India's Davos strategy gets eastern tilt: Assam, J'khand widen playbook

In recent years, the governments of some of India’s more industrialised states, such as Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, have dispatched high-powered delegations, led by their respective chief ministers (CMs), to attend the World Economic Forum (WEF) summit in Davos, Switzerland.

- ARCHIS MOHAN

The pattern continues this year.At this year’s summit, however, the presence of the CMs of Assam —which has emerged as the fastest-growing state economy over the past five years — and J'khand, which plans to showcase its mineral wealth, promises to be an interesting aspect of the Centre’s push to highlight India’s eastern states. States such as Andhra Pradesh will also look for new markets for their seafood exports, which have suffered because of US tariffs.

According to officials in Ranchi, the delegation led by Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren will present an energy transition model during visits to Davos, and later to the UK. This will be Soren’s first visit to the WEF summit.

The Jharkhand CM’s secretariat said the delegation will highlight “opportunities across renewable energy deployment, grid modernisation, energy storage, clean fuels, and industrial decarbonisation”, rooted in the state’s philosophy of ‘growth in harmony with nature’.” Soren’s pitch will focus on the role his state could play in the clean-energy economy and critical minerals. “The Singhbhum geological belt holds some of the country’s richest reserves of iron ore, copper, coal, bauxite, uranium, limestone, and strategic rare minerals — materials that are now indispensable to renewable energy, electric mobility, advanced manufacturing, digital infrastructure, and defence technologies,” the CM’s secretariat said.