Will India meet global expectations? This is what was debated in a large televised room packed with serious corporate players yesterday (so this is where they are). Lots of talk about India’s role as regional power and growth rates, but then finally a brave panellist suggests that the number one priority has to be for India to develop its people. The moderator completely ignored this and went back to growth rates.

Frustrating given India really could stop its children going hungry and dying from preventable causes – with enough determination. Bangladesh, a poorer country, has made faster progress on cutting child mortality rates. Read more

Another weird day has passed. But all days at Davos are weird. One never knows what is going on, except for the fact that, wherever one is, one would be far better off somewhere else.

The highlight of yesterday evening was the opening address of President Nicolas Sarkozy of France. The speech is so classically French as to be a caricature of itself: bombastic, high-flown and verbose, it addresses a vast range of contemporary challenges, around the grand theme of moralising and containing capitalism. Yet, I have to admit, there is much in it with which I find myself in agreement. Read more

I never thought I’d read myself saying this, but there are times when a man can tire of debates about macro-prudential flexing of Basel 2 capital requirements. It’s hard to believe, I know – maybe it’s the thin mountain air that does it.

Fortunately, there are other subjects of debate this year. Bill Clinton came to talk about Haiti, and many others have reflected on the difficulty of organising effective responses to a disaster, in a state which was fragile beforehand, and where much of the usual government infrastructure does not function. The normal difficulties of co-ordinating the efforts of different countries and agencies are compounded, leading Clinton to advocate a small group imposed from outside to force a common approach. Read more

First session of the day is on ‘Rethinking humanitarian response’ and was again dominated by Haiti. Is it really all as chaotic as the media depicts? If the response was slow, slow compared to what exactly? What are the respective roles of the UN, government, NGOS, business and military?

I think we have the answers to these questions but there is not enough time and ongoing interest to build a shared understanding across the different sectors. Still, the room is not hostile and the concluding straw poll shows more people are optimistic than pessimistic about the scale-up in Haiti. Read more