Each year, the world’s movers and shakers — business leaders, politicians, journalists and others — meet in Davos, Switzerland for the meeting of the World Economic Forum. In past years, this has been a relatively pale assemblage of melanin deficient men and women, but no longer. India has arrived on the world stage, and like any debutante, wants to throw a coming out party to show it. Said Infosys CEO Nandan Nilekani, the head of a $3 million public-private promotional campaign called “India Everywhere,”
“The Indian economy was doing well. We were becoming the world’s back office. Our democracy is robust, yoga is globalized, Bombay Dreams ran on Broadway, Bollywood is hot, and spirituality is all the rage. So why aren’t we everywhere at Davos?” [Link]
Like any good promoter, the Indians know the importance of the goodie bag, although ironically they’re using old India to sell new India:
Waiting for visitors at their hotel rooms will be gifts from India — a pashmina shawl, an Apple iPod loaded with Indian pop and classical music, a piece of traditional art, some ayurvedic oils — along with a CD packed with all sorts of economic information about the country. [Link]
They’re also throwing a big party at the end of the conference. I wonder if they can get Elizabeth Hurley to show up in a sari?
Our democracy is robust, yoga is globalized, Bombay Dreams ran on Broadway, Bollywood is hot, and spirituality is all the rage. So why aren’t we everywhere at Davos?A highlight of the weeklong brain fest will be the gala soiree on Saturday, the conference’s closing evening. That’s when the contemporary and hip allure of the new India will be showcased in all its boisterous, vibrant glory. There will be dances by Bollywood choreographer Shaimak Davar, music by DJ-of-the-moment Aqueel, and songs by oldie-goldie Usha Uthup. Don’t forget to pack your Nehru jackets and satin saris, folks — Indians dress to the nines, and the style and flash of the country’s new designers will be on display. [Link]
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While some people are calling for more modesty, the Indian executives plan to be as modest here as they are when planning a wedding:
Some see a sign of hubris in India’s new swagger. How can the country rightfully lay claim to the status of an emerging superpower when it still faces so many glaring problems, from massive poverty to deficient infrastructure to a huge public-sector deficit? What happens if the boom turns to a bust overnight, as has happened in places like Russia and Brazil?[Infosys CEO] Nilekani brushes aside such concerns: “Yes, it could be an ego trip for India,” he says, “but you gotta be heard!” [Link]
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p> It’s not all cultural propaganda, either. There will be a solid amount of education and economic information available as well:
Certainly, attendees at this year’s World Economic Forum can expect to see something of India everywhere, every day. The country has been designated as one of summit’s eight subthemes. Prominent Indian businessman Mukesh Ambani will co-chair the event, along with Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, chairman of Nestle.
Indian speakers will be featured in 60 of the conference’s 300 sessions. To put its best face forward, India has assembled a 115-strong delegation. That’s nearly four times the size of the Indian contingent at Davos in 2005 and enormous compared to China’s 30 delegates. The lineup this year will include India’s Finance and Commerce Ministers; the rulers of such states as Rajasthan and Kerala, which have become magnets for foreign investment; and some of the country’s most succesful businesspeople, including telecom king Sunil Mittal and financier K.V. Kamat.
India’s intellectuals and “beautiful people” will claim their space, too: Nobel prize-winning economist Amartya Sen will discuss his new book, The Argumentative Indian. Also in attendance will be Pheroza Godrej, art historian, environmentalist, and author of A Zoroastrian Tapestry: Art, Religion and Culture, as well as actress and activist Shabana Azmi. The socialite wives like Parmeshwar Godrej will arrive, as usual, with their minks trailing behind them. Most Indians will converge on the Central Sporthotel in Davos Platz, where they’ll take over the bar, as in years past, and sing late into the night. [Link]
Next stop, the Trilateral Commission! [Via PSDBlog]
At last, we’re learning! Image is everything 🙂 Tho I hope to God the dumbass politicians back in India don’t get too much in the way of the reform process.
Hopefully Vandana Shiva and Arundhati Roy will reprezent, outside with the protestors.
Hopefully Vandana Shiva and Arundhati Roy will reprezent, outside with the protestors
What would Arundhati Roy be doing at Davos? Who exactly is Vandana Shiva?
(Note: I am not being facetious. I am not well informed about her politics. I know she was protesting a dam in India and then also was against Modi in Gujarat. Thats all I know)
Vandana Shiva wrote Stolen Harvest, a scathing critique of globalized agriculture, and has spoken at anti-WTO shadow conferences. Arundhati Roy has spoken out against corporate globalization.
I’m just sayin’, there are Indian intellectuals on the other side of the WEF, too.
Thanks Nina. I will check out Stolen Harvest.
I very much doubt them to do it in this period of cold wave expected to hit W.Europe this week. Alas, these 5* activists (esp. Ms. roy) will never do it. But then Roy cannot represent India/Indians since she does not belong to any country and is a self-proclaimed slave of the American Empire! Perhaps, they’ll join their commie bretheren in Venezuela for WSF where the weather is warm at this moment.
OT alert: the original draft for the brochure reads: washed-up has-been bollywood wannabe-turned-choreographer, Shiamak Davar has been reduced to teaching dance lessons at corporate parties… /end sarcasm & disdain
That guy is the biggest self-stroker in the bolly-dance community. He’s innovated nothing, but made his name by taking a few jazz and hip-hop classes at BDC and Pineapple and going back to India to teach kids and housewives how to groove on the 2 and 4. His singing career didn’t quite work out (cough) and his so-called visionary choreography seems to have needed lasik after Taal and Dil To Paagal Hai. He’s a one-trick pony, and the masturbatory cameo in “Naach Balliye” from Bunty Aur Babli was nauseating and cringeworthy.
tell it like it is, DD! now that’s what i call arts criticism!
🙂
They misspelled Shiamak’s first name.
nina, perhaps you could help me understand, why arudhati roy [self proclaimed citizen of the world ] is silent on the kalabagh dam issue? why go to davos when you can make a difference in your own backyard? i won’t ask you about her silence on the baluchistan strife.
What are Vasundhara Raje and Oomen Chandy doing there? for that matter Shabana Aazmi. (isn’t she supposed to be the communist poster girl by way of her being wife of Javed Akhtar who is regularly labeled as one or her anti slum-demolition stance?) I am glad that finally India is coming up on the world stage, but I think there was scope for showcasing something more. This just feels like recycled stuff..ayurvedic oils, dances – Shiamak Davar, OMG – bollywood, etc. Sounds like an upgraded Manikchand filmfare awards show. Frankly, I’d like to see someone showcasing the inner trekking ghats of Karnataka. The lush beauty of Konkan coast. The innumerable forts in ruins spread all over. I’d like someone to market the extensive railway network. The vast pool of unemployed graduates. It’s pretty much given the audience in Davos would be the hi-flying sorts, who’d have already heard/experienced the standard touristy fare that we are dishing out. Why not utilise the opportunity to introduce some new things?
AlMuja, Arundhati has written extensively against nukes, riots, dams, bombs, “war on terrorism” shangbedang etc.. And you probably know about the furore in Australia where she donated the entire prize money to some organization working for aborigines and just recently refused to accept the Sahitya akademi award in India etc.
IMO she has a tendency to mix some valid criticism with overgeneralized antiMNC rhetoric. You can start with the book, Algebra of Infinite Justice, a collection of all her published political writings or this post by Amardeep (and my comments), which pretty much sums up what I think about her.
Sure! What else do you expect when our knowledge of Indian cultural tradition is confined to IIC discussions and Discovery of India. Arundati Roy and Vandana Shiva should figure out how the US grows enough food to feed all its people with lots more to spare when its farm sector employs just over 1% of the population and India with over 0.5 billion people in agriculture can’t still feed all its people.
Here it comes. Ok, so what’s wrong a little less self-pity and a little bit of hardcore marketing here? I think there’s enough Western media attention on what’s wrong with India. It’s absolutely great that someone’s showcasing what’s positive.
Suhail, I do agree that they could promote a few other interesting things besides the traditional ‘Taj Mahal/Yoga” – type stuff.
Yeah…sending a few actresses across is a little ditsy. Not to mention Parmeshwar Godrej who is more concerned about where she’ll buy her next pair of shoes from than anything even remotely related to the Indian economy — i.e. apart from upsetting the national trade balance by buying tons of Manolo Blahniks each year. If they had to send a 155 strong delegation, maybe they’d like to include a few more young entreprenuers.
Actually, India does grow sufficient food to feed its population and have lots left over. The problem is affordability/distribution to the poor and the wastage/corruption in the “Public” distribution system – a byzantine labyrinth of warehouses, ration cards and designated shops run by a corrupt and inefficient bureaucracy. This leads to a bizarre situaiton where guvmint granaries are overflowing and a lot of their inventory is eaten by rats while those who are too poor to buy food – and to whom the PDS is meant to help – never get access to it.
India needs to free up its internal agriculture market pronto and remove guvmint monopoly.
(Too lazy to quote research and supporting data – just Google it. I think Amartya Sen has talked about this too, if I am not mistaken).
There’s a job for Arundati and Vandana. The less people in agriculture the better for our economy. If modern agribusiness is going to make food cheaper and more widely available all over India I don’t care about who runs that business. It worked with milk thanks to Dr.Kurien, hope we see the same with pulses and vegetables. Arundati and Vandana aren’t a part of the solution so they are…
To the contrary Desidude, given her [Parmeshwar’s] stake in the Godrej empire, she has every reason to champion and sell India vigourosly.
Well, they are both commies, so it’s not too hard to guess … :-). Actually, to tell you the truth, I do find that Vandana articulates some interesting and valid viewpoints once you peel off her lefty rhetoric. Her advocacy of Indian farmers’s interests is certainly a good thing, although I don’t agree with many of the means she advocates to help them. From Arundhati Roy, on the other hand, I’ve hardly ever read anything that rises above the lvel of verbal diarrhea. I read her book “The Algebra of Infinite Justice” with the same morbid curiosity and fascination as a car wreck. Too much over-the-top non-sensical rhetoric for my taste, but as a literary car wreck, it’s quite entertaining in a twisted sense especially for right-wingers like me.
Vandana is a square root type she has a PhD in Physics so you could argue with her (but kooky
‘economists’in India are another thing). Arundati is an overgrown high school ‘composition’ writer (if you went to Grade/Hi school in India in the ’70s you know what that means) and never lets facts come in the way of her assertions. A genuine anti-Dam-wallah like Ram Guha (who incidentally is market friendly) will have nothing to do with her. Arundati may be a great friend of the Commies these days but how many people know that she parodied EMS Namboodiripad in the God of Small Things?She is not an executive or board member. She has about as much say in the Godrej empire as Paris Hilton has in the Hilton empire. Wait, at least Paris Hilton has an independent career going for her.
Desidude, While Parmeshwar [quite an all encompassing name, btw] may not take part in the day to day activities of the company. She still has a huge [read – money for manolo blahniks, a palatial apartment on NYC’c fifth ave, spending money etc, etc]interest in the company’s future. And since the future of the company is largely dependent on the growing power of the Indian consumer….you get my drift.
p.s. i went to grad school with her son and had a couple of very revealing discussions with parmeshwar – beleive it or not, her thoughts on indian security and economics were on par with any redblooded desi neo-con
shiamak davar is the best thing bollywood has. He has been offered so many things and doesnt accept much. He is truly a professional.
breaking news… “World Economic Forum honors Shabana Azmi..” pls, respect for a beautiful person..
http://sify.com/movies/bollywood/fullstory.php?id=14129543
how can u say such things abt shiamak! i think he truly ROCKS!! he is so much more than jus a gud dancer n singer and performer….he is an amazin person and u wud kno that if u have a chance 2 get 2 kno him!!feel bad 4 u desi dancer….
u guys r freaks. i go for shiamak’s dance classes n seriosly he has made me impreove from head to toe, its no joke. he always makes ud do work-outs at the beginning of classes n now i can confidently say that i have become more flexible n a better dance. his stuff realyl works. u go shiamak! “have feet will dance!”