The World Economic Forum (WEF) attracted the customary economic and political heavy-weights to its annual meeting at Davos this year but India seemed missing in action.
Back in 2006, on a high from its 8 per cent growth figures, India had swaggered into the WEF with an extravagant ‘India Everywhere’ campaign.
“There were few places one could go, on this first day of the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting here, without seeing, hearing, drinking, or tasting something Indian. The organisers call the campaign ‘India Everywhere’ and they appear to mean it literally,” the New York Times had remarked at the time and it was obvious India had made the world sit up and take notice of its mega potential as a global player.
But fast-forward eight years and we seem to have come to ‘India Nowhere’.
These are uncertain times and, at least, the democratic world in recession would expect aspiring India to raise its game and take the lead as a key driver of economic growth. But instead of seizing that opportunity to make a mark, Indian finance minister P. Chidambaram’s speech was a far cry from any such lofty ambitions and simply tinkered on the edges, peppered with typical political speak.
He was handed one of the biggest stages in the world’s political and business calendar and he failed to strike a definitive note of confidence about what India can achieve globally in the coming years.
“The despondency that was there a year ago has lifted,” he claimed. Not the most resounding thumbs-up from a country supposedly on a fast-track to hitting double-digit growth figures.
Compare those words with the likes of Japanese premier Shinzo Abe, who has given birth to a whole new word for the business lexicon with ‘Abenomics’.
“It is not twilight but a new dawn that is breaking over Japan. I am willing to act like a drill-bit strong enough to break vested interests. Over the next two years, no vested interests will remain immune from my drill,” he declared during his address at the Swiss ski resort this week.
Yes, these are mere words, but on a stage like the WEF it is words that act like powerful tools and it is up to each country to grab those tools to polish up its brand and image. Indeed, BJP Prime Ministerial aspirant Narendra Modi, though not attending the WEF, clearly had his eyes on the world stage last Sunday by declaring his global vision for a quality global “Brand India”.
But India’s lame-duck representative at the WEF this time chose to promise very little, so it is expected to deliver nothing. Is that really the ‘India Nowhere’ we have come to in 2014?
