Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping will be among the top world leaders to attend the World Economic Forum (WEF)’s Davos Agenda Summit. The six-day event will be held online from January 24 to 29.
French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga are among the other leaders expected at the event. World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres will also participate in the meeting. Newly elected United States President Joe Biden and United Kingdom's Prime Minister Boris Johnson are likely to skip the summit.
The WEF summit, often referred to as the congregation of the rich and powerful, is an annual event held at the ski resort of Davos in Switzerland, which sees the participation of world leaders, politicians, economists and business leaders.
Agenda
Collaboration on issues such as COVID-19 vaccination, job creation and climate change is expected to dominate the summit this time.
‘Davos Agenda’ will also mark the launch of WEF’s "Great Reset Initiative" and begin preparations for the Special Annual Meeting to be held in Singapore in May. Each day of the event will focus on one of the five domains of the Great Reset Initiative.
Themes
The seven key themes are: How to Save the Planet, Fairer Economies, Tech for Good, Society and Future of Work, Better Business, Healthy Futures and Beyond Geopolitics.
There will be 15 special addresses from G20 heads of the state and government and international organisations during the summit, according to WEF. Modi is likely to address the gathering virtually at 5.30 pm Indian Standard Time on January 28.
Other participants
Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan and Petroleum and Steel Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, as also business leaders such as Anand Mahindra, Salil Parekh and Shobana Kamineni, would be among other speakers from India.
Christine Lagarde, Bill Gates, Punit Renjen of Deloitte, Brian T Moynihan of Bank of America, Al Gore, Ishaan Tharoor, Mark Carney, Angel Gurria of OECD, Ajay Banga, KT Rama Rao and Masayoshi Son of Softbank would be among the other prominent speakers.
The list of registered participants also includes Union ministers Nitin Gadkari, Smriti Irani and Piyush Goyal along with business leaders such as Mukesh Ambani, Gautam Adani, Ravi Ruia, Rishad Premji, Pawan Munjal, Rajan Mittal, Sunil Mittal, Ajay Khanna, Ajit Gulabchand, Hari S Bhartia and Sanjiv Bajaj.
Former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan, Tata Steel CEO T Narendran and Walmart CEO Doug McMillon are also among registered participants.
(With inputs from PTI)