The Davos buzz has intensified as I thought it would. From Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor pointing out Kamal Nath to all the delegates in her opening speech to the fact that Kamal has been busy with meeting people ranging from Peter Mandelson to Lakshmi Mittal, the Indian delegation is busier than ever. My delegate badge has been in great use as well: I have attended almost a session every hour which in Davos is a lot of cerebral activity, especially when sessions are as far-ranging from stem cells to Depression to emerging markets.The opening day saw the full plenary preceded by a session on shifting power equations where panelists analysed the role that the CEO must play: should the CEO be a imperial CEO a benign one. The panel had many heavies like Muhtar Kent, the new president and chief operating officer of Coca Cola, Tom Stewart, editor of Harvard Business Review, Rakesh Khurana of Harvard Business School among others, but was terribly conducted by some journalist from BBC who had no idea of where he came from or one as to where he wished to travel. So, apart from that dolt, it was a great session and I was particularly impressed by the crisp comments that Muhtar made, especially when he talked about his own corporation's example where they had to work through differing cultures and other paradoxes. I made a point to the panel when I remarked that today's CEO is increasingly becoming a heady mix of Superman and Mother Teresa: he has to marry firmness with an almost evangelical zeal.I also attended the Deutsche Bank breakfast which was equally illuminating. They had the Blackstone chief who made some pertinent points on the issues of doing business in India, but the three scene-stealers were quite clearly Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Sunil Mittal and Anshu Jain of Deutsche Bank. I am amazed at the manner in which these gentlemen have conducted themselves and the passion and intelligence with which they talk about India. At a global platform as Davos is, it is critical for India to have such business ambassadors rather than some of the trash we have in truck-loads in our country. I agreed with Montek when he said the challenges of growth would need to manage the deficiencies that exist in India be it primary health, education or agriculture. Sunil, of course, talked about how he was and continues to be aided by the reformist approach that successive governments have adopted. I believe Anshu set the challenges before the panel in a manner that ensured high level of audience engagement and I can assure you, being engaged in Davos at 7.45 am when the temperature is minus 12 is not easy.The cincher of the day had to be the session on stem cells. It was fascinatingly moderated by Lord Kingston of Imperial College, London, and had world-renowned scientists unravel the world of stem cells before a non-scientific invited group. Linda Griffith and Tyler Jacks of MIT were impressive when they talked about the kinds of research (way beyond embryonic stem cell research) taking place in the world today. Legislation in the US has seriously limited the potential of research there but there needs to be a greater level of debate on this, only because of the scourge of diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. I have never enjoyed a session as much as I did this one.I am now off to play chess with the legendary Anatoly Karpov: if I win, you'll know tomorrow!The writer is managing partner, Counselage India
