Kamal Nath to lead Indian delegation to Davos

New Delhi, Jan 21: The stage is set for the meeting of some 30 global trade ministers, including Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath, in the Swiss resort of Davos from January 24 to 28 to discuss how to take the Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations forward.

Against the backdrop of the World Economic Forum's (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, Mr Kamal Nath, who has been a key negotiator for developing nations along with Brazil, will hold talks with World Trade Organisation Director, General Pascal Lamy and others to break the impasse.

He will be heading a more than 100-strong Indian delegation comprising central and state government officials and Indian business tycoons besides media and civil society representatives.

The five-day Forum will see participation by India's top business leaders who will convene along with more than 2,000 public figures and representatives from academia, the media and civil society to discuss issues pertaining to economics, geopolitics, technology and society on the theme of 'The Shifting Power Equation'.

Besides Mr Kamal Nath, the Indian Government will be represented by Planning Commission Deputy Chiarman Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Minister of State for Industry Ashwani Kumar and Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion Secretary Ajay Dua.

A 50-member strong business delegation led by CII President R Seshasayee will ensure an Indian perspective in various sessions of the official programme.

The Indian business presence will have heavyweights such as Rahul Bajaj, N R Narayana Murthy, Anil Ambani, Jamshyd and Adi Godrej, Vijay Mallya, K V Kamath, Anand Mahindra, Baba Kalyani, Azim Premji, S Ramadorai, B Ramalinga Raju, Dhruv Sawhney, Gautam Thapar and Uday Kotak, among others. Leading companies Infosys and Reliance are strategic partners and Wipro, Ranbaxy and ICICI Bank are industry partners to the Forum.

Bharti Enterprises Chairman and Group Managing Director Sunil Bharti Mittal and Vice President, CII will join five other global CEOs as one of the co-chairs of the meeting.

He also joins a select group of Indian CEOs who have co-chaired the meeting in the past, the most recent being Mukesh Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Industries Ltd, in 2006.

The delegation also includes religious leader Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev.

UNI