somewhat premature to speculate on how all of this will impact on WEF’s India-related activities which have till now been identified with Mr Smadja and Mrs Mathur. India’s political class and apparatchiks must realise that fora like the WEF are an important bridgehead to global investors. These networks can be leveraged to the country’s advantage if there is momentum on the reforms front. Instead of getting touchy with well-intentioned criticism, they should get their act together and implement second generation reforms. Only then can India traverse to a faster growth path and become a major economic power. The theme of this year’s summit is India: changing paradigms and will cover the country’s future economic prospects; the post-September 11 fallout, India’s new areas of excellence and its role in the world economy, especially the multilateral trading system. Two full sessions are in fact being devoted to the challenges before Indian industry and the World Trade Organisation in the intervening period before the Fifth Ministerial. But clearly, this is a Claude-less summit.