The year 2021 witnessed continued pandemic disruptions owing to multiple variants of the virus emerging, which restricted economic activity and impacted global growth. As vaccination took hold, a robust bounce-back was visible in certain parts of the world; however, the multi-speed recovery in different regions and countries remains a concern as we await return to normal business operations.

An encouraging feature of the developments over the last two years is a strong approach to partnerships, with countries seeking to engage globally on various issues and drive cooperation and collaboration. The imperative for proactive partnerships has never been as urgent, given the emergence of common and shared challenges including the need to converge efforts for battling Covid-19, mitigating climate change, addressing loss of livelihoods, and shaping the digital world. Effective multilateral cooperation is required to address the disparities in growth and reprise the development path for all countries.

Businesses of the world represent a notable force in each of these imperatives and would remain important players in the goals that the world is looking to achieve. A joint endeavour by businesses to drive global growth and trade as well as participate actively in addressing global challenges can yield beneficial outcomes for the world.

India’s growth rebound over 2021 has captured global attention as it is set to be the world’s fastest growing economy over the next few years. Stepping up the pace of economic reforms, the Indian Government has prioritized the role of businesses in development and is working to create a welcoming climate for investments, including from overseas. With multiple initiatives under the template of Aatmanirbhar Bharat or self-reliant India, India seeks to be globally engaged and the participation of companies from across the world in the Indian growth story is set to increase.

The new areas of partnership that are emerging promise to shape business operations, create varied opportunities, and drive global networks for local growth. A conversation on partnerships to strengthen the emerging trends for creating new livelihood opportunities and make the world a better place is even more critical at this juncture as the world recovers from the pandemic.

In this context, the CII Partnership Summit 2021 comes as a timely platform to capture ideas and perspectives and consolidate partnerships for meeting global challenges and ensuring a collaborative approach to achieving business goals.