The World Economic Forum's annual meeting would be held in Davos in 2004, but it is not certain if Davos would host the meeting in 2005.

WEF is now planning to adopt the World Bank practice of holding its annual meetings outside Washington every third year.

Last year, the WEF annual meeting was held in New York. With Davos hosting the meeting in 2003 and 2004, the search for a new venue is on. But the question is how many cities will have the infrastructure to offer the kind of security and hospitality Davos is famous for? Also, the number of delegates that throng the annual meeting is on the rise.

This year, over 2,300 people participated at the meeting. This included 24 heads of state, 82 cabinet ministers, 67 heads of international organisations, 13 labour leaders, 74 heads of non-governmental organisations, 177 academics and 1,300 business leaders.

Saddam & 'NRI's

NRIs had a special session at Davos on Tuesday. No, these were not non-resident Indians. They were non-resident Iraqis, all of them except one in exile. The one not in exile was Barham Salih, Prime Minister of Kurdistan's regional government, an independent territory adjoining Iraq.

There were seven other non-resident Iraqis, all of whom were in exile in the UK. They were unanimous in their view that democracy could be restored in Iraq. All of them seemed to be waiting for an opportunity to get back to their country once Saddam Hussein was marginalised.

What kind of punishment do they want for Saddam Hussein for committing genocide in Iraq?

"We believe in democracy. This question would be answered by the people of Iraq in the new Parliament that would hopefully be in place soon," said Salih. Clearly, George Bush is not alone in his recent initiatives.

Technology vs privacy

The future of technology may be bright but the path may well be strewn with controversies. Scot G McNealy, chairman, president and CEO of Sun Microsystems, had a taste of that when he told a session on technology that very soon the market could be flooded with a small chip that could be placed on any commodity or even on a human being's coat or jacket and this would enable remote tracking of the movements of the commodity or the human being.

"If I have done it for my dog back home, what is the problem, if that can be done on my child and if that helps me keep track of him?" asked McNealy.

The reaction from quite a few participants took the Sun Microsystems chief by surprise. There were questions about privacy and why technology should be allowed to intrude upon an individual's privacy.

Regulated auditing

Here is a message for Indian accountants and auditors. Samuel A DiPiazza Jr, global CEO of PricewaterhouseCoopers, says that the problem with auditing can be solved only with legislation and regulation. The need is to shift from accountability to transparency.

DiPiazza Jr went on to say how auditors must think of creating a more transparent system for investors and how corporate reporting of financial numbers should be changed. There was also a view that merely shifting the burden of responsibility to audit committees would not solve the problems.

Managing a downturn

Here is a new five-point action plan from Michael E Porter, professor of business administration, Harvard Business School, on how to manage a downturn.

One, managers must realise that downturns create opportunities. Two, it is important to have a positive agenda. Three, it is also important to have a strategy. Four, the managers should never over-react. And, finally, managers must take the opportunity to restructure and restore integrity to the company's accounts. Seems fairly simple!

Chinese NPA blues

ICICI Bank managing director and CEO, KV Kamath, took a swipe at the Chinese banking system at a session on bank restructuring.

"If you look at the situation in China, it worries me as a banker," he said , pointing out that Chinese banks are estimated to have $600 billion worth of non-performing assets, which is about 60 per cent of that country's GDP.

Kamath, of course, mentioned about the Indian bank's NPA problem, but the perspective was important.

Indian connection

The next China Economic Summit of WEF scheduled to be held in April will have an unusual co-chairman. It would be a person from India. No one as yet knows if the 2003 India Economic Summit in November would have a reciprocal arrangement with China.