Uttar Pradesh Secures ~ $32 Billion at Davos with 31 Global MoUs

The Uttar Pradesh government announced that it signed 31 MoUs worth over ₹2.92 lakh crore at the 56th Annual World Economic Forum in Davos (Jan 19–23, 2026), securing major investments in AI, renewable energy, manufacturing, and data centers. This positions UP as a rising hub for global capital and jobs.

Key Highlights from Davos 2026

• Total Investment Secured: Over ₹2.92 lakh crore (~USD 31. 9 billion).
• Number of MoUs: 31 agreements signed.
• Participating Companies: More than 55 global firms engaged with UP’s delegation.
• Delegation Leader: Finance Minister Suresh Kumar Khanna led the UP team.

Sectors Attracting Investment

• Artificial Intelligence (AI): Focus on innovation hubs and applied AI solutions.
• Renewable Energy: Large-scale solar and wind projects to support India’s green transition.
• Data Centers: Infrastructure to support digital economy and cloud services.
• Manufacturing: Expansion in electronics, automotive, and industrial goods.

Implementation Strategy

• Single Window Team: UP will establish a dedicated facilitation unit to ensure smooth execution of MoUs.
• Job Creation: The agreements are expected to generate thousands of new jobs across sectors.
• Trillion-Dollar Economy Goal: These investments align with UP’s ambition to become a trillion-dollar economy in the coming years.

Comparative Context

State/Region	Recent Global Investment Highlights	Scale
Uttar Pradesh (2026)	31 MoUs, ₹2.92 lakh crore at WEF Davos	Very High
Maharashtra (2025)	MoUs worth ₹1.5 lakh crore at domestic investor summit	High
Tamil Nadu (2025)	₹1.2 lakh crore commitments in renewable energy	Moderate

Risks & Challenges

• Execution Gap: Not all MoUs translate into actual projects; monitoring is crucial.
• Infrastructure Readiness: Power, logistics, and land acquisition need rapid upgrades.
• Global Market Volatility: Currency fluctuations and geopolitical risks could affect inflows.
• Policy Continuity: Sustained investor confidence depends on consistent governance and regulatory clarity.

Actionable Takeaway

• Uttar Pradesh is positioning itself as a major investment destination in India, especially in AI, renewable energy, and digital infrastructure.
• The government’s single-window system could reduce bureaucratic hurdles, but stakeholders should track implementation progress closely to assess real opportunities.

Maharashtra Gets Major Economic Boost as CIDCO Signs Landmark MoUs at World Economic Forum, DAVOS

Historic International Educity Launches in Navi Mumbai, Set to Revolutionize Education

In a ground-breaking move, CIDCO (City And Industrial Development Corporation Of Maharashtra Ltd) has signed four landmark Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, under the visionary leadership of Hon'ble CM, Shri. Devendra Fadnavis, and guidance of the Honourable Deputy Chief Minister & Urban Development Minister, Shri. Eknath Shinde, giving a major boost to Maharashtra's economy. Shri. Vijay Singhal, IAS, Vice Chairman & Managing Director, CIDCO, played a pivotal role in facilitating these partnerships.

CIDCO signs four landmark MoUs at WEF 2025, Davos, under the leadership of CM Devendra Fadnavis, Dy CM & Urban Dev. Minister Eknath Shinde, and the pivotal role played by Shri. Vijay Singhal, IAS, VC & MD, CIDCO (Source: CMO Maharashtra Facebook)

Two of these significant MoUs were signed with Eruditus and BookMyShow, creating history in the development of Navi Mumbai. The MoU with Erulearning Solutions Private Limited (Eruditus) is signed for a proposed investment of $2.4 to $3 billion over 10 years, creating 20,000 direct employment opportunities. Meanwhile, the MoU with BookMyShow involves an investment of $204 million to develop an outdoor entertainment arena in Maharashtra, creating 500 job opportunities in the state.

Global Education Hub: Navi Mumbai's International Educity to Attract Students and Faculty from Worldwide

CIDCO has launched the first-ever International Educity in Navi Mumbai, bringing together 8-10 esteemed foreign universities from around the world. CIDCO played a pivotal role in making this initiative a global benchmark. The International Educity in Navi Mumbai is poised to become a global learning hub, offering students from around the world the opportunity to learn from renowned international faculty.

For its commitment to creating a world-class educational hub, CIDCO has identified a prime location for this project, situated within a 5 km radius of the forthcoming Navi Mumbai International Airport. This ambitious initiative aims to create a vibrant academic community, fostering cross-cultural exchange and collaboration among students and educators from diverse backgrounds.

With its focus on innovation, accessibility, and community engagement, this Educity is set to redefine the education landscape in India. In a pioneering initiative, Navi Mumbai will become home to India's first-ever international university campus, featuring 8-10 foreign universities. This project will not only give a new identity to the city but also will help in exponential development of Navi Mumbai.

Navi Mumbai Emerges as India's Ultimate Outdoor Entertainment Arena!

CIDCO has unveiled plans to develop a state-of-the-art Outdoor Entertainment Arena in Navi Mumbai, modeled after iconic venues like Madison Square Garden in New York and The O2 Arena in London. This ambitious project aims to create a unique and unparalleled entertainment experience, setting a new benchmark for the industry.

The proposed venue will host a wide range of events, including concerts, sports, theatre productions, and more, catering to diverse audiences and tastes. To bring this vision to life, CIDCO has partnered with BookMyShow, combining the expertise of two industry leaders to ensure world-class standards and attention to detail.

Located in close proximity to Bollywood, this state-of-the-art outdoor entertainment arena will have a massive capacity of 20,000 seated or 25,000 standing, making it the largest and first-of-its-kind in the country. This iconic venue will become the epicenter of entertainment, hosting concerts, award shows, sports tournaments, and more throughout the year.

Maharashtra’s Economic Growth Strengthened by Two Additional MoUs

These landmark agreements are expected to propel Maharashtra's economy forward, driving growth, employment, and opportunities for generations to come. With CIDCO's commitment to innovative and sustainable development, Maharashtra is poised to become a hub for business, entertainment, and education.

In a significant development, CIDCO has signed two additional MoUs, further bolstering Maharashtra's economy:

• Panchshil Realty: A proposed investment of $3 billion to set up a state-of-the-art data center in the CIDCO area. This project will enhance Maharashtra's digital infrastructure and create new avenues for businesses and entrepreneurs.
• Welspun World: A proposed investment of $183 million in a logistics park, creating 2,000 direct employment opportunities.

With these two MoUs, CIDCO has reaffirmed its commitment to fostering economic growth, innovation, and job creation in Maharashtra. These MoUs will drive progress and prosperity for years to come.

These investments are a testament to Maharashtra's growing reputation as a premier investment hub. The International Educity will feature a diverse range of universities, each specializing in various fields, thereby propelling the education industry forward and enhancing the value of education in national development.

Located near Navi Mumbai International Airport, this International Educity will enjoy proximity to key infrastructure, including Aerocity, Sports City, Medicity, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, and proposed transport corridors.

As the country's first-of-its-kind, this International Educity will serve as a model for future educational hubs, driving growth, employment, and opportunities for generations to come.

HCL Group and UpLink Announce 10 Winning Aquapreneurs of Zero Water Waste Challenge

• The Aquapreneur Innovation Initiative is a five-year $15 million investment to drive freshwater sector innovation from HCL, a leading global conglomerate.
• The 10 winning Aquapreneurs were selected from a pool of 192 global applicants
• The winners will receive a financial award from a total pool of 1.9 million CHF in funding to scale their start-ups and deliver freshwater solutions worldwide.
• Witnessed participation from diverse regions, with notable contributions from Africa (16%), Asia (18%), Europe (13%), and other global regions
• Of the winners this year, two are from India, four are from Europe, two from South America and two are from the United States of America.

HCL Group and UpLink, the open innovation platform of the World Economic Forum, have together announced the top 10 water-focussed entrepreneurs who will receive a financial award from a total pool of 1.9 million CHF as part of the Zero Water Waste Challenge. HCL Group committed $15 million investment in total to drive freshwater sector innovation for five years until 2027. In less than a year, HCL Group’s commitment saw a 10x return on its investment as the first cohort of ‘Aquapreneurs’ collectively raised $54.5 million after joining the UpLink Innovation Ecosystem.

The Zero Water Waste Challenge is the second out of five innovation challenges, under HCL Group and UpLink’s Aquapreneur Innovation Initiative. The focus of this year’s challenge aimed at capturing and protecting freshwater supply, water reuse and recycling of materials and saving water in agriculture.

Top 10 water-focused entrepreneurs or “Aquapreneurs” were selected from a pool of 192 global applicants. Out of these, most of the applications were from Africa (16%), Asia (18%) and Europe (13%). These Innovators come from eight different countries and are bringing cutting edge innovative solutions in areas such as greywater reuse, rainwater capture, advanced filtration, precision agriculture, and data analytics and AI.

Announcing the winners, Roshni Nadar Malhotra, Chairperson of HCLTech said, "In light of the current global climate change crisis and increasing scarcity of freshwater resources, the urgent need for innovative solutions to manage our freshwater supplies cannot be overlooked. These innovations reshape our approach to water, optimizing its use and conservation. HCL stands committed to supporting these innovations for a positive global impact. Congratulations to the winners of the Aquapreneur Innovation Initiative 2024.”

Climate change, pollution and overuse pose a grave threat to the planet’s freshwater supplies”, said Olivier Schwab, Managing Director of the World Economic Forum. “UpLink and HCL are building an innovation ecosystem around early-stage, water-focused entrepreneurs that will provide them with the resources, expertise and vital funding they need to thrive. The solutions created by these 'Aquapreneurs' will play a crucial role in bringing about the transformative change required to shape a sustainable, water-resilient future for all.”

Two of the top 10 innovators were selected to present their solutions at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos in 2023:

1. “We are thrilled and humbled to be recognized as a Zero Water Waste challenge winner,” said Karina Peña, CEO and Co-founder of FieldFactors, “joining this cohort will allow us to bring our technology to the global stage, increasing community resilience to the impacts of climate change.” FieldFactors is a water technology start-up providing circular solutions for urban water management and climate adaptation. Specializing in climate change adaptation, the company designs and implements integrated solutions to combat urban flooding, drought, and heat stress, fostering biodiversity with green space.
2. “Being named an Aquapreneur is validation for our vision to eliminate urban water pollution” said Asim R. Bhalerao, CEO of Fluid Analytics, “we look forward to working with HCL and UpLink, World Economic Forum to bring our vision to life globally.” Fluid Analytics Inc. is a water analytics company committed to addressing urban water pollution. With unique mathematical and machine-learning models trained on diverse datasets, Fluid Analytics Inc. has successfully deployed solutions, monitoring over 1.5 billion litres of urban water pollution and enabling the treatment and reuse of 800 million litres daily.

The other entrepreneurs that were awarded prize money from HCL Group and support from UpLink are:

3. Juan Carlos Escobar, CEO and Co-Founder and Rina Martínez, Co-Founder of AQUAKIT SRL, (Bolivia) – A grey water treatment technology that enables the recycling of household greywater for non-potable uses and reduces wastewater emissions.
4. Amira Cheniour, Co-Founder and CEO and Taher Mestiri, Co-founder, Chief Technology Officer of SEABEX SAS (France) – An AI-powered precision irrigation solution that uses a digital twin to help farmers produce more food with less water.
5. Gokul Krishna Govindu, CEO of SmartTerra (India) – An AI-powered analytics software designed to analyse data and reduce water losses in city-scale and built environment networks.
6. Trupti Jain, co-founder of Naireeta Services Private Ltd (India) - A community-based rainwater harvesting technology that filters, injects and stores rainwater for use in dry seasons.
7. Mulundu Sichone, CEO at PYDRO (Germany) – A cost-effective self-powered smart flow meter for water pipes, helping to reduce water leaks, prevent pipe bursts and perform quality checks in real-time and 24/7.
8. Laurence Battaille, CEO and Gregoire de Hemptinne, Co-founder of SHAYP (Belgium) - An IoT-enabled SaaS solution that monitors water consumption in real estate buildings in real-time helping building managers to eliminate leaks and related damages.
9. Greg Newbloom, CEO and founder of Membrion (United States) – A ceramic desalination technology that removes metals, minerals and salts from harsh industrial wastewater - enabling the water to be recycled in a cost-effective and energy efficient manner.
10. Jaime de la Cruz Gonzales, CEO of Kran Nanobubble, (Chile) – A nanobubble technology solution optimizing water efficiency in agriculture, water treatment, and aquaculture.

In addition to the financial reward, winners will receive exclusive access to events, projects, and communities led by the World Economic Forum and partners.

About UpLink

UpLink is the open innovation platform of the World Economic Forum, designed to unlock an ‘entrepreneur revolution’ for people and planet by supporting start-ups with innovative solutions for the world’s most pressing issues, as outlined by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Launched at the World Economic Forum’s 2020 Annual Meeting in Davos in partnership with Deloitte and Salesforce, UpLink builds bridges between entrepreneurs and the investors, experts and partners who can help scale their ventures. UpLink sources innovations through a competition framework known as innovation challenges. UpLink has now run more than 50 challenges and identified over 450 entrepreneurs with innovative solutions across critical SDG areas including freshwater, health, food, ocean, plastics, education, climate and more.

Tata Power Subsidiary TPRMG Recognized as People-Positive Accelerator of Clean Energy Adoption in Rural India by WEF

TP Renewable Microgrid (TPRMG), a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Power- one of India's largest integrated power companies, is has announced that its Renewable Microgrid initiative has been featured in the World Economic Forum’s report on "Using a People-Positive Approach to Accelerate the Scale-up of Clean Power: A C-Suite Guide for Community Engagement." This report was released at the recently concluded 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28).

The report emphasizes the significance of a people-positive approach as a pivotal factor in accelerating the transition to clean power while delivering broader social, economic, and environmental value while also highlighting the necessity of involving communities in the shift towards sustainable energy to ensure that the transition benefits all stakeholders.

The inclusion of the TP Renewable Microgrid as a case study a in the white paper is a testament to Tata Power's commitment to bringing sustainable development to rural India and its success in leveraging cross-sectoral collaboration. This approach aligns perfectly with the paper's emphasis on partnership with communities, showcasing how industry leaders can work hand in hand with local populations for mutual benefit.

TPRMG has been instrumental in bringing clean electricity to rural India. The initiative has successfully commissioned renewable microgrids in 200 villages in northwest India, impacting around 300,000 lives. Serving a consumer base of about 21,000, these microgrids have saved over 3 million litres of diesel and reduced more than 8,000 tons of carbon dioxide annually.

Dr Praveer Sinha CEO &MD, Tata Power said, "We are privileged to set up Renewable Microgrids for providing clean energy in rural India. We are committed to advancing India's renewable energy initiatives through innovative micro enterprise solutions in rural areas”.

The project's approach is centred around shared value creation, with a strong focus on community engagement. By collaborating with various stakeholders, including social influencers, governments, local communities, and technology innovators, TP Renewable Microgrid has developed solutions that address the specific needs of each community. This collaborative effort has resulted in the seamless installation, operation, and maintenance of projects, while also delivering significant economic, environmental, and social benefits to local communities.

This case study in the World Economic Forum’s white paper is a clear indication of the importance and effectiveness of Tata Power's people-positive approach. It showcases how TP Renewable Microgrid is not only providing clean energy but also creating an ecosystem for socio-economic development in rural India. This initiative aligns with India’s broader goal of transitioning to reliable, sustainable, and community-focused energy solutions, and is an example of how the power sector can provide reliable and clean power to communities that have traditionally relied on fossil-based power.

Through these efforts, Tata Power is not just providing clean energy but also fostering socio-economic development in rural communities.

3 Indian Startups that Made It To WEF’s Tech Pioneers 2023 Cohort

Late last month, the World Economic Forum (WEF) announced selection of 100 most promising Technology Pioneers 2023, companies making progress in sustainability, advanced manufacturing and inclusive healthcare.

The Technology Pioneers by WEF are a global community representing 31 countries, wherein WEF Technology Pioneers community encourages its start-up members to engage in the WEF's Centres to help scale the impact of initiatives and positively shape the world's shared future.

This year, Pakistan and Malaysia represented for the first time. Both have one startup each, selected for tech pioneers community.

This year’s Technology Pioneer cohort includes start-ups from 31 economies, with 30% led by a woman chief executive. The US has the highest representation, with 29 companies, followed by China with 12 and India has 3.

Indian startups selected are —

Giftolexia Solutions

Health Tech | DeepTech

Developing a deep technology enabled screening tool to identify the risk of dyslexia in schoolchildren by analysing gaze pattern.

Incubated at NSRCEL, IIM Bangalore, Giftolexia Solutions helps children with dyslexia and other learning challenges realize their true potential through early identification, the right remediation and a focus on their compensating strengths. Its machine learning-based screening solution identifies the risk in children. It is an easier, faster – just five minutes per child – and more accurate method of screening at an early age.

Founded in 2017, by Ajit George Paul, the Bengaluru based startup has developed the first technology-enabled screening tool for Dyslexia in India. Giftolexia claims that it is the best screening tool for class-wide screening. It reduces screening time to 5 minutes per child and screening age is reduced to 8 years from the current average of 11 years in India.

Next Big Innovation Labs

DeepTech | Biotech | 3D Bio-Printing

Developing customizable 3D bioprinter to bridge the gap between organ demand and availability via 3D bioengineered organs.

Bengaluru-based Next Big Innovation Labs is a Deep Tech Bioprinting Company focussed on developing breakthrough products and services utilising its in-built patented Bioprinting Technology.

Founded in 2016, by Alok Medikepura Anil, Piyush Padmanabhan, Pooja Venkatesh and Ratandeep Singh Bansal, Next Big Innovation Labs is a research driven startup that aims to solve the organ availability crisis plaguing the entire globe using 3D Bio printing. It build intricate and customised bioprinters for research and in addition develops tissues for research, product development and clinical applications. Working collaboratively with companies and research institutes across the world. The startup's ambitious goal is to "one day make organ transplant waitlists a thing of the past."

Xacmaz Technology {Blue Sky Analytics}

Climate Tech | Environment Intelligence

Developing a platform that converts satellite data into climate intelligence for climate risk, ESG investing and carbon markets.

Xacmaz Technology Pvt. Ltd is parent company that operates climate-tech startup Blue Sky Analytics that leverages satellite data and artificial intelligence (AI) to deliver climate and environmental data intelligence for carbon markets, asset monitoring and climate risk analytics.

While the Xacmaz Technology is based in New Delhi, Blue Sky is headquartered in the Netherlands. The climate tech startup has raised a total of $1.5 million in funding over three rounds from investors including Beenext, IFC, Stellaris Venture Partners and Stanford Angels & Entrepreneurs.

The above selected startups will join a group of alumni including Airbnb, Google, Kickstarter, Mozilla, Spotify, TransferWise, Twitter and Wikimedia. The 2023 cohort will be invited to join World Economic Forum events and discussions throughout the year, bringing together leading stakeholders from the public and private sector.

Launched in 2000, the Technology Pioneers community is composed of early-stage companies from around the world that are involved in the design, development and deployment of new technologies and innovations, and are poised to have a significant impact on business and society.

Ashraf Patel, India's Only Woman Social Innovator of the Year 2022, Addresses WEF Annual Meet at Davos!

Ashraf speaking at WEF annual Meet

‘Transforming through Trust' - Ashraf Patel, The only Indian Woman Social Innovator of the Year 2022, speaks on Youth Leadership at World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2022 - Davos

Ashraf Patel, the only Indian woman to be recognized by World Economic Forum (WEF) and Schwab Foundation as the Social Innovator of the Year 2022, takes the stage at Davos to highlight the need to invest in youth-centric development across sectors. The World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting 2022, is being held from 22-26 May in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland. The theme this year is History at a Turning Point: Government Policies and Business Strategies and brings together nearly 2,500 leaders and experts from around the globe, all committed to the “Davos Spirit” of improving the state of the world. As a part of the Annual Meeting, 15 Social Innovators from across the world were celebrated for their efforts to transform the world.

Ashraf Patel from India was recognized as one of 15 global Social Innovators by Schwab Foundation at the WEF Forum in January 2022 as Co-Founder, Pravah and ComMutiny - The Youth Collective. Speaking at the session ‘Transforming through Trust’ on 23rd May 2022, Ashraf called upon global leaders to invest in youth leadership at scale, by trusting in their abilities to address the most complex challenges that the world is facing in terms of inequality, conflict and ecological decline.

After nearly three decades of investing in building the youth development sector in India Ashraf, addressing global leaders and experts at the Annual Meeting, said, “Young people once trusted and brought into key and significant intergenerational decision making and dialogue spaces, not only bring alternative perspectives, but can help us challenge together, the status quo, bring out new innovations, entrepreneurship and spur tremendous social change action by being the change they want to see in the world.”

To work at scale with soul on youth leadership, Ashraf invited greater collaboration and solidarities across all sectors to realize the mission Every youth a Jargik, Every Space Nurturing Jagriks, where the Jagrik is a self awakened active citizen who inspires others. She highlighted the need to co-create such spaces with young people that nourish, love, learning, ownership, freedom and social hope.

Pravah, ComMutiny - The Youth Collective and the vartaLeap Coalition’s collective experience has repeatedly shown that young people are not leaders of tomorrow, but are leaders of today. As the COVID-19 pandemic threw up challenge after challenge, young people led from the front, investing time, money and heart in not just saving millions of lives but also in creating hope. Investing in youth leadership is not a saving for the future, it is an imperative for saving lives now.

While the Annual meeting is a coordinated effort to bring together all stakeholders to ensure a sustainable and equitable post-COVID era, topics ranging from harnessing emerging technologies for empowering the marginalized to systemic solutions for the world's most pressing problems were discussed during the ‘Transforming through Trust’ session.

Some other speakers at the session included Hilde Schwab, Chairperson and Co-Founder, Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship and WEF; Hahrie Han, Inaugural Director, SNF Agora Institute and Professor of Political Science, Johns Hopkins University; Sam McCracken, Founder and General Manager, N7, Nike Inc and Sanjay Pradhan, CEO, Open Government Partnership.

In today’s deeply interconnected world, it is only through collaboration that all stakeholders can make a difference to transform lives. As shared by Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman, World Economic Forum, “The Annual Meeting is the first summit that brings global leaders together in this new situation characterized by an emerging multipolar world as a result of the pandemic and war. The fact that nearly 2,500 leaders from politics, business, civil society and media come together in person demonstrates the need for a trusted, informal and action-oriented global platform to confront the issues in a crisis-driven world.”

World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2022:

For over 50 years, the World Economic Forum has been the international organization for public-private cooperation. The Annual Meeting is the focal point for leaders to accelerate the partnerships needed to tackle global challenges and shape a more sustainable and inclusive future. Convening under the theme 'History at a Turning Point: Government Policies and Business Strategies', the Annual Meeting 2022 and its 200 sessions brings together global leaders from business, government and civil society. Learn more about the programme and view sessions live and on-demand. A list of confirmed public figures can be found here.

Civil society is being represented by more than 200 leaders from NGOs, social entrepreneurs, academia, labor organizations, faith-based and religious groups, and over 400 media leaders and reporting press. The Annual Meeting will also bring together younger generations, with 100 members of the Forum’s Global Shaper and Young Global Leader communities participating.

About Ashraf Patel, Pravah and ComMutiny - The Youth Collective

Ashraf has been recognized as a flag bearer, pioneering youth work and giving youth development a language in India for over three decades as the Co-Founder of Pravah and ComMutiny - The Youth Collective. Over the last 29 years her work in Pravah and ComMutiny has been to advocate for a psycho-social approach to youth development; investing in young people not just to impact society at scale but also to transform mindsets and attitudes. This change in lens to development has been instrumental in creating sustainable impact on issues ranging from social inclusion, active citizenship, youth leadership to gender-based violence, patriarchy and 21st century skill building.

In addition to her roles at Pravah and ComMutiny, she is also bringing together the vartaLeap Coalition, a cross-sectoral formulation of 260+ youth engaging organizations and individuals from the development sector, government, media, educational institutions, and UN agencies who are working towards the mission ‘Every youth a Jagrik (Jagrik: a self-awakened, aware and active citizen), Every space nurturing Jagriks’. 

The VartaLeap Coalition became one of the most impactful collaborations in the country with a collective experience of 1500 years plus in youth development. The members are together playing a pivotal role in bringing partners from varied fields to experience and invest in youth centric approaches.

Together, this ecosystem has ‌actively engaged over 1200 youth organizations, supported the learning and leadership of more than 1 million young people and has an estimated outreach of over 50 million people through on-ground and online campaigns.

Ashraf has contributed significantly to framing policy and practice on adolescent and youth development at National and International levels. She has co-authored a number of learning resources and a field resource book 'Ocean in a Drop – Inside Out Youth Leadership' (Sage 2013). She is an Ashoka Fellow and the Social Entrepreneur of the Year (SEOY 2020). She is currently on the Board of leading organisations like Oxfam India, PHIA Foundation, IBTADA, Commonwealth Alliance of Youth WorkAssociations, International Forum for Volunteering in Development (IVCO) and a member of Vikalp Sangam, Catalyst 2030 and The WellbeingEcosystem.

Vernacular.ai Is Chosen to Be a Part of the World Economic Forum’s Global Innovators Community

Vernacular.ai, an AI-first SaaS voice automation platform announced today that it has been chosen to be a part of the World Economic Forum’s Global Innovators Community, an invitation-only group of the world’s most promising start-ups and scale-ups that are at the forefront of technological and business model innovation. Vernacular.ai helps accelerate engagement strategy, and utilize speech recognition and natural language understanding (NLU) technology to provide enhanced customer experiences across diverse sectors.

Founded in 2017 in Bengaluru (India) by two IIT Roorkee graduates, Sourabh Gupta and Akshay Deshraj, along with founding team members Prateek Gupta, Pravendra Singh and Abhinav Tushar, Vernacular.ai’s voice AI solution, VIVA (Vernacular Intelligent Voice Assistant), helps automate 80 percent of calls handled by a call center and reduces agents’ average call handling time by 30 percent. The API recognizes over 160 dialects in over 16 different languages (10 Indian languages and 6 foreign languages) to support the enterprise user base.

The World Economic Forum provides the Global Innovators Community with a platform to engage with public-and private sector leaders and to contribute new solutions to overcome the current crisis and build future resiliency. Companies who are invited to become Global Innovators will engage with one or more of the Forum’s Platforms to help define the global agenda on key issues.

“It is a great honor and we are pleased to partner with the World Economic Forum Community to drive the development of innovative solutions to tackle challenges surrounding businesses today,” said Sourabh Gupta, CEO and Co-founder of Vernacular.ai. “The future of human interface with machines is voice, we are reimagining business activities with enhanced communication effects, task management, and work productivity. We certainly look forward to innovating further and continuing this important work over the coming years, and working with the World Economic Forum as a Global Innovator is a great way for us to share our solutions with a broader audience and engage in an insightful conversation with the best minds in the field.”

About Vernacular.ai

Vernacular.ai is a Series A funded start-up and an AI-first SaaS business that is driven with a mission to become the leading voice AI/automation system in the world, and currently, services leading enterprise clients across BFSI, Hospitality, F&B, and other industries. This Bengaluru-based start-up won the seed capital investment of the year in 2018, by venture intelligence and was nominated at the ET Start-up Awards 2018.

About World Economic Forum

The World Economic Forum is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation. The Forum engages the foremost political, business, cultural, and other leaders of society to shape global, regional, and industry agendas. It was established in 1971 as a not-for-profit foundation and is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. It is independent, impartial, and not tied to any special interests.

About Global Innovators Community

The Global Innovators Community is a group of the world’s most promising start-ups and scale-ups that are at the forefront of technological and business model innovation. The World Economic Forum provides the Global Innovators Community with a platform to engage with public- and private-sector leaders and to contribute new solutions to overcome current crises and build future resiliency.

Companies who are invited to become Global Innovators will engage with one or more of the Forum’s Platforms, as relevant, to help define the global agenda on key issues. If your company is interested in becoming a Global Innovator, please get in touch here.

Davos 2020: Need to Ease Norms for Fintech Sector in India, Says NDA Partner Pratibha Jain

Ms. Pratibha Jain, Partner and Head of the New Delhi office of Nishith Desai Associates (NDA), recently spoke at the 2020 World Economic Forum (WEF) and called for regulations to be eased for the country’s fintech sector to promote financial inclusion.

Ms. Jain speaking in Davos, emphasized that regulations were critical in ensuring fintech solutions were not used for money laundering or terror financing, but banning new technologies will prove to be counterproductive.

"As technologies are still evolving, prescriptive laws will keep becoming obsolete as technologies change, and banning technologies like cryptocurrencies will only push the market for them to develop outside India," she said.

Furthermore, Ms. Jain observed that "Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing regulations are undoubtedly very important for a country like India where the parallel cash economy and terrorism financing - both of which are a major challenge to not only national security, but also for economic growth and development."

“In that sense, they help protect the rule of law and democracy. They are also important for international security.”

A corporate lawyer admitted to legal practice in India and the USA. Ms. Jain made her comments during the session on, "Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorist Financing (AMLCTF) System in Modern FinTech Industry,” at the Caspian Week, WEF.

While India does not have a unified code of laws governing fintech. Fintech activities in India are primarily regulated by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), India's banking regulator. Regulation takes the form of acts passed by the legislature and rules and regulations passed by the RBI and other regulators.

Currently, there is a rising debate in the country over banning of crypto currencies continues in India, with the RBI circular prohibiting entities that it regulates, including banks from providing services to persons or entities dealing in or settling crypto currencies being challenged in Supreme Court of India by the Internet and Mobile Association of India.

RBI in its affidavit to the Supreme Court stated that "It is an admitted fact that VCs [virtual currencies] have been used to purchase illegal and illicit goods ranging from guns and ammunition to drugs,” hence, citing national security concerns for their move.

Giving a detailed overview of the issue and in particular the implications for regulation, Ms. Jain observed, “I would argue that such regulations need to be balanced and principle-based rather than rule-based, and we should seriously consider three issues: first, the efficacy of fintech companies to provide solutions for financial inclusion. According to a 2018 report released by the World Bank, India is home to the second-largest unbanked population in the world. Fintech can significantly help with financial inclusion by obviating the need for brick and mortar banks to serve the traditionally underserved and unserved population in India. Digital banks, digital lenders, digital insurers - all can help fill this gap. But, this requires government to promote innovation and the ease of doing business for these companies, especially when the amounts in question are not too significant.”

“Second, myriad of laws that don’t allow for effective transfer between nations or stop technological development.”

“Third, the safeguards against abuse of such laws by governments is also an area of concern. The definition of the proceeds of crime under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) is very broad that even a genuine purchase of property by a bank in an auction can run the risk of being accessed by authorities as proceeds of crime. When laws don’t have the checks and balances to ensure basic fundamental rights are protected, such laws are susceptible to be misused for political motivated prosecutions. Unfortunately, the efficacy of these laws is not yet proven.”

While technology has yet again been a central topic of discussion at this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, this year’s deliberations also saw a determined focus on fintech and how financial inclusion is key to meeting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

Ms. Jain is an Aspen Fellow and a law graduate from the University of Delhi, University of Oxford and Harvard Law School.

First-ever Public Blockchain-based Platform for Biz across Industries launched by WEF

The World Economic Forum on Thursday launched the first-ever public blockchain-based platform built to help businesses across industries respond to consumer demands for ethical and environmentally friendly products.

It would be a neutral and safe space for collaboration provided by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and first-movers Everledger, the International Trade Centre (ITC) and Lenzing Group, the Geneva-based organisation said during its 50th annual meeting here.

Joining the open call to pilot and co-design the second phase will be Asia Pacific Rayon (APR), EVRYTHNG and PlataformaVerde.

The WEF said consumers today are more concerned than ever about the social and environmental impacts of the products they purchase.

Almost 90 per cent would like big brands to help them be more environmentally friendly and ethical.

While blockchain technology offers a way to showcase sustainability and environmentally friendly practices, private blockchains do not address rising customer transparency demands, it added.

To date, companies have self-published such data or relied on blockchain solution providers to do so. The pilot platform resulting from this initiative, however, can ingest blockchain-based data from multiple sources and visualise it on a neutral site. PTI BJ

It is Safer Not to Have A Password than A Weaker One - WEF Study

With weak or stolen passwords accounting for an average of four out of five global data breaches, a new study has said it is safer not to have a password.

The new report released by the World Economic Forum, here during its 2020 annual meeting, said that freeing ourselves of passwords will actually make individuals safer and businesses more efficient.

Cybercrime is set to cost the global economy USD 2.9 million every minute in 2020, and some 80 per cent of these attacks are password-related.

Knowledge-based authentication – whether with PINs, passwords, passphrases, or whatever we need to remember – is not only a major headache for users, it is costly to maintain, the study found.

For larger businesses, it is estimated that nearly 50 per cent of IT help desk costs are allocated to password resets, with average annual spend for companies now at over USD 1 million for staffing alone.

"Passwordless authentication does not mean removing all security barriers to our digitalized society. It means harnessing tools such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to save users time and save company money," the WEF said.

"With the growing availability of biometrics and next-generation technology, consumers are demanding a better digital experience while wanting to be secure online," said Adrien Ogee, Project Lead, Platform for Shaping the Future of Cybersecurity and Digital Trust, World Economic Forum. "Better authentication practices are not just possible they are a necessity."

The report, produced in collaboration with the FIDO Alliance, has suggested five top passwordless authentication technologies, ready for implementation by global companies. They are biometrics, behavioural analytics, zero-knowledge proofs, QR codes and security keys.

"Relying on passwords as the primary means for authentication no longer provides the security or user experience that consumers demand," said Andrew Shikiar, Executive Director and Chief Marketing Officer of the FIDO Alliance.

The path forward is with standards-based, cryptographically secure authentication that keeps login info secure and private, while providing a fundamentally better user experience. PTI BJ

HCL Tech's Vijaykumar to Chair WEF IT Governors Community

Leading Indian IT firm HCL Technologies' CEO C Vijayakumar was on Wednesday named as chairman of the World Economic Forum's IT Governors community.

The announcement was made at the Forum's Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

The Forum's IT Governors community convenes CEOs of the world's top information technology companies in order to help them responsibly shape the future of their industry. It acts as a platform for setting industry priorities, building shared understanding, and coordinating actions that lead to results.

Under Vijayakumar's stewardship, the community will prioritise dialogue and action around the most pressing issues impacting the industry's future progress, like talent re-skilling, data governance, security and privacy, responsible proliferation of artificial intelligence, amongst others.

"We're very pleased to have Mr. Vijayakumar chairing our efforts this year in the IT Governors, which will focus on responsible technology leadership. We are looking forward to next steps and tackling urgent challenges together," said Eric White, Head of the IT Industry at the World Economic Forum (WEF).

"In today's world where technology is at the heart of virtually every individual, social, policy and corporate action and by that means at the very center of human progress, it is critical that the IT Industry remains a beacon of responsible leadership," said Vijayakumar.

"With that vision as our north-star, I look forward to working closely with my colleagues in the IT Governors community this year on addressing prioritised issues of immediate and impending relevance as well as launch some new initiatives for cross-industry collaboration around data privacy, skilling and responsible use of new disruptive technologies," he added. PTI BJ

Meet the 7 Finalists of 'Social Entrepreneur of the Year India Awards'

The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, the sister organisation of the World Economic Forum and the Jubilant Bhartia Foundation, a not for profit organisation of Jubilant Bhartia Group today announced the finalists of the Social Entrepreneur of the Year (SEOY)- India 2019 award.

The finalists were identified following an intensive search and selection process, including expert reviews, background research, reference checks and site visits.

The seven finalists of the award are:

1. Gaurav Mehta of Dharma Life, New Delhi


2. Shanti Raghavan and Dipesh Sutariya of EnAble India, Bengaluru


3. Mukteshwari Bosco of Healing Fields Foundation, Hyderabad


4. Nand Kishore Chaudhary of Jaipur Rugs, Jaipur


5. Bijal Brahmbhatt of Mahila Housing SEWA Trust, Ahmedabad


6. Aakash Sethi of Quest Alliance, Bengaluru


7. Sanjeev Kumar of The Goat Trust, Lucknow

Of the seven finalists, the winner will be chosen by a distinguished jury. Shri Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of State (Independent Charge), Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs & Ministry of Civil Aviation and Minister of State in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry Government of India will present the award at a special ceremony on Thursday, 3rd October, 2019 which is part of the India Economic Summit organised by World Economic Forum and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). 

The winner of SEOY India will join the world’s largest network of social enterprises affiliated with The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship.

The finalists of the SEOY India award are the tech-enabled social entrepreneurs who are helping in bridging the gap between the marginalised and the mainstream, by working in fields of livelihood generation for rural women, livestock entrepreneurship, creating safe & sustainable habitats, improving rural health, empowering people with disabilities and art preservation through empowerment of artisans. These social entrepreneurs have brought disruption in their respective fields with their innovative ideas. They have demonstrated that through empowerment of marginalised rural women, people with disabilities, small livestock farmers and grassroots artisans, India can move closer to inclusive growth.

Over the years, SEOY India award has established itself as one of the most reputed and coveted award for social entrepreneurs in India. This year the award celebrates its 10th year. In 2010, the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship and Jubilant Bhartia Foundation came together to promote social innovation in India through the Social Entrepreneur of the Year (SEOY) India Award. The annual award recognises entrepreneurs who implement innovative, sustainable and scalable solutions to solve social problems. These entrepreneurs address pressing issues faced by under-served communities.

The SEOY India award 2019 opened in March this year and received over 120 applications from 19 cities. This year saw over 30 applications from women social entrepreneurs. The categories of intervention include enterprise development, disability, water & sanitation, labour conditions, micro finance, housing, fair trade, energy, sustainable farming, communication media, clean technology and nutrition. In this year’s applications, health sector (43%) lead the nomination tally followed by education (40%), environment (27%) and rural development (26%).

Brief Descriptions of the Finalists: 

Gaurav Mehta
Dharma Life, New Delhi (www. dharmalife.in)
Echoing the belief that economically empowered women leads to empowered families; Dharma Life is providing women in rural India the opportunity to earn a livelihood while driving social change in their villages. These reformed women entrepreneurs, also referred as ‘Dharma Life Entrepreneurs’ (DLE) are changing the face of women empowerment in India.

Determined to create the largest network of female change agents, Dharma Life has  trained and engaged around 16,000 Dharma Life Entrepreneurs (76% women) across 13 states in India. By honing the entrepreneurial skills of rural women Dharma Life is optimising a woman led entrepreneur-based model that delivers critical products and services to low income households. This includes creation of livelihoods for the DLE, training and certification of the DLEs in rural sales entrepreneurship (certified by the National Skills Development Corporation (Government of India) and IFC), sustainable income creation for the Dharma Life Entrepreneurs as well as increased equity in society for them. Reached more than 1,50,000 households and over 1.3 million women with financial literacy campaign.

It addresses key and interlinked levers of social change – livelihood creation, digital empowerment, water, hygiene & sanitation, menstrual hygiene & family planning, energy access & clean cooking and nutrition.

Shanti Raghavan and Dipesh Sutariya   
EnAble India, Bengaluru (www.enableindia.org)
EnAble India (EI) is rapidly building the Indian eco-system of skilling, employment and entrepreneurship for persons with disabilities (PwDs) through technology innovations, breakthroughs in skill trainings, new workplace solutions and behaviour change tools. By changing the mindset of 729 business houses and building frameworks of inclusion in universities and government agencies, EI has created a robust business case for employing PwDs in formal and informal sectors across India.

Over 20 years, Shanti, Dipesh and their teams have cumulatively transformed the lives of 2,20,000 individuals with disabilities and their families, community leaders and employers, across 28 states. Working across a wide bench of 14 disabilities, all EI trainees perform at par, and receive salaries at par with their non-disabled peers. Through partnerships with 200 non-profit organisations, EnAble India is set to transform one million PwDs as confident tax payers, active citizens and nation-builders over the next three years.

Mukteshwari Bosco    
Healing Fields Foundation, Hyderabad (www.healing-fields.org)
Healing Fields Foundation (HFF) is building vibrant eco-systems of rural health care in areas where basic health services are absent or severely deficient. It is doing so by transforming once- voiceless and marginalised women into community healthcare entrepreneurs and health leaders who have a stake in the well-being of their communities. Backed with training in basic health care and innovative technologies (including a health decision-support app), more than 5000 trained community health entrepreneurs have taken healthcare information to nearly 12,50,000 individuals in the most backward districts of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana and Jharkhand. 66% report a 100-200% income increase as a local health entrepreneur. HFF has also kept its eye on enhanced health outcomes. 98% of service users have reported improved health knowledge; 71% regularly practise positive health behaviours and 89% families are immunising their children. Additionally, 1000 school health champions trained by HFF across Telengana have reached 150,000 people with information on health education, nutrition and healthcare products. The HFF model is currently being replicated in Indonesia.

Nand Kishore Chaudhary

Jaipur Rugs Ltd., Jaipur Living, Jaipur Rugs Foundation

Jaipur (www.jaipurrugs.com)
Jaipur Rugs [Featured Story] has catapulted more than 40,000 artisans (weavers and spinners) into artists, designers, entrepreneurs, teachers and quality control experts in the high-end, global, luxury carpet segment in 600 villages. By tripling incomes for women carpet weavers and enhancing their well-being and leadership, it has demonstrated that business success can combine as much meaning and purpose for customers, as it does for its rural and tribal artisans, and their families.

Jaipur Rugs is an exclusive, handmade carpet and rugs company, serving consumers across 62 countries. Upturning the exploitative practises of the carpet weaving industry, it has integrated ethical business practices with grassroots women’s entrepreneurship and created a business culture of empathy and care. Sharing growth benefits with its artisans, Jaipur Rugs runs an exclusive line of ‘Artisan Originals’ where weavers are the designers of their own rugs, showcasing their artistic creation on national and international platforms.

Impacted over 1,29,000 lives across Rajasthan, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand, Jaipur Rugs has put the locus of control back in the hands of village level bunkar sakhis and artisans not just through enhanced incomes, but also through leadership trainings, financial literacy and health services.

Bijal Brahmbhatt
Mahila Housing SEWA Trust (MHT), Ahmedabad (www.mahilahousingtrust.org)
By putting poor women in charge of their neighbourhoods, Mahila Housing SEWA Trust (MHT) is changing the face of India’s sprawling urban slums. Viewing habitat as essential to the well-being of a person, MHT mobilises, organises and trains women leaders or ‘Vikasinis’, to participate, design and drive urban planning and the development of their areas. The women map infrastructure gaps, deploy clean energy solutions and partner with local governments and the private sector for basic services like water, sanitation, power, sewerage and advocate for tenure rights. By building the social and leadership capital of resource-poor urban women, MHT ensures they access secure habitats and a quality of life deserving to all citizens.

Serving four lakh poor households, MHT has scaled its work to 34 cities across eight states in India. Reaching 1.7 million poor individuals, it has legalised power connections for nearly two lakh households, and potable water to 48,000.  Close to 57,000 households have built toilets and 30,500 have invested in energy saving products. In a major win, 22,563 Households have secured registration of property titles, resulting in a tangible asset for the poor. With urban population set to increase by nearly 50% by 2030, the MHT model offers a solid women and citizen-led strategy for transforming India’s squalid slums into safe, clean, climate friendly, vibrant socio-economic hubs.                       

Aakash Sethi
Quest Alliance, Bengaluru (www.questalliance.net) 

65% of children starting school today will hold jobs that do not exist yet. They are likely to have four or five careers over the course of their working life. Additionally, technology is rapidly changing job roles and rendering trade-specific skill trainings irrelevant. For Quest Alliance, self-learning and 21st century skills are then, the new life skills that youth will need to thrive, not just survive, in fast digitising economies.

Quest Alliance has integrated education technologies, curriculum and the culture and practise of self-learning and 21st century skills into India’s education and skill-training system.  By doing so, it is transforming institutions, educators, skill trainers, while enabling unemployable youth to respond to a fast digitising economy, enhance their learnability and build rewarding career pathways.

Through partnerships with 100 non-profit partners and state governments, the Quest Alliance model has been embedded in 5,000 government schools and 800 vocational training centres and ITIs across nine states. It has impacted 3,00,000 adolescent and youth (of which 50% are women) from rural, peri-urban, minority and other excluded communities. 70% of the youth who go through the Quest model are placed in jobs, with a majority reporting an average upward mobility of income of 170% (income compared to their current annual family incomes). A formal Memorandum of Understanding with the Government of India opened the pathway for more than five million adolescent and youth to be impacted by the Quest Alliance model over five years.

Sanjeev Kumar    


The Goat Trust Group of Social Ventures (www.thegoattrust.org)

Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh



The Goat Trust Group of Social Ventures is revitalising ailing, rural economies by transforming once marginalised and scattered women goat farmers into formidable network of small livestock entrepreneurs. Sanjeev and his team take a three-pronged approach for putting women in charge of small livestock husbandry: Innovations in micro-leasing (allowing a woman to lease and rear a goat); a network of 1000 ‘pashu sakhis’ or mature women goat farmers who offer scientific livestock rearing and veterinarian services for a fee; and innovative technologies, including a goat health app and an e-commerce platform for women farmers to connect with distant markets and access fair price for their livestock.

Together, this approach has enabled 3,00,000 ultra-poor women from marginalised communities to scale their small livestock farming value chains. They have enhanced their annual incomes from upwards of Rs 70,000 to Rs 900,000. Collectively, they have organised into 25 producer organisations with annual turnover of Rs 500 million. The Goat Trust group has scaled its model in 18 states through the state rural livelihoods mission machinery, focussing on difficult agro climatic zone like dry lands, forest fringe villages and flood-affected areas. More than 84 non-profit organisations across India, West Africa and Afghanistan, have been trained in its ‘Goat Gurukul’ to create the groundswell of women small livestock husbandry leaders.

Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship was co-founded by Professor Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, and his wife Hilde. For twenty years, the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship has supported the world’s leading social entrepreneurs in their efforts to create a more just, equitable, and sustainable world. The Schwab Foundation provides unparalleled platforms at the regional and global level to highlight and advance leading models of sustainable social innovation.

Learn more at www.schwabfound.org and follow on: Twitter: https://twitter.com/schwabfound

Jubilant Bhartia Foundation (JBF), established in 2007, is the not-for-profit organisation of the Jubilant Bhartia Group. It focuses on conceptualising and implementing the Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives (CSR) for the Group. The Jubilant Bhartia Foundation’s activities include various community development work, healthcare programs, cultural and sports events, environmental preservation initiative, vocational training, women empowerment, educational activities and promotion of Social Entrepreneurship.

India is World’s 40th Most Competitive Economy: World Economic Forum

In what could be considered as a worrying news coming in, the Indian subcontinent has been ranked the 40th most competitive economy on the World Economic Forum’s global competitiveness index. The rank is one down from the 39th rank that the country had proudly conquered and endorsed last year.

The Index which ranked the economy competitiveness of 137 economies saw Switzerland occupying the first spot, followed by the US and Singapore in second and third ranks, respectively.

According to the latest Global Competitiveness Report 2017, India has slipped from the 39th position to 40th while its neighbouring, rival economy China has demonstrated a much better performance and is ranked at 27th place.

The report states that, “India stabilises this year after its big leap forward of the previous two years.” It further adds that the country’s scores have improved significantly across most pillars of competitiveness, which can be considered a good sign for the developing economy.

These pillars includes infrastructure where the country was able to garner the 66th rank, higher education and training where India stood at 75 and technological readiness where the country was able to capture the 107th place. This spike in ranks reflect the recent public investments in these areas.

The report also highlighted that India has shown an impressive improvement in its ICT (information and communications technologies) indicators, especially when it comes to Internet bandwidth per user, mobile phone and broadband subscriptions, and Internet access in schools.

The report also highlighted the problems that are hindering the progress of India’s economy. According to the report, the private sector still considers corruption as the most problematic factor when it comes to doing business in the country. This was followed by problems such ‘financing’, ‘tax rates’, ‘inadequate supply of infrastructure’, ‘poor work ethics in national labour force’ and ‘inadequately educated work force.’

It mentioned, “A big concern for India is the disconnect between its innovative strength (29) and its technological readiness (up 3 to 107): as long as this gap remains large, India will not be able to fully leverage its technological strengths across the wider economy.”

At 40th rank, India topped the list in the South Asia region, and was followed by Bhutan (85th rank), Sri Lanka (85), Nepal (88), Bangladesh (99) and Pakistan (115).

The report further reflected that Improving ICT infrastructure and use still remain among the biggest challenges for the South Asia region as in the past ten years, technological readiness has stagnated the most in the region.

For the uninitiated, the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) is prepared on the basis of country-level data covering 12 categories or pillars of competitiveness, which include: institutions, infrastructure, macroeconomic environment, health and primary education, higher education and training, goods market efficiency, labour market efficiency, financial market development, technological readiness, market size, business sophistication and innovation.

[Image: CNN Money]

Facebook, Amazon and Google Are Bigger Threat To Banks Than Fintech Startups, Says WEF

A recent World Economic Forum (WEF) report has taken everyone in the financial services sector by surprise. According to the report, 'Beyond Fintech: A Pragmatic Assessment of Disruptive Potential in Financial Services', as against the common belief that the Fintech sector is going to be the endgame for banks, it is the technology giants like Facebook, Amazon and Google that pose a bigger threat to the longevity of banks and their services.

The report claims that these technology big weights are slowly but steadily hollowing out the value proposition of the financial institutions by carrying out more and more of their core functions, even as banks and insurers are really working hard to outdo them.

The WEF report also highlights that even though the Fintech sector had launched with a lot of fanfare, it hasn't been able to sustain the hype and transform the landscape of world finance as everyone had previously predicted. Though there's no denying the fact that Fintech has got the much needed innovation in the financial services sector but it has fallen depressingly short of capturing large market share and on the top of that, it is unfortunately reliant on partnerships with banks to achieve scale.

Giving his take on the dependence of the fintech sector on banks, Jesse McWaters, lead author of the study, and project lead, Disruptive Innovation in Financial Services at the World Economic Forum said that there's a high probability that the partnership between banks and large tech companies won't remain a reciprocal one, in the near future. "Financial institutions increasingly rely on technology firms for their most strategically sensitive capabilities, but can so far only offer their ongoing business in return," he added.

The WEF report also puts focus on the three main capabilities that have come to acquire an important status when it comes to competitive differentiation of financial institutions. These are: cloud computing, customer-facing artificial intelligence and Big Data customer analytics. A closer look on these three domain reveals that these are the strong points of tech big weights Amazon, Google and Facebook where they have far more experience than any existing financial institution in the world. Hence, banks are left with no option but to turn to the doors of these technology geniuses to provide them core functions.

Experts believe that the coming together of technology firms and banks is definitely good for innovation, but the banks are taking a huge risk tempting technology firms into the sector as if they decide to enter the financial services market directly, the banks will find it tragically hard to compete with them.

McWaters adds, "Tech giants would be able to pick and choose their points of entry into financial services; maximising their strengths like rich datasets and strong brands, while taking advantage of incumbent institutions’ dependence on them."

The WEF report time and again warns the banks to stop seeing high-tech financial services start-ups as threat as they're comparatively smaller fishes in the sea when compared to the damage that the tech big weights are capable of doing.

According to Rob Galaski, partner, Americas FSI regional leader, Deloitte Canada, and co-author of the report, while Fintechs have proven their mettle in changing the basis of competition in financial services, they haven't achieved much when it comes to competitive landscape. "Fintechs now define the tempo and direction of innovation in financial services, but high customer switching costs and the rapid response of incumbents has challenged their ability to scale," he added.

Galaski gives the example of Robo-advisers, which provide automated investment advice at low fees, to provide an instructive example of how incumbents are responding to fintech. According to the report, while early players like Betterment and Wealthfront have demonstrated remarkable growth, with assets under management of $6.7 billion and $4.4 billion, respectively, in 2016. Unfortunately, their path to success has been slowed by the incumbents that have managed to creat their own robo-advisory offerings. One such incumbent is the Vanguard Advisor platform, which had $47 billion in assets under management by the end of year 2016.

Galaski in the report states, "The ability to be a fast follower has proven more important than being first for large financial institutions." He further adds, "Agile incumbents have used the fintech ecosystem as a supermarket for capabilities, making the ability to nurture and rapidly form partnerships a critical ingredient to banks’ competitive success.”

One of the most important things that the WEF report unearthed was the emergence of distinct financial systems in the US, China and Europe, red flagging concerns over the need for international regulatory coordination.

While China is seeing country's tech giants like Ant Financial and Tencent emerging as leading providers of a range of financial services, on the other hand, United States has a traditional bank-led model into motion. Meanwhile, in Europe, the Second Payment Services Directive will most likely open up banks’ customer data leading to creation of an environment which sees more gruesome competition between incumbents and the new players.

Bob Contri, principal, Deloitte Consulting, and an adviser to the report also had an interesting take to offer on the whole issue. According to him, "Technology is not driving a global convergence in customer experience, instead divergent customer demand and regulatory priorities are creating distinctly regionalised financial ecosystems." He feels that this could grow to become a humongous problem for regulatory coordination, as regulators will have a hard time understanding the disparate nature of the impacts that each region will experience once global regulations come into play.