The 2025 Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF), being held at Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, would have been another talking shop, had it not been held under the shadow of US President Donald Trump’s ascension to office. Naturally, Trump’s speech is being billed as the most sought-after event. From the Indian viewpoint, it showcases the eight states, each aiming to attract investment opportunities from global business executives. The states represented at WEF 2025 are Kerala, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and West Bengal. Indeed, India has sent its largest-ever delegation to the WEF jamboree, which includes five Union ministers and three state chief ministers. Nearly 100 CEOs and leaders from various sectors, including government, civil society and the arts, are also in attendance. But most of it will be optics.
Giving a spin to the largest-ever participation, Ashwani Vaishnaw, the Union minister, who wears many ministerial hats, said the idea of bringing together eight states was to create ‘a unified and integrated India pavilion’. So, this year, all the states were represented within the pavilion, showcasing a cohesive display of their potential. This was meant to highlight the ‘progress of our economy, the policy stability, transparency and the strong foundation established under the prime minister’s leadership’.
Bringing together eight states under one roof may look like good PR. But does it make good business sense? Back home, most of the states are engaged in a cut-throat competition for investments as demanding electors demand more jobs and economic opportunities. The BJP-aligned states are known to use this leverage to get the Centre’s backing. The idea of a grand union is utopian, at best.
The competitive spirit was evident at Davos. Andhra Pradesh, under the theme ‘Business with Speed and Innovation’, is showcasing its 1,054 km long coastline, business-friendly policies and seven airports to attract global investors. Andhra Pradesh CM N. Chandrababu Naidu will engage with top executives from global companies, such as Unilever, DP World Group, Petronas, Google Cloud, PepsiCo and AstraZeneca. Telangana CM Revanth Reddy is also attending Davos. “Telangana means business. We are promoting sectors like electric vehicles, semiconductors, pharma, and infrastructure,” he said. Maharashtra is presenting itself as the ‘Industrial powerhouse of India’. Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis expressed the state’s ambition to ‘break new ground on the global stage’ during the meeting.
And, pray, what new ground was broken? The Maharashtra government and Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) are to sign an MoU for an investment of Rs3.05 lakh crore to generate over 300,000 employment opportunities across diverse sectors, including new energy, retail, hospitality and high-tech manufacturing. Paras Defence & Space Technologies Limited will announce an investment of Rs12,000 crore to create innovative technologies, such as MEMS-based sensors, adaptive optics and laser systems and research in critical materials like germanium, silicon and zinc selenide, vital for optical systems, semiconductor products and space components. In all, Fadnavis is targeting investments of $200 billion in Davos – all from Indian companies. The state government says that it is wrong to label all investment as Indian as Indian investors are also bringing foreign partners and, thereby, some funds as well.
In the first six months of 2024-25, Maharashtra attracted more foreign investment than Karnataka, Gujarat, Delhi and Tamil Nadu combined. The foreign investment in the first six months totalled up to Rs1.13 lakh crore, which was 31 per cent of the total inflow during April-September. A report by Wealth 360 last year said that the state has emerged as the largest investment destination in terms of start-up investment in 2023-24. So, why the charade in Davos?
Clearly Vaishnaw appeared in charge of the show. He is to make a presentation on the Indian Semi-conductor Ecosystem to Arvind Krishna, chairman & CEO, IBM. India’s semi-conductor programme will take off when the first Made in India chip rolls out this year. The next phase will be equally important, where we can organise equipment manufacturers, material manufacturers and designers in India. For materials, from parts per million purity, we need to go to parts per billion purity levels. This requires huge transformative changes in the process. Can our industry achieve this? Are enough incentives being provided? These questions demand answers.