The Hindu Business Line : World Economic Forum Annual Meeting

ANCIENT philosophers believed there was value in making knowledge difficult to acquire. First, the struggle would add to the value. Second, it would exclude the unworthy.

The World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, to be held between January 25 and 29, in Davos, Switzerland, is like that.

Everyone, including the world's richest man, Mr Bill Gates, and the US President, have a difficult journey to get to Davos.

Once there, they can't hop out to some other meeting. Zurich is three hours away; even a helicopter takes the best part of an hour. So, in Davos, the movers and shakers of the world are stuck with each other.

`The Creative Imperative', is the theme for this year's meeting. The emergence of China and India and the challenges and opportunities for the global community is one of the five sub-themes.

Mr Mukesh Ambani, Chairman, Reliance Industries Limited, will co-chair the annual meeting along with Mr Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Nestlé SA, Switzerland, Mr Martin Sorrell, Group Chief Executive, WPP Plc, UK, and Mr Lawrence H. Summers, President, Harvard University, US.

Germany's Chancellor, Ms Angela Merkel, will give the opening plenary speech. There will be 2,000 participants and close to 15,000 support staff and security. In the corporate world, you need to be a Chairman or a CEO to get an invite.

There will be a significant political presence: Presidents of a number of countries plus dozens of ministers. And celebrities too. You are guaranteed to bump into most of the people you want to see on the street, in the lobbies of the handful of hotels, even at the ski-lift on Sunday morning.

India will be represented by political and business leaders, youth leaders, opinion and news makers from the media, cultural and social circles.

Team India will comprise, Mr P. Chidambaram, Minister of Finance, Mr Kamal Nath, Minister of Commerce & Industry, Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, Ms Sheila Dikshit, Chief Minister of Delhi, Ms Vasundhara Raje, Chief Minister of Rajasthan and Mr Oommen Chandy, Chief Minister of Kerala, among others.

In their interaction with their global counterparts, they will share their vision of India 2020 and discuss India's development model that assures long-term prosperity based on consensus.

The aggressive "India Everywhere" initiative is completely steered by leaders from the industry.

The steering committee includes Mr Mukesh D. Ambani, Mr Rahul Bajaj, Mr Tarun Das, Mr Nandan Nilekani, Mr Yogesh C. Deveshwar.

Nikhil Meswani , Executive Director of Reliance Industries, India's largest private sector company, has been named a `Young Global Leader 2006' by the Forum of Young Global Leaders, an affiliate of the World Economic Forum.

Mr Meswani joins a community representing 90 countries that includes Mr Larry Page and Mr Sergey Brin, co-founders of Google; Mr Mikheil Saakashvili, President of Georgia. The 2006 class of Young Global Leaders includes over 60 business leaders, more than 30 government leaders, and dozens of scholars, members of the media and non-governmental organisations. They were chosen from among 3,500 candidates by a nominating committee headed by Queen Rania of Jordan.

Nearly everybody at the Davos conference centre will look somewhat familiar, known as they will be from television, print or online.

Social entrepreneurs — in charge of businesses that are not run for profit — will be there as well, as will be campaigners from international voluntary organisations.

And then there are, of course, the big bosses.

Mr Gates and Mr Michael Dell, other regulars — men and women in charge of companies such as Hewlett Packard, Nestle, Deutsche Bank, Shell, British Petroleum, Volkswagen, Vodafone, Caterpillar and Pfizer. What is it that draws them all to chilly Davos, where temperatures are predicted to plummet to sub-zero levels? Are they here to run the world and decide on war or peace, and how best to exploit developing countries? The truth, alas, is more banal.

Yes, sometimes deals are struck. Most of the time, though, the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, now in its 35th year, is just a talking shop. Admittedly, a very good one.

Where else are you likely to find the expert (make that experts) for nearly every subject discussed either on the podium or in the audience?

And then there is the networking. Only the top people have access to Davos. There are hardly any spin masters or personal assistants. And thus access to managers and politicians is immediate.

This year "every participant of the Annual Meeting — ranging from business leaders to political leaders, heads of NGOs, religious leaders, academics and journalists — will be asked to join the Forum blog.

The World Economic Forum was the first international organisation to set up a blog at the Annual Meeting last year and the upcoming one will see a significant development in the experiment.

There's a perfect Greek aphorism for what he describes as kalepa ta kala ("beautiful things are difficult").

I recall what happened a few years ago. I passed through intense security to get into the main Congress Hall.

Then, I walked in to the Plenary hall with the giant screen that we see in most of the press shots. The atmosphere was thick with anticipation.

As I walked in smiling, a man with a "goatee beard" shook my hand and modestly said, "I'm Peter Gabriel."

Of course, I didn't tell him that I had bought every piece of music he had ever released over the past 36 years. No photo. No autograph. That's Davos.

(The author is former Europe Director, CII, and lives in Cologne, Germany. Feedback may be sent to mohan.murti@t-online.de)