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Smajda will be missing too

NEW DELHI: The Prime Minister will not be the only one who would be missed at this year's India Economic Summit.

Also missing would be the World Economic Forum Managing Director, Mr Claude Smajda, who, in the past few years, had been starting the proceedings of the summit with a critical appraisal of the Indian economy.

Invariably, the appraisal would start with praise and then meander on to what all was wrong with the Indian economy and what needed to be done. On more occasions than one, the appraisal received a sharp response from the Finance Minister, Mr Yashwant Sin ha.

However, WEF officials were quick to point out that the only reason why Mr Smajda would not be attending was because he left the organisation about nine months ago.

But when newspersons pointed out that his name still appeared on the WEF Web site, the WEF Director, Ms Colette Mathur, said that Mr Smajda was still an advisor with the organisation. ``Mr Smajda left as he was getting old and wanted to run his own compa ny,'' she added. - Our Bureau