The World Economic Forum, often known as the Davos Forum, has been a global platform for leaders from business, government, international organisations, civil society, and academia to collectively address crucial issues at the start of each year for more than 50 years.
This year the Davos Forum is being held from 17 to 21 January 2022, wherein a series of virtual sessions will take place. The forum had to be cancelled in 2021 due to the global pandemic.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will deliver the ‘State of the World’ special address at the World Economic Forum’s Davos Agenda today, 17th January 2022 at 8:30 PM IST via video conferencing.
Catch Prime Minister Modi’s remarks at Davos Forum 2022 here: https://youtu.be/L5Z71C2l0l0
“Davos Agenda 2022” will be the first global platform for key world leaders to share their visions for 2022. The event is being convened on the theme of “The State of the World.”
What is Davos Forum – the inception and significance?
The Forum is traditionally held in Davos, Switzerland, the highest town in Europe (1,560 meters). Political, business, cultural, and media leaders who want to be involved in the international agenda attend this yearly gathering.
Davos was founded in 1971 in Geneva, Switzerland, as a non-profit organisation that was “independent, unbiased, and not linked to special interests.” Klaus M. Schwab, a professor at the University of Geneva, initiated it after inviting 444 executives from European corporations to a corporate governance meeting in Davos’ convention centre.
The Davos Forum generates thousands of ideas, coming from leaders around the world who share thoughts and possible measures based on unique, specific and local experiences of individual nations or corporations.
Although not all of these ideas come to fruition, several have made significant progress, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement, signed by Canada, Mexico, and the United States, which was initially presented at a Davos informal gathering.
Davos Agenda 2022
The unprecedented circumstances surrounding this annual meeting, in regards to the ongoing pandemic, presented an imperative need to set clear objectives. Noting this fact, the WEF is emphasizing two aspects in particular:
1. The first and foremost priority is to accelerate the forum’s development and influence in addressing global concerns, particularly COVID and climate change, followed by solutions to overcome these challenges in education and global technology.
2. The second goal is to create a platform for collaboration to stimulate the production of new ideas and inventions by bringing together groups, projects, and individuals who are prepared to contribute.
Through live streaming of sessions, social media, and virtual connections, people across the globe will be able to watch and interact with the forum.
The 8 thematic priorities of the Davos Forum are; Global cooperation, economic rebalancing, society and equity, climate and nature, innovation and governance, industrial transformation, risks and resilience, and global health.
The present pandemic, in addition to exacerbated existing challenges like inequality and climate change, calls for a deep study and access world’s collective ability to achieve remarkable progress when science, technology and public and private investment act in coordination to respond to such global challenges.
Mapping India’s fast-track response to evolving global challenges
Now that we talk about the world’s collective ability at achieving remarkable progress in the light of present global challenges, the COVID19 pandemic being the first one of them, followed by Climate change, one needs to look at India’s response map of the past year at handling these issues.
India as the Pharmacy of world:
India has leapt into the front-row seat in the post-Covid world order due to its large scale implementation capabilities demonstrated in handling the pandemic while considering the welfare of all at home with Sabka Saath and abroad with Vaccine Maitri.
Till now the country has inoculated more than 158 crores of its population against the virus. About 70% of our adult population is fully vaccinated wherein more than 3 crore children have got their first dose. Additionally, precautionary doses, also called booster shots, are now being administered to frontline workers and vulnerable individuals above the age of 60 years.
India is considered to be a world leader in vaccine manufacturing, and Indian pharmaceutical companies supply more than 50% of the global demand for different vaccines needed for global immunization problems. As of 31 December 2021 India has supplied around 1154.173 lakh vaccines against COVID disease around the globe under its Vaccine Maitry initiative (Source: MEA).
In India, eight Covid-19 vaccines have been licenced for emergency use in the past year, namely Covishield and Covovax from the Serum Institute of India, Covaxin and Corbevax from Bharat Biotech, Russia’s Sputnik V, Moderna, Johnson and Johnson’s single-dose vaccination, Zydus Cadila’s ZyCoV-D, from Biological E. Out of these, three have been developed in India.
India towards a sustainable future:
2020 saw the launch of a new ‘Davos Manifesto’ with the single objective of building a more sustainable, inclusive world. Different countries around the world are addressing the issue in their capacities to build sustainable economies in order to neutralise the worst effects of climate change.
India had committed to achieving 40% of its installed electricity capacity from non-fossil energy sources by 2030 at COP 21, as part of its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).
Well, India is already leading ahead on this trend with 40.1% of the total installed electricity capacity of 392.01 GW.
The country has seen the highest growth in renewable energy capacity addition among all global economies over the last 7.5 years, with renewable energy capacity (including large hydro) increasing 1.97 times and solar energy increasing nearly 18 times.
In line with its fast track approach to build a sustainable economy, India has incorporated the private sector into the fold, which is powering the country’s renewable energy programme.
As per the REN21 Renewables 2020 Global Status Report, renewable energy programmes and projects in India attracted US$ 64.4 worth of investment between 2014 to 2019. A net of $11.2 billion was invested in 2019 alone. New business prospects have arisen, as well as a whole new business space.
As a source of capital, Indian enterprises have begun to look at global stock exchanges. And hence, the country is increasingly becoming a preferred location for renewable energy investment.
Between the years 2014-2015 till June 2021, the Indian ‘Non-Conventional Energy’ sector received roughly US$ 7.27 billion in FDI, according to the DPIIT’s Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) statistics Cell.
In the years 2020-21, India attracted FDI worth US$ 797.21 million!
As per India’s liberal foreign investment policy, Foreign investors can now form joint ventures with an Indian partner for financial and technical collaboration towards the development of renewable energy-based power production projects.
India’s response to the ongoing pandemic including its many policies to address other critical issues like climate change, inequality, etc., keep it on track to overcome these challenges and make the 2020s a Decisive Decade of Growth.
