Switzerland’s Davos 2024: World Economic Forum attendees find the WeLead Lounge, a repurposed storefront showcasing India’s female leadership and talent, along the Davos Promenade. The India Engagement Center is another location highlighting India’s development narrative, digital infrastructure, and developing startup scene.

Indian giants in consulting and technology At the forum, Wipro, Infosys, Tata, and HCLTech are well-represented to showcase the country’s proficiency in vital technologies. One of them is artificial intelligence, a subject that is currently gaining a lot of attention.

In front of some of the wealthiest and most influential individuals on the planet, India is promoting its expanding prowess as an innovative nation and a global centre for business.

“India’s footprint is undoubtedly substantial — it possesses some of the most coveted locations on the main promenade for technology companies,” Foreign Policy editor-in-chief and former head of the CNN India bureau Ravi Agrawal stated to CNBC during the Davos conference. India’s comparatively quick growth is a clear opportunity for investors in Davos searching for bright spots as China’s economy slows down.

China’s GDP grew 5.2% in the previous year, up from 3% in 2022 but down from 8.1% in the year before. India’s GDP shrank to 7.2% in the most recent fiscal year from slightly over 9% in the previous one. India has been making more of an effort to position itself as a more powerful player in business and technology globally. 

What are the numerous challenges that India faces? 

According to data from the World Bank, more people migrate out of India than into it most years. Net migration exceeded 300,000 in 2021. Meanwhile, pressured by high U.S. interest rates and volatile oil prices, the rupee has severely declined relative to the dollar.

The International Trade Administration lists “price sensitivity” among consumers and businesses as one of the main risks associated with conducting business in India.

“As always, the question is whether India can genuinely facilitate business there and whether domestic consumers there can spend enough to justify sustained foreign investment”

– Agrawal stated

Davos 2024: A significant year for India

In other respects, this will be a landmark year for India. A general election is scheduled for April or May, with Modi running for reelection.

Significant American tech firms like Alphabet, Meta, and Amazon have placed substantial bets on India during Modi’s presidency. In 2014, Amazon made $2 billion in investments in the nation; in 2016, the company earned $3 billion more. Flipkart was an online retailer that Walmart purchased for $16 billion in 2018.

2020 saw Meta invest $5.7 billion in Jio, the Reliance Industries digital division under Ambani. Google then invested $4.5 billion in the business. With the U.S. spearheading an effort to isolate the second-largest economy in the world, especially about access to critical technology, China has been facing increasing difficulties on the global scene as India has grown.

Beijing has been unable to import some of the most cutting-edge chips from American companies like AMD, Intel, and Nvidia for months. President and founder of Eurasia Group Ian Bremmer told CNBC that India has an excellent chance to grow more robust because it is a democracy.

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“India has a stable government and a well-liked leader, which is a plus,” Bremmer stated. “There will be a free, fair, and uncontroversial election soon. And they are increasing. He said he could see states in the United States adopting a similar strategy.

“It’s not inconceivable to me that individual U.S. states would decide to do the same thing at Davos in five years,” he remarked. If Texas had a shop in Davos this year, they would be soaking up renewable energy and fossil fuels. And, to be honest, California would too.