WEF's Davos summit begins today, PM Modi to deliver special address

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the World Economic Forum's Davos Agenda virtual event on January 17, joining a host of other global leaders. According to WEF Agenda, the virtual plenaries will be aligned with the annual meeting objective of "orienting global leaders on the imperatives of the year ahead".

This year's theme is "The State of the World."

Several heads of state will address the event including Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Indonesian President Joko Widodo, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and EU Commission's chief Ursua von der Leyen. 

In addition, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva, special presidential envoy for the climate of the US John F Kerry, European central bank president Christine Lagarde, and WTO director-general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala are also expected to attend the event.

"Everyone hopes that in 2022, the Covid-19 pandemic, and the crises that accompanied it, will finally begin to recede, But major global challenges await us, from climate change to rebuilding trust and social cohesion.

To address them, leaders will need to adopt new models, look at the long term, renew cooperation and act systemically. The Davos Agenda 2022 is the starting point for the dialogue needed for global cooperation in 2022," said Klaus Schwab, Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum.

The summit will also bring together government and business leaders, international organisations, and civil society to share their outlooks, insights, and plans relating to the most urgent global issues such as climate change, social contracts, and vaccine equity.

The Davos Agenda 2022 will mark the launch of several WEF initiatives to accelerate net-zero emissions, the economic opportunity of nature-positive solutions, and cyber resilience.

Two virtual summits are expected in the online summit - one on Covid-19 and the second on technology cooperation in the fourth industrial revolution. There would be sessions on energy transition, scaling up climate innovation and Latin America outlook.

Other launches on a diverse range of critical topics will also take place between January 17 and 21, and these include strengthening the resilience of global value chains, building economies in fragile markets through humanitarian investing, bridging the vaccine manufacturing gap, and using data solutions to prepare for the next pandemic.

The WEF will host the event on its website and social media channels from January 17 to January 21. This is the second consecutive year that the forum has had to host the summit digitally due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It hopes to convene the 2022 annual meeting later this year.