WEF: Shaping the Post-Crisis World

Shaping the post-crisis world: The world's top business and political leaders begin their five-day brainstorming on January 28 where they will search for solutions to the financial crisis with some 40-world leaders, but without the top finance officials of the new US administration who are occupied by the crisis or by the confirmation process at home.

Security beefed up: Swiss military police stand in front of the Congress center where the participants would hope to get a clue on tackling the global meltdown not seen in the last 78 years. The likes of CII President and ICICI Bank CEO and Managing Director K V Kamath, Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani, Kumar Mangalam Birla of the Aditya Birla Group, Anil Ambani of Reliance ADAG and Nandan Nilekani of Infosys would face questions on the unsavoury Satyam episode.

Leaders meet at snow-laden Alps: The meeting, at the Congress centre of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland will last until February 1. This time around, there would be more number of heads of state-- 40 as compared to 27 last year-- not just listening to 1,400 global CEOs but also doing some plain-speaking to them on businesses getting it all wrong.

Participants walk in: Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Premier Taro Aso of Japan have confirmed their participation.

The final touch: Workers finish to set up decorations inside the Congress centre. It is for the first time in the history of the annual Davos meeting of the WEF that the US economy, along with several others impacted by it, have slipped into the worst kind of a recession putting millions of jobs at stake. Whether Obama is able to do what Franklin D Roosevelt did to the sagging American economy 76 years ago would remain a hot debating point.

Before it's too late: In their wildest dreams, no one would have seen that this year's meeting at the Swiss ski resort could be held in the backdrop of the likes Lehman Brothers disappearing from the world business. Swiss Klaus Schwab, founder and president of the World Economic Forum has said that what the world is experiencing is the birth of a new era, a wake-up call to overhaul the institutions, systems and above all the way of thinking.

Together in the hour of crisis: From left, Vice Chairman of the American International Group, USA, Jacob Frenkel, Secretary General of OECD Angel Gurria, Former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon, and participant Iris Lavy attend a session at the World Economic Forum.

Speak up: Kofi Annan, former Secretary-General of the United Nations and Co-Chair of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2009 speaks during a press conference on the opening day of the meeting.

United with the rest of the world: Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao smiles as he arrives at the World Economic Forum. With the capitalist world suffering its worst battering since the Great Depression, the words of communist China's Premier Wen Jiabao and former communist Russia's prime minister Vladimir Putin will dominate the start of the elite five-day meeting.

Voices of discord: Supporters of Tibet protest against the presence of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao at the opening day of the Annual Meeting of the WEF. China has ruled Tibet since 1951 and the Dalai Lama, has lived in exile in India since fleeing his homeland after a failed uprising in 1959 against Chinese rule. Tensions came to a head on March 14, 2008 when violence erupted in the Tibetan capital Lhasa.

OPEC ready for more oil production cuts: Abdalla Salem El Badri, Secretary-General of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), speaking at the World Economic Forum expressed hope that global oil demand would pick up 'by the end of this year or beginning of next year.'

Keep over-regulation at bay: Asserting that the current economic situation does not call for over-regulation, Pepsico chief Indra Nooyi said it is time to challenge the corporations to examine their morality and ethics.

Help is indeed needed urgently: The United Nations launched an emergency appeal for $613 million to help Palestinians recover from Israel's attack on Gaza. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon- the first world leader to enter Gaza since an Israeli blockade of the territory in June 2007 - said failure to act urgently will lead to even greater humanitarian calamity.

America has to lead the way: Former US President Bill Clinton speaks during a session at the WEF, saying that recovery from the current crisis depends on ‘good support from Congress' for the plans being drawn up by Obama and his economic team. He said the Chinese premier was right that it all started in the US and concluded that America has to lead the way.

War on Terror: Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said that Pakistan would not allow use of its territory for terror activities. Terming the Mumbai incident as ‘unfortunate', Gilani said that the country condemned terrorism, whether it was in Mumbai or Islamabad or Karachi.

‘The crisis a perfect storm’: Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin hit out at US capitalist excesses for sparking the economic crisis as the Davos political and business summit made a gloomy start.

Who'll break the ice? European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, second right, hits a gong next to NYSE Euronext CEO Duncan Niederauer, right, CNBC TV presentator Geoff Cutmore, second left, and NYSE Euronext Deputy CEO Jean-Francois Theodore, left, during the NYSE Euronext European Opening Bell at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum.

Drawing close? Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, right, and former US President Bill Clinton seen during a reception hosted by Putin for participants of the World Economic Forum. Clinton must have thought he'd heard it all. But in a new era of billion-dollar bailouts, state control of the economy and bank nationalization, he discovered an unexpected champion of liberal markets: Vladimir Putin.

The foursome: From left, Secretary General of the Arab League Amr Moussa, UN Middle East Quartet Representative Tony Blair, Iraq's Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, and Vice-Chairman and CEO, Paltel Group, Palestinian Territories Abdul Al Jaber share a word prior to a session at the World Economic Forum.