The Big Learnings from Davos
You come here for ‘speed dating’ with a high net worth. You come here to find ‘capitalist oppressors’ and ‘Commie conspirators’ in equal measure. You come here to see one per cent—or 0.1%— promising to make the world a fairer place... Over the years, the annual summit at Switzerland’s picturesque town has been described in many ways.
For me, the best description is an ‘ecstasy party of ideas’. It’s a place where ideas fly freely, unmindful of class, topic, age, hierarchy, or even feasibility. Here are 12 ideas that I picked in my walkthrough in Davos this year.
1 GOVERNMENTS BY LOTTERY
The idea of government by lottery now seems attractive, as political systems with elections around the world are seemingly failing. Elected governments can undermine the inner stuffing of democracy by hollowing out institutions. A timebound government by lottery may be a way to have successful governments without creating an elite and acrimonious environment. Being timebound, such governments will focus more on governance than on selfpreservation.
2 NEW FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT: RIGHT TO BRAIN PRIVACY
Your mind is your most private and most free space, where no power can intrude. Right? Perhaps not anymore. Most people are okay with wearable devices that track and record their activity. Call it the quantifiable self. Now, new devices are in the offing that can measure brain activity and provide a dashboard of brain metrics. These measure your brain for alertness and productivity. Employers can’t wait, but employees are concerned about these new wearables that can track their activity. Little wonder, they have already been termed “bossware”.
In this environment of increasing brainmachine interface, cognitive liberty could be under threat and should become a part of the human rights charter. This will ensure that biometrics is a force that liberates, not oppresses.
Neural signatures (a unique pattern of neural activity associated with a particular task, stimulus, or condition) will be the new passwords of the future.
3 STOP COUNTING THE CRISES
We are in a world of polycrisis, where we need solutions that are multilateral and multidisciplinary. Journalism can’t solve the world’s problems, but they cannot be solved without journalism for sure.
Many capitalists are cowards who find safe places to sit. But going forward, we need to practise conscious capitalism. Transition industries are the ones to watch out for as they transform from coal to solar, analog to digital, and humans to bots.
4 BEST ADVICE TO TRANSFORM YOUR COMPANY
The best way to make things happen in your company is to announce it to the world. That stops internal push and pull and gets teams working towards a common goal. While prioritising, choose things that are at the edge of the impossible. A farout and big goal but at the same time achievable. Tasks that have some movement on the todo list and can thus be motivating.
5 A NEW LEADER IN SIGHT
The world is seeing a new kind of leadership that is young, bold, female, and unapologetic about being human. I saw it in the session of Finland’s prime minister Sanna Marin. She
looked more like a rock star than a state leader. She tackled a wide range of topics with clarity and fluency. She rightly said, don’t focus on the personality, focus on the matter.
6 AI’S GOOD, BAD, UGLY
More than ever, we now need a common set of values so that AI can be programmed correctly. We are literally hardcoding our next reality.
AI allows us to do biology at digital speeds and has squeezed billions of hours of PhD into one year. This is a phenomenal leap for science. Tech regulations need to keep pace with this speed of change. Legislations that take years to formulate are misfits with technologies that change in minutes. We should make AI transparent, accountable and auditable. The first and last touch on AI must be human.
AI also allows the creation of widescale automated misinformation, including medical deep fakes and hacking of bio codes. Even without bad intent, AI is prone to hallucinations— making up things that don’t exist— which is why it needs to be watched and regulated carefully. We must move ahead with optimistic caution. It is a time to be curious and not judgmental, but also cautious.
There are three big players in AI—the Beijing AI institute, MSN and Open AI, Google and DeepMind. AI gives us the possibility to code a better reality. The worry is that China’s version of a better reality may be very different from that of the liberal world.
7 UKRAINE: A SUPERPOWER VERSUS ‘SUPERWILL’
You can have weapons and strategy, but the rarest of all things is the will to fight, and that’s what Ukrainians have shown.
Every war ends in a negotiation, not a complete win or loss. The faster we can negotiate, the more lives we can save. The question to ask is how much difference will it make if the line where the fighting stops is 100 km this way or that way versus how many people are dying daily? How many lives will be saved if we end the war fast?
8 RE-HUMANISE
A combination of Covid, smartphones and social media has led to an accelerated trend of isolation, especially among teens. Today’s youth are desperate for humans. We have to work on rehumanising our young. They need to know and be assured that they don’t always have to be their filtered selves in real life.
9 GREENWASH
Greenwash is when companies just tick the box for ESG (environmental, social, and governance) but it’s more hogwash than genuine effort. Greenwash is also a comeback by the nonconverted who believe the world’s being brainwashed by exaggerated perils of climate change.
10 ENGINEERS ARE THE NEW OIL OF INDIA
In its engineers, India has the world’s best natural resource for the next level of growth. What oil is to Saudi, engineers are to India, which is what we need to build our next ventures. Look no further than Silicon Valley where Indian engineers are driving change both as CEOs of top tech giants and as founders of startups.
On India’s growth, while the West is happy about not having too big a recession, India is unhappy about 6% growth! Perspectives matter from where you are sitting.
11 GURU TO THE WORLD
The mental health industry in the world is a few trillion dollars and India can have a huge guiding role to play by offering its ancient wisdom in yoga and meditation to heal the world. Another type of soft power!
12 LOOKING FOR DARK MATTER
In the pictures taken by the James Webb space telescope, it’s not the sparkly things that are important, but the dark matter in between that we need to learn the most about. ■
POST SCRIPT
Ministers at Davos: The Indian contingent comprised four ministers— Ashwini Vaishnaw, Smriti Irani, R.K. Singh and Mansukh Mandaviya. Also present for just a day was Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde who rushed back to Mumbai for an event. Raghav Chadha of AAP, looking sharp in his winter gear, had many engagements as a young global leader and played his part to the tee. Also KTR from Telangana, who is a Davos veteran in raising investments for his state.
Vaishnaw was so liked by the European leaders for his views on digital regulation that they wanted to exchange him with their ministers. Irani also came in for ample praise for making compelling points on subjects ranging from gender parity to economy.
Masala chai and hot samosas: The promenade of Davos was dominated by the India contingent. The generous India Lounge served roundtheclock masala chai and hot samosas. Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Maharashtra had state lounges. Tata Tea had a stall handing out free hot tea to those trudging through the snow. Never was a cutting chai more welcome!