As at Davos 2005, two Indian companies—Infosys and Reliance Industries—are among the mega corporates of the world that are chipping in, in a big way, to this year’s annual meet of the World Economic Forum.Infosys and Reliance are listed with names like Citigroup, Google, HP, JP Morgan Chase, Coca Cola, Nestle, PepsiCo and Pfizer. Interestingly, for all the talk about the emergence of Chinese companies like Haier and Lenovo, not a single Chinese company is a strategic partner.This time, RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani is a co-chair along with three others—Peter Brabeck Letmathe, CEO, Nestle; Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO, WPP, and now a frequent visitor to India; and Lawrence Summers, president, Harvard University. He is also the third Indian to have this honour. Last year, it was Narayana Murthy of Infosys.Ambani also speaks at the Big Debate, a brainstorming session on the five critical challenges identified for this year’s annual meet—the emergence of India and China, changing economic landscape, new mindsets and changing attitudes, creating future jobs and regional identities and struggles.Strategic partner companies shoulder a great deal of the responsibility for the annual meet. They also contribute, both in cash and kind — there are no definite numbers but last year it was said to be in the region of $100,000. It is bound to be more this year but no one is hazarding a guess.
