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India Economic Summit: Thin attendance was more than obvious

BS Bureaux

Political correctness in statements, thin attendance and the omnipresent N R Narayana Murthy, chairman and chief executive of Infosys, marked the 17th India Economic Summit organised jointly by the World Economic Forum and the Confederation of Indian Industry.

The proceedings started before the sun could break out at eight in the morning at the Taj Palace Hotel. Narayana Murthy was at his evangelical best in the early morning session fielding questions ranging from forecasting models to the hundreds of Infy millionaires. He fielded questions deftly from the audience including Ashwin Dani of Asian Paints, Arun Maira of Boston Consulting Group and Rajeev Karwal of Philips.

But there was a long day ahead of him. Hounded by media persons and sought by corporate bigwigs, Murthy was certainly very busy, and at times it seemed he was all over the venue.

Klaus Schwab, the founder & president of WEF, was a picture of political correctness. Prodded by journalists to comment on the growth projected by WEF for India this year, he declined to comment. "I am not an economist," he told reporters. Perhaps he did not want to cause the heartburns former WEF managing director Claude Smadja caused in the past by his frank assessment of the economy.

It was Sebi chairman D R Mehta who perhaps made the most of the WEF platform by pushing hard for more teeth to Sebi. With just three months due for his retirement, Mehta was in a buoyant mood and gave all his time to speak to the media. In fact, he exceeded his time limit well beyond 10 minutes to dwell into the correctness of all his decisions.

Dematerialisation, introduction of rolling settlement and derivatives have been at the right time, he maintained. Rolling settlement is not a panacea for the ills of price manipulation, he said.

Though corporate bigwigs like Nestle India chairman Carlo Donati, Coca-Cola India head honcho Alex Von Behr, Jet Airways chairman Naresh Goyal and summit regular Rahul Bajaj did put in an appearance, most participants did comment on the thin attendance. "Don't expect anything great," a speaker at one of the sessions told Business Standard.

The brighter side: There was ample parking space available at the venue. Representatives from the media, of course, had turned up in large numbers, though certain chambers were kept out of bounds for prying journalists.

By the end of the day, some concerned CII officials were enquiring about the coming annual general meeting of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry. After hearing the list of the guests, one of them remarked that it didn't sound very great.

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