Davos 2024: Key Takeaways From Day 2 Of The WEF
Day 2 was marked by conviction around the depth of the markets and policy in India, policy continuity benefits for India and some optimism around world growth in 2024.
If we saw PwC's Global CEO Survey show confidence of CEOs for 2024, Peter Voser, the Global Chairman of ABB, was the amplification of this survey. Voser was clear that 2024 was a year of two halves, with some growth challenges in the first half but a stronger second half. He stated that his view stems from the fact that regions like the US, parts of Asean, including India, look strong for now, and believed that some parts of Europe and China could come back on the growth path in the second half.
Three interesting insights from him:
He played down the theory of corporations being ready for AI. He believed people are far from ready, and it will be some time before the world is a lot more confident about the disruption or the positivity of AI.
He, much like PwC's Bob Moritz, spoke about how a large portion of CEOs have never seen a higher interest rate regime, and for them to traverse through this new era might be a factor to watch in 2024 and beyond. Pick and choose your investments, I guess.
He spoke about how automation would help companies reduce cost, and how larger companies like ABB and others, with their ability to invest in understanding AI and managing impact better, might be better placed over the course of the decade versus others.
We had two market conversations, more from a perspective of what they are hearing at Davos.
Vis Raghavan, EMEA CEO and Global Head of Investment Banking at JP Morgan, seemed constructive about the commentary that he hears from clients about India. He seemed certain that it's India's moment to lose if indeed it happens. The Jefferies duo of Aashish Agarwal and Mahesh Nandurkar spoke about the tremendous number of bilateral meetings lined up by them in Davos for conglomerates and states, with likely positive outcomes in many of them. Also, some very unique MoUs are being signed by various states present here — Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and more. Maharashtra, in particular, is signing a deal on food processing, which is a large one in number with a UAE-based firm and also with the Swiss Chamber. I will be speaking with the Tamil Nadu team and with the Telangana chief minister today to get a sense of investments in their states.
There was one off-the-record feedback on policy, which some people argue is still not 100% secure and is subject to some variations and changes, which don't augur well. But largely, we hear multiple people talk about how the government is listening to things that companies have to say, and implementation is also a real thing now. Also, NDTV Profit met some Indian youngsters who saw great promise in what the capital markets and the private markets hold in store in India, which led to these people to spend their own money and come over to Davos to experience what a truly global summit could look like. It will be interesting to see if India can host a global summit, considering that India and Middle East currently dominate a global summit in harsh weather anyways. As we speak, there is a World Government Summit being organised in February in the UAE as well.
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