Biggest-ever Indian contingent at WEF marks Delhi’s ascent in Davos
Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw assured the world leaders that the country remains focussed on sustainable and inclusive growth.
The rich and powerful from across the world assembled for five days in Davos, Switzerland, beginning January 20 for the mega meeting of businesses aka World Economic Forum (WEF) 2025. The annual confluence brought the biggest names in the world from business to government to civil society to art and culture and a lot of others.
India sent its biggest-ever contingent this time, comprising five Union Ministers, three Chief Ministers and Ministers from several other states alongside nearly 100 CEOs and other leaders.
Donald Trump, who was sworn in as the 47th President of the United States, addressed the meeting virtually on January 23. Ahead of the Summit, a WEF survey showed that armed conflict was the top risk to economic growth in 2025. Extreme weather, the number 1 concern in 2024, was the second-ranked danger.
From India, Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw assured the world leaders that the country remains focussed on sustainable and inclusive growth.
In his various meetings in Switzerland, Vaishnaw also underlined that India’s proactive approach to embrace global best practices and technology is also being lauded globally.
Before reaching Davos, the Minister for Railways, Information and Broadcasting, and Electronics and Information Technology met Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) delegation in Zurich and had a detailed discussion on safety technologies and maintenance practices.
He engaged with Swiss experts to understand the cutting-edge technologies that can bolster operational efficiency and safety within the Indian Railways system.
One of the highlights of WEF 2025 for India was a business session organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) with some of their top leaders – R Dinesh, Chairman, TVS Supply Chain Solutions; Shobana Kamineni, Executive Chairperson, Apollo Health, and Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII. The discussion offered key insights into India’s growing role in shaping the global economic agenda.
As global leaders discussed “Collaboration in the Intelligent Age,” the panel shed light on Indian industry’s expectations from WEF, strategies to navigate global market challenges, and the presence of leading Indian industrialists at Davos.
Maharashtra
On state front, the annual congregation once again proved fortuitous for Maharashtra which secured ₹6.25 lakh crore of investments at WEF 2025 in just two days. The state signed Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) worth ₹4.99 lakh crore, expected to generate 92,235 jobs across key sectors. The most significant agreement, valued at ₹3 lakh crore, was inked with the JSW Group for investments in steel, renewable energy, infrastructure, lithium-ion batteries, and solar technologies.
Telangana
In a significant push for its infrastructure and economic development, Telangana signed three MoUs with Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Limited at WEF 2025 in the presence of Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy who led the ‘TelanganaRising’ delegation.
As part of these agreements, MEIL will invest ₹ 11,000 crores to establish a 2160 modern pumped storage project, creating over 1,000 jobs during construction and 250 during operations.
White paper on AI
In collaboration with Accenture, WEF released a white paper titled “Transformation of Industries in the Age of AI: Artificial Intelligence in Financial Services” during the annual meet.
The white paper notes that AI, particularly generative AI (genAI), soared to the top of the agenda for businesses, policy-makers and other stakeholders in 2024. It draws on insights from roundtable discussions with over 100 financial services executives worldwide, as well as from the latest external research on AI. As exploration of AI’s far-reaching impact continues, the aim is to provide an overview of the state of AI in financial services, along with key open questions and potential risks to be considered by business leaders, policy-makers and customers. Financial services businesses with their data-rich and language-heavy operations are uniquely positioned to capitalise on the developments of AI and have been doing so for years. More recently, with the developments of genAI, research indicates that 32-39 per cent of the work performed across capital markets, insurance and banking businesses has high potential to be fully automated and 34-37 per cent holds high augmentation potential. This has driven a significant increase in new AI investment.
