Davos: It's India everywhere in this snow- covered Swiss resort town – once known for health tourism, always frequented by skiing enthusiasts and home to the annual week-long pow-wow of global elite in sub-zero temperatures.
For now, it teems with huge billboards atop buildings and even on buses, promoting India and Indian companies, while the narrow roads made even narrower by heavy snowfall are full of lounges set up by the private and public sector from the country where Indian delicacies are flying off the counters.
Chai and pakodas are in high demand and so are vada pao and dosas. The choices to sit and munch over are plenty -- there is the Indian government's official India Lounge, while Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra governments too have set up their own lounges. Then, there are plenty of Indian companies with their own setups alongside those of the global ones.
India's presence has been increasing at the Davos meeting, during which hundreds of Indians can be seen strolling on its narrow roads, one of which has been hosting an 'India Adda' for many years.
For the last two years, it had been renamed Make In India lounge to showcase the flagship programme of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but regulars still prefer to call it by the old name of India Adda. This year, it is called simply India Lounge.
The five-day WEF affair seems to be bigger this year and so does the snowfall, as the first day itself saw roads getting closed and serpentine traffic since morning.
Flush with nearly three times its usual population, the Swiss resort of Davos is teeming with black business suits for the WEF annual gathering, but it still cannot deter the skiing enthusiasts and those coming for medical tourism.
There are warnings that the snow-laden town in the Swiss Alps can see temperatures dipping to as low as minus 30 degrees this season. But that does not seem to have dampened the spirits of those having come to the annual talkathon of the rich and powerful from across the world -- something that has become synonymous with this place for nearly five decades now.
The event has also brought thousands of army, police and other security personnel from across Switzerland and some neighbouring countries as well to secure the summit being attended by over 70 heads of states and governments.
Once famous for being a summer health resort, Davos has gradually emerged as a major winter sport hub on the Alps, but its biggest claim to fame for the past four decades has been the World Economic Forum's annual meeting every January, beginning 1971.
The Geneva-based WEF is hosting its 48th annual meeting here beginning Monday, where more than 3,000 leaders from across the world are expected to participate in a high-profile talk fest for five days.