An 80-member Indian delegation from the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) will participate in the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, from January 23 to 27, 2008. Finance minister Palaniappan Chidambaram will lead the delegation.
Delegates comprise CEOs of major Indian companies, as well as media and civil society representatives. CII president Sunil Bharti Mittal, who is also chairman & group CEO, Bharti Enterprises, will lead the delegation of over 60 CEOs.
The overarching theme of the meeting is ?The Power of Collaborative Innovation?. The Indian contingent is part of the over 2,600-strong international community that will include 27 heads of state or government, 113 cabinet ministers, along with religious leaders, media barons and heads of non-governmental organisations from 88 countries.
KV Kamath, vice-president, CII, and MD & CEO, ICICI Bank, will co-chair the meeting, along with Tony Blair, former UK PM, and Indra Nooyi, CEO of PepsiCo, among others. RK Pachauri, chairman of the Nobel Peace Prize winning UN Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change, will share the stage with Hamid Karzai, President of Afghanistan, at the opening, where two epochal challenges?climate change and terrorism?will be discussed.
Commerce & industry minister Kamal Nath, civil aviation minister Praful Patel and Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh will also participate.
For the first time, India will have a strong presence in the faculty category, with the likes of R Chidambaram, principal scientific advisor to the government, Brahma Chellaney, professor at the Centre for Policy Research and an expert on geopolitics, Hemant Oberoi, executive grand chef of Taj Hotels, and Jaya Row, Founder of Vedanta Vision.
Over 30 members of the Indian delegation will join the discussions in 42 sessions over the four days to lend an important Indian perspective to global issues ranging from climate change, nuclear energy, science and society to water, global economic shocks, urban infrastructure & renewal and leadership & skill development.
Two India focused sessions will discuss the country?s strategic national interests and its take on major global issues like climate change, energy security, terrorism, and trade liberalisation, as well as ways in which Indian companies and institutions are transforming into centres of excellence through innovative models.
CII and Indian companies will organise several events on the sidelines of the meeting. While CII plans its traditional ?India Reception? and breakfast sessions in partnership with Indian companies, many companies like Wipro, Infosys, Satyam, TCS and IBEF will organise their own breakfast sessions, receptions and Bollywood musical evenings in Davos.