WEF 2021 kickstarts at Davos today; Modi, Xi, Merkel to speak at virtual forum

The 51st World Economic Forum is all set to kickstart today, January 25, at 12:30 PM (IST). The event will continue till January 29, followed by an in-person meeting in Singapore in May as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The WEF said there would be 15 special addresses from G20 heads of state and government and international organisations during the summit from January 24-29.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the meeting virtually on January 28. The other high-profile leaders who have signed up for the virtual session at 51st WEF includes, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari, Railways and Trade Minister Piyush Goyal, Oil and Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, and Textiles Minister Smriti Irani.

Among the global leaders, Chinese Premier Xi Jinping, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Prime Minister of Japan Yoshihide Suga, President of France Emmanuel Macron, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will also address the Davos agenda week.

Klaus Schwab, the founder of the World Economic Forum, which was established in 1971 in Geneva, said the thrust of the meeting this year would be on "rebuilding trust".

Chinese President Jinping and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will speak on Monday. On Monday, Schwab will also release his latest book, titled 'Stakeholder Capitalism: A Global Economy that Works for Progress, People and Planet.' It explores how societies can build the future post-COVID.

Republic of Korea President Moon Jae-in, Italy Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is among the listed speakers for Wednesday. Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga will speak on Friday, the last day of the summit.

Businessmen from India who have registered are Mukesh Ambani, Sunil Mittal, Anand Mahindra, G Kiran Kumar, Sanjiv Bajaj, Hari Bhartia Jayadev Galla, Ajit Gulabchand, Shobana Kamineni, Hemant Kanoria, Pawan Munjal, Salil Parekh, Jai Shroff, Sumant Sinha, and Vaishali Sinha, among others. Former Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan will also be attending one of the sessions.

An entire week of global programming will be dedicated to helping leaders choose innovative and bold solutions to stem the pandemic and drive a robust recovery over the next year.

The Davos Agenda will also mark the launch of the World Economic Forum's Great Reset Initiative where industry leaders and public figures will discuss how to advance and accelerate public-private collaboration on critical issues, such as Covid-19 vaccination, climate change, among others.

Each day will focus on one of the five domains of the Great Reset Initiative.  On January 25, the session will discuss designing cohesive, sustainable, and resilient economic systems. On Day 2, January 26, the meeting will discuss driving responsible industry transformation and growth. On January 27, the panel will discuss enhancing stewardship of our global commons.

The January 28th session will be on harnessing the technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. And, on January 29, leaders will convene a discussion on advancing global and regional cooperation.

This is only the second time the WEF's annual meeting will move out of Davos, the first time it happened in 2002 at New York's Waldorf Astoria Hotel after the twin towers attack. On that occasion, for a few hours, the trading floor at the New York stock exchange was turned into a dance floor as global leaders vowed they would not be cowed down by terror attacks.

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