The buzz in Davos is unmistakable. India is everywhere. On buses, at bars all over Davos, on hoardings and banners all over the venue and in the village itself. But like all branding exercises, it’s tough to measure the success of Confederation of Indian Industries’ (CII) India Everywhere campaign in concrete terms.Sure there is Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf’s somewhat wistful comment that Pakistan needs to have a stronger presence at the WEF. There are crowds milling outside rooms where India-related sessions are held and so on. But nothing more concrete.Thursday evening changed all that. Reason? The traditional annual reception hosted by the CII during the WEF. Whether it was because this year’s event coincided with India’s Republic Day and that gave it an extra vim or not, the turnout, according to old-timers, was much higher than at previous receptions. According to CII insiders, if one were to go by the number of RSVPs received, almost 50 per cent higher.So it was that the Central Sports Hotel, the venue of the reception, saw corporates, academics, ambassadors and politicians rub shoulders with each other with the easy informality that seems to be a hallmark of Davos. On the surface, it was just another reception with great Indian food and an attention to detail (even the flower arrangements had a few peacock feathers to give them an India-touch!) that’s rare.But beneath that informality, serious business was going on. Networks were being established/renewed and business cards exchanged, because as Tarun Khanna, Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, put it, at the end of the day, investment decisions are about gut feel.Financials matter, but ultimately, what matters is how many of your peers are making their way to India. If that smacks of herd mentality seen only in the capital market, don’t be surprised. Thursday’s event, in the eyes of the much-respected management guru, was nothing but the capital market in play.
