Davos day 3: Where global power games meet India's Rs 14.5 lakh crore moment DG Sukumaar |
From Switzerland’s snowy peaks, a story unfolding: How India is positioning itself in a world where empires recalculate, and dealmakers compete for the future.
The coffee at Davos tastes the same, but everything else has shifted. On Day 3 of the World Economic Forum, as President Trump takes the stage with Greenland acquisition threats still hanging in the air and President Macron walks around muttering about 200% tariffs on French wine, Maharashtra’s Devendra Fadnavis is casually signing the biggest single-day investment commitment in Indian state history. ₹14.5 lakh crore. In one day. While the world’s superpowers argue about tariffs and territorial expansion. You have to appreciate the irony.
The Trump Effect Nobody Saw Coming
Trump arrived at Davos like a storm arriving at a corporate seminar. He didn’t come to listen. He came to talk. And what he said will shape global commerce for years.
Greenland? “I won’t use force,” he declared, which in Trump-speak means everything except eliminating the possibility. Switzerland’s tariff was hiked to 30 percent because the Swiss president “rubbed me the wrong way”. He signaled that he’s building a nuclear power plant every three weeks. He wants to double American energy capacity. And his energy secretary? Already gone back to Washington to make it happen.
This isn’t just bombast. This is the blueprint for his second term: American dominance through economic pressure, infrastructure acceleration, and unilateral deal-making. The traditional global trading system, the one that has existed since the 1990s, just died on a Swiss mountain in front of 2,700 business and political leaders.
Macron’s Last Stand
Emmanuel Macron stood up and did what few do anymore: he told Trump he’s wrong.
Not diplomatically wrong. Not procedurally wrong. Fundamentally, ideologically wrong. Europe, Macron argued, isn’t going to roll over. He called out the “competition from the United........