The biggest congregation of global leaders will return Monday to the usual snow-laden setting of this Swiss ski resort town with thousands of participants including about a hundred from India set to discuss 'cooperation in a fragmented world'.
The World Economic Forum had to host its last annual meeting in 2022 in May as the summit could not take place in the usual month of January due to the COVID pandemic-related restrictions. Before that, the 2021 meeting could take place online only.
Though the pandemic is yet to be declared totally over, restrictions are far a few and the war in Ukraine and the economic fallout of geopolitical as well as health crises have made the Davos meeting, often described as the biggest congregation of the global elite, very interesting.
Nearly 50 heads of government or state are expected over the next five days for the meeting beginning Monday, while four union ministers -- Mansukh Mandaviya, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Smriti Irani and R K Singh, as also Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, along with a number of officials and business leaders would be present from India.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Karnataka's B S Bommai were also earlier listed, but they are unlikely to attend the summit. AAP leader Raghav Chaddha is also here, so are Telangana minister K T Rama Rao and Tamil Nadu minister Thangam Thennarasu.
Among business leaders, Gautam Adani, Sanjiv Bajaj, Kumar Mangalam Birla, N Chandrasekaran, Nadir Godrej, Ajit Gulabchand, Sajjan Jindal, Sunil Mittal, Roshni Nadar Malhotra, Nandan Nilekani, Adar Poonawalla, Rishad Premji and Sumant Sinha are likely to be present.
The meeting will call on leaders from across the globe to address immediate economic, energy and food crises while laying the groundwork for a more sustainable and resilient world.