Top Indian leaders like Mukesh Ambani, Sunil Mittal, Azim Premji to present India story at WEF Davos meet

NEW DELHI: Over 100 Indian business leaders, including Mukesh Ambani, Sunil Mittal, Azim Premji, Rahul Bajaj and Adi Godrej, will be heading for the Swiss resort of Davos for the annual meeting of World Economic Forum, taking place from January 25 amidst a challenging economic scenario.

The top brass of India Inc would also be joined by Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia.

The young leaders like Jyotiraditya Scindia and Sachin Pilot would be part of the Indian team, expected to discuss the Indian growth story at this global platform.

The five-day event, an annual congregation of the rich and powerful of the world for over four decades, will be officially declared open by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, while close to 40 heads of state or government from the across the world are expected to be present.

WEF, a Geneva-based non-profit organisation, is expecting a record of over 2,600 participants this year, including more than 1,600 business leaders from across the world.

The meeting, whose theme is 'The Great Transformation: Shaping New Models' this year, is taking place amidst a worsening European debt crisis, which has a bearing for emerging economies like India as well.

Ahead of the event, WEF Founder Chairman Klaus Schwab said that "capitalism, in its current form, no longer fits the world around us. We have failed to learn the lessons from the financial crisis of 2009."

"A global transformation is urgently needed and it must start with reinstating a global sense of social responsibility," Schwab said.

Citigroup chief Vikram Pandit is one of the six co-chairs of the WEF Annual Meeting 2012, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Unilever CEO Paul Polman and Royal Dutch Shell CEO Peter Voser.