In snowy Davos, PM Modi to set the tone with his 'mann ki baat'

* The top billing on Day 1 belongs to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who will be delivering the opening plenary address at the World Economic Forum (WEF) later today.

* Following in the footsteps of Chinese President Xi Jinping, who gave the keynote speech last year, PM Modi will likely tout India's economic successes and stress that the country is open for business.

* Modi is the first Indian prime minister to attend the summit in two decades and is expected to share his vision for India's future engagements with the international community.



* The prime minister dove right into the social whirl soon after landing in Davos yesterday. He held a bilateral meeting with Swiss president Alain Berset, met with 120 members of the International Business Forum for a round-table conference and hosted a welcome reception and dinner for global industry bosses from 18 countries.



* He is accompanied by several ministers, a high-powered business delegation, and two yoga instructors who will host yoga training sessions for the entire duration of the week-long gathering.

* 3,000 delegates, including 70 world leaders, will grace the snowy alpine town of Davos over the course of this week. Every European leader of note will be in attendance - Emmanuel Macron of France, Germany's Angela Merkel, Britain's Theresa May and Paolo Gentiloni of Italy, to name a few.

* US President Donald Trump, who has been mired in negotations to end a US government shutdown, is due to close the conference with a speech on Friday.

* Davos is shorthand for the World Economic Forum, which in its original guise was founded in 1971 by German business professor Klaus Schwab as a way for European corporate leaders to learn from their US peers.

* Political leaders started attending later in the 1970s, and since then it has morphed into an annual jamboree where the global elite -- joined by intellectuals, activists, celebrities and sometimes protestors -- debate the world's problems.

* The overarching theme this year is "Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World".







(With inputs from Agencies)