‘Bharat First’ At Davos: Competitive Federalism Within Cooperative Federalism

26 January 2025 Tridivesh Singh Maini

The Indian delegation to the World Economic Forum (WEF), Davos 2025 comprised of Union Ministers, Chief Ministers of states and several other high-ranking officials. The Chief Ministers who were part of the delegation included Telangana Chief Minister, Revanth Reddy, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Chandrababu Naidu and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. Other states including Uttar Pradesh and Kerala sent high-powered delegations to Davos.

Interestingly, Naidu was amongst the first Indian CM to visit Davos in his stint as CM of united Andhra Pradesh – the state had been bifurcated into Telangana and Andhra Pradesh in 2014. Naidu attended the WEF Summit in 1999 and 2004 when he was Chief Minister of united Andhra and then in 2014 and 2019 in the newly carved out state of Andhra Pradesh. It would be pertinent to point out here that Revanth Reddy had also visited Davos last year in 2024. Interestingly, Revanth Reddy had been part of Naidu’s political outfit the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), before joining the Congress in 2017.

The three CMs and senior representatives from other states met with potential investors and other dignitaries, including senior officials from other countries, on the sidelines of the summit. They all highlighted the economic potential of their respective states and articulated their economic vision apart from highlighting steps being taken in areas like urbanisation, environment and tourism.

Naidu, while speaking at the Forum, spoke about his role in developing Hyderabad, now the capital of Telangana – as an IT Hub and an important innovation centre. In his role as CM of Andhra Pradesh, his task of accelerating the economic progress of the Southern Indian state is clearly cut out.

Naidu apart from meeting with Chiefs of Unilever, DP World Group, Petronas, Google Cloud and Pepsi amongst others. He also met with Bill Gates the founder of Microsoft and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It would be pertinent to point out that Naidu first rose to prominence after meetings with Gates in the late 1990s where the latter was impressed by his business-like approach. In a tweet, Naidu said: Back in 1995 – IT, Now in 2025 – AI. A pleasure reconnecting with Mr Bill Gates after many years! Amongst the issues discussed during the meeting of Naidu and Gates was the setting up of an AI University in Andhra Pradesh and cooperation.

While states will compete to draw investments, there is space for collaboration between states. In the imminent future economic hubs of one state will be more closely connected with those of another and the country is likely to witness the rise of economic belts which are spread across states.

Also Read: Collaborative Federalism at Display: Naidu-Reddy A Healthy Trend

The Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis underscored the point that he accounted for over 1/3^rd of the FDI India received and for 14% of India’s GDP. It would be important to point out that in 2024 Maharashtra was the front runner as far as FDI was concerned. Several MoUs were signed by the Maharashtra delegation. Fadnavis also met Hyundai Motors’ Executive Vice President Bum Kim, DP World’s Chariman Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem. Fadnavis also met with former UK Prime Minister, Tony Blair.

The Telangana CM Revanth Reddy stated that his government would work towards making the state a $1 trillion economy. During his meeting with the CEO of Unilever Hein Schumacher, Reddy also highlighted the geographical location of Telangana. The South Indian state signed agreements with several companies, the highlight being an MoU with Sun Petrochemicals.

Cooperative, Collaborative and Competitive Federalism

While it is true, that all states highlighted their economic potential it was interesting to see that the point about collaborative federalism between states was highlighted. Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis underscored this point while speaking at the opening of the Indian Pavilion. Fadnavis highlighted the point that governments from six states, ruled by different political parties, being present at WEF was a strong illustration of “cooperative federalism”. He also said that while earlier a handful of states were drawing FDI, today several others are framing futuristic economic policies to draw investment.

Remarks of Tamil Nadu’s Minister for Industries, Investment Promotion, and Commerce, T.R.B. Rajaa were interesting: “If I am going to fight for an investment and Maharashtra is trying to pull it for Maharashtra, and I’m trying to pull it into Tamil Nadu, I don’t mind as long as it comes and stays in India. We are all fighting together for India”.

Chandrababu Naidu tweeted a picture with Revanth Reddy and Devendra Fadnavis and also wrote “Team India at WEF”.

Also Read: Strengthening Para-Diplomacy: The Growing Role of Indian States in Global Economic Relations

The presence of high-powered state-level delegations at WEF once again highlights the growing importance of state governments in India’s economic diplomacy. It also shows that while states will compete to draw investments, there is space for collaboration between states. In a changing economic landscape, it is important for India’s states to not just learn from other’s successes but also to find synergies since in the imminent future economic hubs of one state will be more closely connected with those of another and the country is likely to witness the rise of economic belts which are spread across states.

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