By Abhishek Katti
Introduction – What is Davos Agenda?
Every year, the World Economic Forum takes the opportunity to organize an event in Davos which is in Switzerland. It is a platform where world leaders are invited along with some of the most notable dignitaries from across the globe to mobilize solutions for some of the most important issues faced by people across economies.
In 2021, it was held between 25th to 29th of January. One of the attendees was the Honorable Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, who was a key note speaker. Various speakers were scheduled to meet their counter parts to exchange ways that would shape the upcoming year to the best interest of the global community.
This year, the list of agendas ranged from topics as diverse as Economics, Technology, Business, Climate change, Renewable energy and Health care. This article shall aim to express how the Agenda proved to be advantageous for the Indian subcontinent. The Indian subcontinent is an economy that is on the verge of achieving its target valuation of $5 Trillion.
Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum gave a message, “Rebuilding trust and increasing global cooperation are crucial to fostering innovative and bold solutions to stem the pandemic and drive a robust recovery in 2021.”
In trying times like these where trends such as economic slowdown, climate change along with an atmosphere of extreme uncertainty, are quite prevalent, the only thing that can be relied upon are the set of policies rolled out by the government. This article focuses on different topics dealt with in the World Economic Forum. It also lays emphasis and answers the pertinent question of how will the Davos Agenda help India ?
Is India Still The World’s Fastest Growing Economy ?
The Government of India took wise decisions such as mobilizing monetary funds in the form of stimulus packages. This categorised India amidst governments that followed the same path to contain the current economic situation.
The Reserve Bank of India has stated that growth would set slowly mostly due to moderated demand but despite its analysis, the World bank forecasts show that India will still outpace other economies. This forecast was corroborated by the estimations of the International Monetary Fund back in 2019.
How Has India Fostered The Culture Of Start Ups ?
When the Central Government came up with a mandate of driving the Indian Economy towards a target of $5 Trillion valuation, it was anticipated that startups would play a major role towards achieving it.
According to NASSCOM, India has the third largest start-up base in the world. The country has been consistent when it came to investing in innovation, research and development, thus creating an atmosphere of creativity. There is this unique avenue being created consisting of budding entrepreneurs who look forward to bringing in ideas which have actually helped both the society and the economy to grow.
With the start up India scheme, more than 14,000 startups have been realized which shows remarkable growth from a global perspective.
How Has The Indian Economy Strengthened Its Alliances?
Apart from the creation of a safe and secure atmosphere, India has successfully improved its global footprint over the past few decades as it has been actively engaging itself in various coalitions and councils. This has assisted in improving its global influence through councils such as the G20, Shanghai Cooperation Organization, The India-Brazil-South Africa Dialogue and the BRICS Group.
The Role Of The Retail Sector – How Will The Davos Agenda Help India ?
An interesting article on the forum’s official website highlighted the retail sector and its negative contribution to the growth of the GDP. Piyush Goyal, the Minister of Commerce and Industry , claimed that brick-and-mortar ought to be taken care of while attracting foreign direct investment.
As a result, the FDI has been restricted to 49% in this sector. His American counterpart claimed that if a couple of decades from now, brick and mortar remain as it is, it would mean that there have been no improvements at all. In fact, it was reported that Amazon, for the first time had cut their capital expenditure by a third given the policies since it entered the market back in 2012.
Contributions Of The Private Sector
Despite the failed trade deal between India and the United States, the Indian government seems determined to strengthen its private sector. What exactly can the private sector do to boost the economy? The answer to this question is many fold and perhaps that is the reason the central government is following a path under the current decisive leadership.
It is the private sector that translates investments into profits and revenues by taking risks which results in wealth creation. It has played a central role during the pandemic by adopting to the new normal, thereby instigating a new work culture of working from home to have operations remain unaffected to a certain extent.
The introduction of new products, boosting of the per capita consumption and demand at a remarkable efficiency is only possible for private sector companies as they can afford resources required through investments.
The WEF suggests that partnerships between the central government and private sectors in critical areas of infrastructure and long term investments would expedite the process of reaching the target
valuation of the Indian Economy. The total gross capital formation as a percentage of GDP was estimated to be 31% out of which two thirds have been contributed by the private sector.
Concluding Remarks on how Will the Davos Agenda Help India
On a concluding note, the visits of Indian dignitaries to foreign economies have borne amazing results as India has achieved platforms to keep its suggestions, ideas and strategic alliances thus resulting in strengthened ties with the world.
This has attracted many foreign investors and companies to invest in India. Tesla and Samsung rank amongst most successful foreign investments. This would create a domino effect as investors would be attracted to come forward and invest more and more capital through stock exchanges resulting in further improvements in the SENSEX and the other notable indices of the Indian Economy.
Strong international alliances followed by inflow of investments into the economy answers the question of how will the Davos Agenda help India.
This article is authored by Abhishek Katti. He is a graduate of technology from NIT Allahabad. He writes about topics such as economy, financial planning, investments and wealth management.
If you want to know more about India alliances with the global economy, do read the article – India Vs China : Economic Comparison & Dependence.
