PM Modi to showcase India’s potential at World Economic Forum

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will showcase India’s investment potential when he attends the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos later this month.

India will showcase the business opportunities and the reforms that have been implemented in the last three and a half years at the forum which is to be held from January 23-26 with the theme ‘Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World’.

Modi will be the first Indian Prime Minister to attend the annual meeting of the forum since 1997. He will interact with the members of the International Business Council, consisting of 120 top chief executives of major transnational corporations across sectors.


“PM Modi will interact with top global business leaders, including leaders of major Fortune 500 companies,” said commerce and industry minister Suresh Prabhu on Tuesday. Finance minister Arun Jaitley, commerce and industry minister Suresh Prabhu, rail and coal minister Piyush Goyal, petroleum and natural gas minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu will be part of the delegation to Davos.

The ministers will represent India in around 25 sessions and elaborate on the Prime Minister's vision of transforming the nation into ‘New India’ by 2022.

Reforms related to foreign direct investment, Goods and Services Tax, the recent 30 rank jump in ease of doing business, insolvency and bankruptcy code will be discussed. “Even if domestic savings increase, we need foreign investment. We should also focus on outbound investment,” Prabhu added.

An informal gathering of the World Trade Organization will also be held at the forum. Prabhu added that the government is preparing a “proper strategy” to increase the share of manufacturing to $1 trillion when India’s economy touches $5 trillion.