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World's powerful to meet at World Economic Forum tomorrow, over 100 from India to attend

The World Economic Forum will hold discussions on global economy and need for responsive leadership.

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World's rich and powerful people, including over 100 from India, as well as government heads from the UK, China, Pakistan and Bangladesh will be in this Swiss ski resort for 5-day World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting beginning on Monday to hold discussions on global economy and need for a 'responsive and responsible leadership'. Union Ministers Nitin Gadkari and Nirmala Sitharaman, Niti Aayog's Arvind Panagariya, DIPP Secretary Ramesh Abhishek and Andhra Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu are among the prominent attendees from India at the elite talkfest, where Modi government's demonetization move, as also the fear of 'de-globalisation' in the wake of Trump Presidency in the US, will be among key topics of discussion.

There will be a special session on India where the panelists will discuss the country's anti-corruption and tax reform programmes and how inclusive the results can be. Besides, more than 100 Indian CEOs and business leaders, including the next chief of Tata Group N Chandrasekaran, will be present at the event which will see overall more than 3,000 participants from more than 100 countries, including 1,200 CEOs, the biggest such gathering ever, who will huddle over important economic and geo-political issues before the world. There will be an estimated 300 public figures, including more than 50 heads of state and government, and many participants from media, academia, and NGOs.

Over the next five days in snow-laden Davos, where the temperature could fall to as low as minus 20 degrees, the 47th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum will be held amid a growing focus on fight against terror across the world, including Europe, and would incidentally end on the day when Donald Trump assumes office of the US President. Top global leaders expected to be present include British Prime Minister Theressa May and Chinese President Xi Jinping, who will open the meet along with Swiss President Doris Leuthard, even as some others like German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and South African President Jacob Zuma will give this year's annual jamboree of the rich and powerful a miss. Jinping will be the first Chinese President to attend the 47-year-old summit, which will also see presence of Pakistan President Nawaz Sharif, Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina and Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe from the region. Former Pakistani Army Chief Raheel Sharif will also be there.

Ahead of the summit, the WEF said economic inequality, societal polarisation and growing environmental dangers are the top risks facing the world over the next 10 years while India alone can see this year a staggering 93% holding jobs without social security benefits. These would be among the key issues to be discussed by the world leaders at the meeting. "Trends such as rising income inequality and societal polarisation triggered political change in 2016 and could exacerbate global risks in 2017 if urgent action is not taken," the WEF said. The annual study further noted that key drivers of these risks can be arrested or reversed through building more inclusive societies, for which international cooperation and long-term thinking will be vital. The Summit will also see a host of bilateral meetings on the sidelines, including by Gadkari and Sitharaman, who would also meet Swiss Minister for Economic Affairs Johann N Schneider-Ammann on efforts to conclude the long-pending EFTA free trade agreements.

Switzerland will also host the traditional informal WTO ministerial meeting, with around 30 participants including from India, which will work towards concrete results at the upcoming ministerial conference in Buenos Aires in December.WEF's theme this year is 'Responsive and Responsible Leadership' that will call for a new model of leadership championing collaboration, growth, reformed capitalism and preparedness for fourth industrial revolution. More than half of 400 sessions at the five-day event will address strategies for fostering greater social inclusion and human development, while one-third of the 3,000 participants come from outside Europe and North America. Another one-third will represent stakeholder groups outside business and government, Geneva-based WEF said. WEF Founder and Executive Chairman Klaus Schwab said: "The world around us is changing at unprecedented speed. At this tipping point, our traditional concepts of society, meaningful employment and the nation state are challenged, and many understandably feel insecure or even threatened. "A new model of responsive and responsible leadership is needed to allow us to address the challenges the world faces, from security to the Fourth Industrial Revolution, with long- term, action-oriented thinking and solidarity on a national and global level." WEF said it would be the most comprehensive meeting of ministerial delegations in the world, with over 70 countries, including all G20 nations, participating. It will include the participation of the new Secretary- General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, along with heads of key international organisations.

The top Indian business leaders would include Bajaj group patriarch Rahul Bajaj and son Sanjiv, Wipro's Azim Premji and son Rishad, RIL's Mukesh Ambani along with wife Nita and son Akash, Godrej Industries' Nadir Godrej, Tech Mahindra's C P Gurnani, Bharti's Sunil Mittal, Ashok Leyland's Dheeraj Hinduja, Adani Group's Pranav Adani and Hero's Pawan Munjal. Film maker Karan Johar, activist Swami Agnivesh and Congress leader Kamal Nath will also be there. The Co-Chairs for the Annual Meeting are Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan, Documentary Filmmaker from Pakistan Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy, Save the Children International CEO Helle Thorning-Schmidt, Royal Philips CEO Frans van Houten and Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO Meg Whitman. Other global leaders will be Afghanistan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani, IMF Chief Christine Lagarde and WTO Director General Roberto Azevedo, as also General Motors chief Mary Barra, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Alibaba's Jack Ma. The opening day will also see singer, songwriter and education advocate Shakira, violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter and artist/social activist Forest Whitaker being awarded with the 2017 Crystal Awards in recognition of their leadership as artists improving the state of the world at a special session and concert tomorrow. Shakira will be awarded for her leadership in supporting education and early-childhood development.

From India, a business delegation led by industry body CII would also be present in Davos for various meetings, including on the sidelines of the WEF Annual Meeting. Tata Steel's T V Narendran and Mukund Rajan from Tata Group, ace bankers SBI Chief Arundhati Bhattacharya and Kotak Mahindra Bank's Uday Kotak, as also IDFC Bank's Rajiv Lall, Spicejet's Ajay Singh and Paytm's Vijay Shekhar Sharma will also be present. Others from India include ONGC Chairman Dinesh Kumar Sarraf, CII Director General Chandrajit Banjerjee, Baba Kalyani and Amit Kalyani from Bharat Forge, Siddhartha Lal of Eicher Motors, Prashant Ruia of Essar, Rajiv Memani of EY India, Naushad Forbes of Forbes Marshall Private Limited, Malvinder Mohan Singh of Fortis Healthcare and Kiran Kumar Grandhi and GBS Raju of GMR Group Ajit Gulabchand and Arjun Dhawan of HCC Infrastructure, Ratul Puri of Hindustan Powerprojects, Siddharth Jain of INOX Group, Raghupati Singhania of JK Tyre, Sajjan Jindal of JSW Group, Shyam Sunder Bhartia and Hari S Bhartia of Jubilant Bhartia Group, Manish Kejriwal of Kedaara Capital, as also Ajay Piramal, Adar Poonawalla, Hemant Kanoria, Tulsi Tanti, Nidhi Tanti, Jaidev R Shroff, Kapil Wadhawan, Dheeraj Wadhawan, Srinath Sridharan, Balkrishan Goenka and Utkarsh Amitabh are also registered.

According to WEF, there would be 26 Social Entrepreneurs, 50 Global Shapers and more than 100 Young Global Leaders from across the world. The Global Shapers, a community of young people under the age of 30, will give a voice to 50% of the world's population that is still under-represented in global affairs, while Social Entrepreneurs and Young Global Leaders highlight the need for social innovation to correct the shortcomings of capitalism. A voice for millennials will also be provided through live satellite to 16 cities on five continents, an essay competition and a social media campaign - all of which will be featured as part of the Davos programme. "The World Economic Forum is bringing more than 200 millennials, social entrepreneurs and young leaders under the age of 40 to the Annual Meeting in Davos-Klosters to share views on the meeting theme Responsive and Responsible Leadership," it said.

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