Barring a few, such as Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu (74), Union Minister C R Patil (69) and Uttar Pradesh Finance Minister Suresh Khanna (71), most other ministers attending the WEF represent the next generation of India's politicians.
Over the years, younger Indian politicians, including chief ministers, Union and state ministers, have attended the World Economic Forum's annual summit in Davos, Switzerland, to burnish their business and investor-friendly credentials.
This year's annual summit is no different.
Barring a few, such as Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu (74), Union Minister C R Patil (69) and Uttar Pradesh Finance Minister Suresh Khanna (71), most other ministers attending the WEF represent the next generation of India's politicians.
Naidu was a trailblazer for Indian politicians at the WEF in the late 1990s.
In 1999, World Link, a magazine published by the WEF, included Naidu, who was then CM of undivided Andhra Pradesh, in its global 'dream cabinet', along with then British prime minister Tony Blair, then Iranian president Mohammed Khatami, among others.
Naidu, then in his youthful late 40s, with an image as his state's techno-savvy 'chief executive officer', used to be the toast of the WEF annual events at Davos.
Ever since, India's younger CMs, Union and state ministers have queued up to attend the event.
From Andhra Pradesh, apart from Naidu, his son Nara Lokesh, considered the heir to his political legacy, is leading a strong state government delegation.
Lokesh's visit to Davos has come amid calls from within the Telugu Desam Party that the 41 year old be made the state's deputy CM.
Lokesh last attended the WEF at Davos in an official capacity in 2019, which was also his first time.
Others attending WEF 2025 are Telangana CM Revanth Reddy, who is 55, Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis, who, at 54, had been at the WEF during his first stint as his state's CM (2014-2019), Kerala Industries Minister P Rajeev (57), his Tamil Nadu counterpart T R B Rajaa (48), Telangana's Information Technology Minister D Sridhar Babu (55) and UP's Nand Gopal Gupta Nandi (50).
Almost all Union ministers, barring Patil (69), attending the WEF are below 60, including Ashwini Vaishnaw (54), Chirag Paswan (42), Jayant Chaudhary (46), and Civil Aviation Minister K Ram Mohan Naidu (37).
Of the southern states, only Karnataka hasn't sent a delegation to Davos.
On Monday, Bharatiya Janata Party state President B Y Vijayendra criticised the ruling Congress government and CM Siddaramaiah for Karnataka's absence at the event.
He accused the government of not having a road map, urgency or attempt to reclaim the state's lost glory of being the "Startup Capital of India".
In a post on 'X', he said Karnataka lost the prestigious title to Maharashtra, but the government remains in a deep slumber when Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Telangana are pitching for global investment.
'Congress' priorities are clear: freebies over future, stagnation over innovation,' he alleged.
According to a PTI report from Davos, the Centre and states are sharing the two India pavilions, which are a few blocks away on its Promenade Street.
Left-ruled Kerala, Congress-ruled Telangana, and UP, which is ruled by the BJP, share space in the pavilion.
The second one has pavilions of Andhra Pradesh, which is ruled by the Telugu Desam Party-led coalition, National Development Alliance-ruled Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu, ruled by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.
Both pavilions will also host five Union /ministers at different times, while the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade and Invest India, the two agencies handling most of the country's presence here, are also present.
On Monday, CMs Naidu and Reddy met at Zurich airport.
Naidu and Lokesh also met India's envoy to Switzerland, Mrudul Kumar, where they sought his cooperation to help Andhra Pradesh get investment from Swiss pharmaceutical companies, such as Novartis, whose global CEO Vasant Narasimhan is a person of Indian origin, and Roche. Both have a strong presence in India.
Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff.com
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