From National Security Advisor Ajit Doval to key Union and Chief Ministers to Mukesh Ambani and influencer Masoom Minawala, India’s biggest-ever delegation is headed to the 56th World Economic Forum Annual Meeting (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, this week. At an event that is otherwise set to be dominated by US President Donald Trump and his delegation, India is equally on board to making power moves at the world stage.
Indian leaders are expected to take charge during numerous panel discussions, including one on ‘Can India become the third largest economy in the world.’
Simultaneously, India’s creator economy and business moguls’ power stance is going to be on full display at the five-day annual meeting from January 19-23, 2026. This year’s theme is ‘A Spirit of Dialogue.’
Indian politicians headed to Davos 2026
According to a PTI report released earlier this month, at least four union ministers and six chief ministers will be joining the country’s delegation otherwise also led by National Security Advisor Ajit Doval at Davos. They are:
- Union Minister of Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw
- Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare of India Shivraj Singh Chouhan
- Minister of New and Renewable Energy Govt of India Pralhad Joshi
- Minister of Civil Aviation K Rammohan Naidu
The expansive group of Indian leaders will also include state leadership, with chief ministers:
- Devendra Fadnavis (Maharashtra)
- N Chandrababu Naidu (Andhra Pradesh)
- Himanta Biswa Sarma (Assam)
- Mohan Yadav (Madhya Pradesh)
- A Revanth Reddy (Telangana)
- Hemant Soren (Jharkhand)
Andhra Pradesh’s Chandrababu Naidu is slated to meet a slew of industrialists and attend one-on-one meetings while also participating in a number of programs at the WEF in Davos. Meanwhile, Jharkhand’s Hemant Soren is set to present an energy transition model during the global conference.
Originally, Karnataka Deputy CM DK Shivakumar was also preparing to fly to Davos. However, he has since cancelled his WEF trip, citing official schedules in New Delhi and Bengaluru. On the flip side, Gujarat’s Deputy CM Harsh Rameshbhai Sanghavi and a delegation from Uttar Pradesh will be visiting the annual Davos summit.
Other than that, Indian officials will be holding bilateral meetings and attending global events, including those specific to India, on the sidelines of the main WEF conference.
Top business leaders-CEOs joining Davos 2026 summit
With more than 100 CEOs expected to represent India on the global stage, this particular corporate delegation will be led by the likes of:
- Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani
- Tata Group chairman N Chandrasekaran
- Bajaj Group chairman Sanjiv Bajaj
- Jubilant Bhartia Group chairman Hari S Bhartia
- TVS Motor CEO Sudarshan Venu
- Mahindra Group CEO Anish Shah
As per PTI, other Indian bosses included in the Davos chain are:
- Axis Bank MD Amitabh Chaudhry
- Godrej Industries Group chairman Nadir Godrej
- JSW Group chairman Sajjan Jindal
- Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath
- Bharti Group founder Sunil Bharti Mittal
- Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani
- Infosys CEO Salil S Parekh
- Wipro chairman Rishad Premji
- Essar CEO Prashant Ruia
- Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma
- ReNew CEO Sumant Sinha
Indian influencers or celebrities also at Davos 2026?
Signalling the arrival of a new age of influence and India’s creator economy, Masoom Minawala Mehta, a content creator and former CEO of an e-commerce start-up will be there as well.
Flipping the script altogether, award-winning Bollywood actress Bhumi Pednekar will also make an appearance at Davos 2026. However, her presence at the global event will be defined by her influential role as the driving force behind India’s biggest non-profit advocacy platform on climate change, Climate Warrior.
Women empowerment to take centre stage at Davos 2026
Leading the charge of women empowerment at the conference, Women Inspiring Network’s second edition of the Win Lounge will take the lead as the only independent Indian platform at Davos. The professional community will bring together more than 75 global leaders from over 15 countries and 30+ industries.
A special focus will be on 10 pioneering Indian women from wide-ranging fields like business, finance, technology, media and more, including:
- Ex-union minister Smriti Irani, who will be present as the chairperson of Alliance for Global Good: Gender Equity and Equality
- Japneet Kaur, who is the founder of GreenKid Chronicles and program director Cybersecurity-Mphasis
- Invest India’s Nivruti Rai
- Apollo Hospitals’ Sangita Reddy
- Welspun Living Dipali Goenka
- Vedanta’s Priya Agarwal Hebbar
- Shri Ram / Karm’s Radhika Bharat Ram
- Jagran Group’s Arti Gupta
- IXME’s Priti Rathi Gupta
World Economic Forum President on India’s presence
Even WEF President Borge Brende is looking forward to India taking the lead at this year’s Davos conference. Like many others in the South Asian country, he’s also keeping his fingers crossed for a US-India trade agreement announcement.
Speaking to NDTV in the Swiss town, Brende couldn’t help but rave about India potentially becoming the fastest growing of the large economies this year.
“I still think this year it [India] will be the fastest growing of the large economies. And we have numbers now showing that India can maybe make up for 20 per cent of all the global growth,” he told the Indian news outlet this week. “So then India is not only growing for India, but that growth is also contributing to everyone on our planet because that growth is so substantial.”
He further added: “The Modi government made some concrete reforms that I did expect, but not so fast and so forcefully. That’s why I am also more bullish on the Indian economy.”
As far as Brende’s vision goes, he asserted that the WEF had numbers showing them that India can possibly make up for 20% of all the global growth.