India Now an Essential Pillar of Global Economy, No Longer Emerging: WEF

At WEF 2026, Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu stated India is no longer just an emerging economy but an essential pillar of the global order, driven by trust, scale, innovation, and its digital public infrastructure.

India has moved beyond the label of an emerging economy and is fast becoming an essential pillar of the global economic order, said Ram Mohan Naidu, Minister of Civil Aviation, Government of India, at the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting 2026 in Davos. "India today stands at the intersection of trust, scale, and innovation, offering reliability through its stable democratic institutions, resilience through its diversity and size, and relevance through solutions that deliver value for money. No longer defined as merely an emerging economy, India is becoming essential to the global economic order", Minister Naidu said.

He was speaking at a luncheon session "Shift from Emerging to Pivotal: India in the New Geoeconomic Order" organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and KPMG, coinciding with the ongoing World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2026 in Davos today.

India's Broad-Based Transformation

Naidu further added that India's growth today is broad-based, it is digitally enabled, it is infrastructure-backed and inclusive by design. "This is the real transformation that India has witnessed in the last decade. And one of the most consequential changes in India's development model has been the creation of digital public infrastructure. Platforms like digital identity, real-time payments, and consent-based data sharing, and all these have given a certain kind of advantage for the Indian economy," he said.

"Lower transaction costs, formalised millions of entrepreneurs and enterprises, enabled startups to innovate without needing massive capital and delivered inclusion, not as a charity, but as a capability. This is why India is no longer just a consumer market, but a digital global laboratory," he added.

India's Role: 'Pivotal, Not Emerging'

Harsh Rameshkumar Sanghavi, Deputy Chief Minister, Government of Gujarat emphasised that for decades India was described as an emerging economy but today that description no longer captures the reality. India is no longer emerging, India is pivotal - pivotal to global growth, to resilient supply chains; pivotal to democratic stability and pivotal to the future of innovation, sustainability and inclusive development.

The Twin Pillars: Physical and Digital Infrastructure

Bill Thomas, Global Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, KPMG International said, "India's evolution over the years sums up the incredible momentum being built around physical and digital infrastructure. Even more importantly, every single year digital infrastructure has actually positioned India well."

Yezdi Nagporewalla, Chief Executive Officer, KPMG in India highlighted that the Indian government is reshaping opportunities and the greatest opportunity India has is its domestic consumption and the domestic capabilities. India, as a nation, as a geography, is in a very, very unique position today. "And it is unique because, on one hand, we are building physical infrastructure. But we also are parallelly building digital infrastructure," he added.

Leading the Way in AI Application

Rohit Kapoor, Chairman and CEO, EXL said, "Everybody is starting from scratch in terms of the implementation of AI models and implementing AI into the workflow and using it for business. So, this is the first time that a technological intervention is being made where nobody has any experience in terms of how this needs to be done. And therefore, the talent pool in India, instead of being directed what to do, is actually being challenged in terms of how to apply AI correctly on behalf of the world."

CII-KPMG Report Launched

During the session, a CII-KPMG report titled 'Shift from emerging to pivotal: India in the new geoeconomic order' was launched.

A Resilient and Dependable Partner in Supply Chains

R Dinesh, Past President, CII and Chairman, TVS Supply Chain Solutions said, "India represents big stability in the current external environment. I think as supply chains are being reconfigured, it's not just about cost anymore; it is also about how resilient it can be and how dependable the trust-based relationship can be. Here again, I think India has emerged as an acceptable partner for most countries."

Focus on Inclusive Growth and Systemic Reforms

Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) emphasised on the social dimensions of public investments and inclusivity of India's growth. He further discussed the manufacturing growth in India through technology and AI. Mr Banerjee highlighted the labour reforms taking place in India and mentioned about the simplification of Goods and Services Tax. (ANI)

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