The opening day of the Annual Meeting for me started with attending economists discussing the economic scenario in 2006. China, oil crisis, U.S. economy with Alan Greenspan retiring, strength or weakness of the dollar were discussed in detail.

For me, the most interesting point was that China is going to grow the economy on a sustainable basis giving attention to improving energy efficiency and environment. China is the 4th largest economy in the world and how it grows is important to sustain the global economy as well as to the environment. There were not many predictions for 2006 – may be it is difficult to predict with lot of changes happening in the world currently. I was personally disappointed that Indian economy was not discussed – I guess the economy has to grow bigger to make it to this panel.

The day for me was about understanding how to participate and leverage the forum. There are many private events and in these you get to meet and network with your peers. The formal sessions were crowded with the evening plenary sessions getting completely filled with standing room only available even before the start of the session. Madam Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke very well and spoke from her heart about how she wants to Germany becoming the fastest growing economy in Europe.

Europe is seeing some of the coldest weather in the last several years and Davos is very cold with temperatures being below zero degree Celsius. Fortunately it is not snowing. The positive side is that the skiing is very good and many of the participants are enjoying the skiing.

Best Regards
Kris Gopalakrishnan
Chief Operating Officer
Infosys Technologies Ltd.