Jharkhand will make its debut at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos later this month, with Chief Minister Hemant Soren leading the state’s first-ever delegation to the global gathering…reports Asian Lite News
Jharkhand will make its first appearance at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos from January 19 to 23, with Chief Minister Hemant Soren leading the state delegation, an outing the government has described as a milestone moment coinciding with 25 years since the state was carved out of Bihar. Officials say the debut at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum reflects a conscious effort by the resource-rich but often overlooked eastern state to move from the margins of global economic conversations into a more active, visible role.
For the first time, Jharkhand’s traditional greeting “Johar” will be heard at the forum in Davos, a symbolic gesture that officials say underlines the state’s intention to project its indigenous identity alongside an investment-focused outreach. The participation has been framed around the theme “Growth in Harmony with Nature”, which the government says captures its attempt to balance economic ambitions with social and environmental responsibilities in a region long shaped by mining and forest economies.
According to official sources, Jharkhand plans to use the Davos platform to position itself as a destination for responsible investment across sectors including critical minerals, mining and downstream processing, electronics and electronics components manufacturing, electric mobility, renewable energy, textiles, tourism and forest-based products. These focus areas are aligned with the state’s Vision 2050, which emphasises value addition, employment generation and sustainability rather than raw extraction alone.
A senior official travelling with the delegation said one of the central engagements will be a Chief Minister–chaired roundtable on January 21 at the India Pavilion titled “Jharkhand’s Critical Minerals Opportunity: From Geology to Value Creation”. The session is expected to bring together global industry leaders, policymakers and institutional partners to deliberate on secure and ethical supply chains, sustainable mining standards, processing and refining capabilities, and circular economy approaches. Officials say the discussion is intended to highlight how mineral-rich regions can move up the value chain while addressing environmental and social concerns.
Jharkhand is among ten Indian states selected to participate at WEF 2026, alongside Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Kerala. India’s overall presence at the forum will also include Union Ministers and more than 100 industry leaders, an approach officials have described as a coordinated national and sub-national engagement aimed at presenting investment opportunities across regions rather than only at the federal level.
State officials said Jharkhand’s interventions at Davos will foreground the perspectives of resource-bearing regions that have historically borne the social and environmental costs of growth. The delegation’s programme includes bilateral meetings and thematic discussions on electric mobility, energy security, climate action, forest and bio-economy, women’s empowerment, healthcare, food processing and emerging financing mechanisms. The government says these conversations are intended to attract partnerships rather than one-off investments.
The WEF Annual Meeting 2026 is expected to draw around 3,000 participants from nearly 130 countries under the themes “A Spirit of Dialogue” and “Unlocking New Sources of Growth”. The meeting may also be attended by U.S. President Donald Trump, adding to the political and economic weight of the gathering.
Beyond investment pitches, Jharkhand is also using its Davos debut to project a less familiar narrative rooted in deep history and living culture. The state plans to showcase its ‘living’ megalithic tradition, presenting it as an example of how ancient human practices continue to shape contemporary identities. Officials say this cultural dimension is intended to complement economic messaging by situating development within a longer civilisational and ecological context.
Jharkhand lies on the Singhbhum Craton, one of Earth’s earliest stable landmasses, formed over 3.3 billion years ago. Across this ancient geological foundation, human communities have for millennia raised megaliths, monoliths and stone circles to mark memory, ancestry and cosmic order. Unlike most megalithic cultures worldwide, which survive only as archaeological remains, Jharkhand’s stone traditions remain active and living, maintained by indigenous communities who continue to use these sites for ritual and remembrance.
Sites such as Chokahatu in Ranchi district, described by researchers as the largest living megalithic landscape in the Indian subcontinent, continue to receive new memorial stones placed by the Munda community. This has created a layered archive of lineage and memory that stretches across centuries. At Pakari Barwadih in Hazaribagh, carefully aligned monoliths track the movement of the sun and the Equinox, placing Jharkhand within the global history of prehistoric astronomy. These formations have drawn comparisons with Stonehenge in the United Kingdom, reflecting a shared human impulse across continents and millennia to anchor time, death and cosmic order in stone.
Together with cave complexes such as Isko and the fossilised forests of Mandro, these landscapes represent a rare continuum in which deep planetary time and living human culture coexist within the same geography. The Jharkhand government says that by taking this story to Davos, the state hopes to signal that its development narrative is not only about minerals and markets, but also about memory, continuity and stewardship.
