From sartorial bests to sound bites: A look at the World Economic Summit from the sidelines

A stickler for fashion.

A stickler for fashion

Parmeshwar Godrej couldnt help but object to the shawls awkwardly draped over Montek at the Adda launch by Hari Bhartia. Besides correcting Bhartias sartorial sense,Godrej beckoned Montek and elegantly dressed him with the shawl. And the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission was at his sartorial best just in time for the television channels hankering to get the first quote from an Indian government functionary with ministerial rank.

The moral lessons

The answers for governance deficit lie somewhere else,says Swami Nikhilananda Saraswati,regional head at Chinmaya Mission,a panelist in one of the sessions at Davos. We are trying to find if there is a relationship between neuroscience and the moral make-up of a person. According to him,along with the stupendous economic growth,there seem to be a gradual withering away of the moral conscience of Indians,at large. Leaders reflect the public conscience to some extent,he says,quickly adding that there is clearly a deficit of moral leadership in the country. And this is a global issue,the Swami says pointing out that he is at Davos on the invitation of the World Economic Forum,not the CII.

Reverse engineering

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Talking about reverse engineering which Wipro has successfully managed to exploit in the medical equipment market,Azim Premji said its very important to get this high volume,low price business right. Global corporations have tried it in India,but have failed,he pointed out. Ford,he recalled,wanted to introduce in India a mid-end car from the US in the mid-1990s. The car was selling at $ 25,000 in the US. To bring prices to affordable levels in India,Ford,sitting in Detroit,decided to price it at $15,000,by cutting corners such as not providing for power windows at the rear. But,it didnt know that the rich employ drivers. So,here the chauffer had power windows and the owner,sitting behind,had to roll up windows physically, Premji said. No wonder,Fords entry strategy boomeranged.

Contrarian Chanda

ICICI Bank CEO,Chanda Kochhar,who is the Summit co-chair this year,has a contrarian view on the impact of rising interest rates on growth. I think,policy rates will go up further, she told The Indian Express,a day-after the RBI hiked repo and reverse repo rates by 25 basis points each. But Kochhar says further hike in interest rates will not hurt growth,if the RBI does it in a phased manner. If the RBI does not go for a spike (sharp increase) in policy rates,it will not hurt growth, she said.

Snow snarls

In Mumbai,Reliance Industriess Mukesh Ambani perhaps managed to beat traffic snarls. But he was stranded in Zurich and had to miss the opening session on employment here at Davos. Patchy weather did not allow his helicopter to take off,and by road,he would not have made it anyway.