Davos 2026: Cabinet ministers, CMs and top CEOs lead India's power-packed delegation at WEF

India is set to mount one of its strongest representations at this year's World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, with four Union ministers, five chief ministers and more than 100 corporate leaders scheduled to attend the global gathering from January 18 to 24.

Union ministers expected in Davos include Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister for Railways, Information & Broadcasting, and Electronics & Information Technology, and Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Minister for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare and Rural Development.

They will be joined by K Ram Mohan Naidu, Minister for Civil Aviation, and Pralhad Joshi, who handles New & Renewable Energy, Consumer Affairs, and Food & Public Distribution.

Among the chief ministers attending are Devendra Fadnavis, N Chandrababu Naidu, Himanta Biswa Sarma, Mohan Yadav, and Revanth Reddy. While Reddy represents the Congress and Chandrababu Naidu heads the Telugu Desam Party, the remaining chief ministers are from the BJP.

Chandrababu Naidu will leave for the WEF today (January 18). For four days, from January 19, the chief minister is scheduled to meet a number of industrialists, attend one-on-one meetings and participate in several programmes at the WEF.

Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren will also visit Davos. This is his first visit to WEF. His government will present an energy transition model at the global platforms.

In addition, Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Harsh Rameshbhai Sanghavi and a senior delegation from Uttar Pradesh are also expected to take part. 

Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, who was also expected to visit Davos, cancelled his trip to the WEF, citing official engagements in New Delhi and Bengaluru. The Deputy CM has a series of meetings lined up with AICC functionaries regarding Assam assembly elections, his office said in a release on Saturday.

The Indian corporate presence will be led by some of the country's most influential business figures, including Reliance's Mukesh Ambani, Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran, Bajaj Finserv MD Sanjiv Bajaj, and Jubilant's Hari S Bhartia.

Other Indian business leaders expected in Davos include Amitabh Chaudhry, Nadir Godrej, Sajjan Jindal, Nikhil Kamath, Sunil Bharti Mittal, Nandan Nilekani, Salil Parekh, Rishad Premji, Prashant Ruia, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, and Sumant Sinha.

Senior government officials and public sector heads will also attend, including Amardeep Singh Bhatia, Indian Oil Chairman Arvinder Singh Sahney, GAIL Chairman Sandeep Kumar Gupta, SBI Chairman Challa Sreenivasulu Setty, NTPC Chairman Gurdeep Singh, and REC Chairman Jitendra Srivastava.

Former Union Minister Smriti Zubin Irani will also attend as founder and chairperson of the Alliance for Global Good: Gender Equity and Equality, an initiative launched in Davos in recent years.

The five-day meeting will host nearly 3,000 global leaders from close to 130 countries, including more than 60 heads of state and government. Global participants include Ajay Banga, Kristalina Georgieva, Christine Lagarde, Ursula von der Leyen, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and London Mayor Sadiq Khan.

Held under the theme 'a spirit of dialogue', the World Economic Forum said the meeting aims to provide an impartial platform for leaders to confront shared challenges and drive innovation shaping the future.

Discussions will centre on five priority areas: cooperation in a more contested world, unlocking new sources of growth, investing better in people, deploying innovation responsibly at scale, and building prosperity within planetary boundaries.