Davos Diaries: Experiences of Cyrus Mistry, Ajay Piramal & Arun Jaitley at the WEF

Here's how the World Economic Forum 2015 in Davos was for eminent top bosses:

Mistry in driver's seat

Cyrus Mistry, the Tata Group boss, is used to steering the company and yet again found himself in the driver's seat at this year's World Economic Forum in Davos… quite literally.

When most of contingent from India Inc hired chauffeurs to ply them around the Swiss town, Mistry was seen driving an Audi with his team, including Madhu Kannan who is group head of business development at Tata Sons, who was in the back seat.

Conversation starters

The dinner hosted by CII was where all the movers and shakers of corporate India lined up. The Mittal brothers of Bharti (Sunil and Rajan), Hari Bhartiya of Jubiliant Group and Cyrus Mistry shared a table. Ajay Piramal with his wife Swati were graciously joined by State bank chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya.

Like father, like daughter

Ajay Piramal is one of oldest visiting members of the World Economic Forum at Davos. A regular for the past 40 years, Piramal also enjoys the skiing, the sweeping snow and the sub-zero temperature of the Alps.

One of the early young leaders of WEF, it was then pleasant for him to see his daughter Nandini keep the tradition. She's expected to make it to the list of young leaders representing the group in March this year.

An India Inc appetite

The Indian pavilion saw frenzied action on two occasions. When Finance Minister Arun Jaitley showed up, and when Chef Hemant Oberoi of Taj opened the menu. Taj and Oberoi have been catering at Davos for the past seven years.

And even though there was the usual Indian hits like Chicken Tikka, 2015 saw a demand for vegetarian food, with dhokla and chaat counters. This was besides the 10 dishes, four desserts and three salads that Oberoi and his seven-member team served for close to 2,000 people every day.

The pavilion even had PepsiCo head Indra Nooyi drop by for an idli and uttapam breakfast. Seems like the south Indian in Nooyi just gave in to temptation. Chef Oberoi also kept the dietary preferences of special guests in mind.

Like FM Jaitley, who was on a low calorie diet, sticking to just bhendi and dal. But they made sure that Jaitley still enjoyed the sugar-free strawberry chena.