New Delhi: The Indian contingent at the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) 50th annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, will be attended by two Congress chief ministers but only one Union cabinet minister.
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath will be attending the four-day meet, beginning 21 January.
From the central government only Commerce and Railways Minister Piyush Goyal and Minister of State for Shipping and Chemicals and Fertiliser Mansukh Mandaviya are slated to attend the event.
Another representative from the ruling BJP will be Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa.
The theme of this year’s WEF meet is ‘Stakeholders for a Cohesive and Sustainable World’. The meet will discuss the urgent climate and environmental challenges harming the ecology and economy, sustainable and inclusive business models at a time when trade and consumption patterns are changing, among other things.
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No cabinet minister attended meet last year
Some other prominent government officials who are scheduled to attend the event include Amitabh Kant, CEO, Niti Aayog; Guruprasad Mohapatra, Secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade; Anup Wadhawan, Commerce Secretary and Sanjiv Nandan Sahai, Power Secretary.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had attended the Davos meet in 2018, becoming the first Indian prime minister in nearly two decades to attend the global conference. That year also saw the largest representation from the Indian government.
No cabinet minister attended the meet last year after then finance minister Arun Jaitley, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and former union minister Suresh Prabhu opted out ahead of the general elections in May 2019.
Major industry leaders registered to attend the event this year include Mukesh Ambani, chairman, Reliance Industries; Gautam Adani, chairman, Adani group; Rahul Bajaj, chairman, Bajaj Auto; Nandan Nilekani, chairman, Infosys; Sajjan Jindal, chairman, JSW group; N Chandrasekharan, chairman, Tata Sons and Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman, Bharti Enterprises. Actress Deepika Padukone is also registered to attend the event.
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