Jan 27 : At a cozy upmarket resort somewhere in the Swiss Alps, speaker after speaker will hold forth from today on what they would do to save the world. This will be broadcast and reported around the world. This is not the Miss World contest; it is the annual jamboree of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Everyone needs it, and does it — businesspeople, politicians, doctors, chartered accountants, writers, artists, lawyers, and even journalists! But that would be too banal a label for a gathering such as this. A higher purpose has to be found, and what better purpose can there be than saving the world? It is the same reason that a carbonated drink company says it wants to make a difference, and an international beauty pageant contestant says all she wants is world peace! The truth is often not glamorous enough.

The theme of this year’s forum, which ends on Sunday, is "Improve the State of the World: Rethink, Redesign and Rebuild". Isn’t it a little too ambitious, too grandoise a description of what ultimately is a very high-profile global networking event? There’s absolutely nothing wrong with networking.

So what exactly does Davos mean to the world? The WEF’s 40th annual meeting, to be inaugurated on Wednesday by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, will bring together 30 heads of government, a sprinkling of politicians (among them India’s Kamal Nath and Anand Sharma), civil society figures and over 1,400 business people from around the world, including a gaggle of India Inc icons and CEOs (Wipro’s Azim Premji is one of the WEF’s six global co-chairs). It is strange how it is often talked about as some kind of supernational forum, of the likes of G-8 or G-20 where key decisions have been taken, particularly in recent years, on how to deal with major global crises. While it is true that powerful men and women flock to this latter-day 5,000-feet-high Mount Olympus to deliberate on current global issues, it takes quite a leap of imagination to claim that they solve the problems of the world. Think of that other forum where global leaders have come together in unprecedented numbers for over half a century: the United Nations. The UN’s record in resolving the big issues of the day — the Israel-Palestinian conflict, the crisis in the Balkans which followed the breakup of the Soviet bloc, the decades-long Sri Lankan conflict which has just ended or the ethnic and tribal bloodletting that has plagued Africa — has at best been somewhat patchy. One reason for the UN’s lack of effectiveness on these issues is the visible disinterest shown by the great powers. Something similar was witnessed at last month’s much-hyped climate change conference, which finally fell flat in the face of such disinterest.

So can Davos work the kind of miracles that other forums could not? It seems unlikely. The American President will not be there, nor will the leaders of Russia, China, India, Britain, Germany and Japan. Can any real, long-lasting solution to the problems of the world be evolved in their absence? It had become fashionable till recently to downgrade the importance of the nation-state in international decision-making; but the last two years have shown that governments still matter, even in the West. In these circumstances, Davos’ "Rethink, Redesign and Rebuild" appears a little overhyped. It is best to regard it for what it is: a celebrity-studded international talking shop of corporate leaders, with a few political, social, NGO and media figures along with a writer or two like Paulo Coelho thrown in to add to the masala!