The World Economic Forum at Davos

The World Economic Forum, a non-governmental lobbying organisation has started annual meetings at Davos, Switzerland for the year 2023.

Background

• It was established in 1971 as a not-for-profit foundation and is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.
• It is independent, impartial and not tied to any special interests.
• Formerly known as European Management Forum, in 1987 the name was changed to World Economic Forum.
• This meeting was held under the European Commission and European industrial associations to introduce the European firms to American management practices.
• Later, Klaus Schwab founded the World Economic Fund as a non-profit organization and conducted the annual meetings to draw European business leaders to Davos.
• Recent geopolitical dynamics and health emergencies imposed the centrality of shared values to work together and restore trust among the nations.
• From supply chain resilience infrastructure to vaccine equitable policy, WEF annual meeting of WEF has involved various stakeholders to curb the potential threats and attain the targets of SDGs.

About the World Economic Forum (WEF):

• The world economic forum is the international organization for public-private cooperation.
• The forum engages the foremost political, business, cultural and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industrial agendas.
• The forum strives in all its efforts to demonstrate entrepreneurship in the global public interest while upholding the highest standards of governance. Moral and intellectual integrity is the prime objective of its every action.
• Activities of the forum are shaped by a unique institutional culture founded on the stakeholder theory, which asserts that an organization is accountable to all parts of society.
• The institution carefully blends and balances the best of many kinds of organizations, from public and private sectors, international organizations and academic institutions.

Why the meeting at Davos is significant?

• Davos brings together some 3,000 paying members and selected participants, among whom are investors, business leaders, political leaders, economists, celebrities and journalists.
• This is going to be a five days discussion on global issues across 500 sessions. However, its salience goes far beyond discussions on economic issues.
• In the past, it has been used as a location for pivotal international diplomacy as leaders are able to break tensions in the town.
• For instance, in 1988 Greece and Turkey avoided war, when the two signed the now-famous Davos Declaration.

India and World economic forum:

• With the world economic forum’s 50th anniversary in 2022, India is also celebrating its 35 years of collaboration with the forum, providing an opportunity for India to showcase its unified presence.
• The world economic forum could provide a potential platform to project India as an important and relevant stakeholder in shaping global initiatives. Also is an attractive destination in view of its robust economic growth and stable macroeconomic indicators.
• To mark 75 years of independence, ‘AzaadikaAmritMahotsav’, DPIIT has taken initiative to have a consolidated presence at WEF, in 2022.