Akshra Gupta
The India’s presidency of the G20 which began in December last year is now under global attention. The theme for this year is ‘VASUDHAIVA KUTUMBAKAM’ which is a phrase taken from the Maha Upanishad, a later Vedic text. It means, ‘The world is one family’ – precisely what the Globalization actually is. The phrase from the ancient Indian historical text is so relevant in the today’s world order where everything is so interlinked and India is rightfully leading it through its presidency.
G20 (Group of 20) is an intergovernmental forum for international economic cooperation. Unlike any other international organization such as the UN, it doesn’t have its own headquarters or staff and unlike any treaty such as NATO, there are no binding guidelines. Since its birth, G20 has always been evolving. Rewind to the last years of the 20th century when the world was recovering from the Asian Financial Crisis, the first G20 meeting took place but at that time, it wasn’t a summit level meeting. It was just an informal discussion among the finance ministers of the countries. After the Financial crisis of 2007, the first summit level meeting of the G20 took place in Washington, USA when the G20 was elevated to level of the heads of state/government. It was a time of realization among the powerful global leaders that they alone cannot lead or drive the global economy and thus, the need was felt to expand the G7 to more inclusive G20. Fast forward to 2023, when India holds the G20 Presidency along with the troika including the preceding president Indonesia and succeeding President Brazil. Three of these consecutive presidencies are the countries of the Global South.
It consists of 19 countries (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Republic of Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, United Kingdom, USA) and the European Union. Apart from these countries, there are some invitee countries like Bangladesh, Egypt, Mauritius, Netherlands, Nigeria, Oman, Singapore, Spain and UAE plus international and regional organizations as well. India as a president will be inviting International Solar Alliance, Coalition for Disaster Relief Infrastructure and Asian Development Bank.
The G20 has two official tracks namely, the Sherpa Track (headed by the representatives of the head of the state with the focus on socio- economic issues) and Finance Track (headed by finance ministers and central bank governors with the main focus on the issues of fiscal and monetary policy) and one unofficial track which includes the civil society and engagement groups.
India’s agenda for this year’s G20 is inclusive, action oriented, ambitious and decisive. It will lead the G20 in addressing issues of climate change, actions on climate finance, a global ecosystem for green and clean hydrogen, accelerating the accomplishments of the Sustainable development goals through lifestyle for the environment (LiFE) which was a campaign introduced by India at COP26 for movement to make our lifestyle in a way which is favorable for the environment. Apart from this, issues like energy security, disaster reduction and resilience, launch of global sovereign debt roundtable, nutritional security, terrorism, Inclusive technology, promoting digital public infrastructure (DPI) and women led development are also on the list. Also, India launched the International Solar Alliance in 2015 and by this G20 summit, India will start its efforts through the Global Biofuels Alliance. All of this becomes very important at a time when the entire world is looking towards energy transition.
India has also been pursuing an attempt to make the “summit level” G20 meet a “people’s level event”. In the press release by the government when it attained the presidency, it announced its intention to take G20 closer to people and make it truly a ‘people’s G20’. It was not only limited to national capital but over 200 meetings were organized in about 60 Cities from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. It is so special because none of the previous presidencies have hosted G20 in such a massive and expansive scale taking it to the lengths and breadths of the country. The spotlight was especially on Kashmir, where the G20 Tourism Working Group meeting took place in May, 2023. It was seen with an awe as it was the first international meeting in Jammu and Kashmir since the abrogation of article 370 and it had also irked Pakistan which was expressing dissatisfaction over it. India has taken it out to the masses of the country and it will also contribute in generating global awareness among the Indians.
India has also been the presidency which has brought into picture the aspirations of the global south. It is the first presidency where the delegates of as many as 125 countries have participated of which there’s a good share of third world countries making the global list of issues more inclusive and all encompassing. India supported the full-time membership of the African Union in the G20, and promoted their special concerns such as debt burden, poor health infrastructure and energy needs. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in an article which was on many newspapers on Thursday, “As the G20 President, we had pledged to make the global table larger, ensuring that every voice is heard and every country contributes. I am positive that we have matched our pledge with actions and outcomes” He also added that, “an interconnected world means our challenges across domains are interlinked”.
It seems as if India is rightly standing on its theme of VASUDHAIVA KUTUMBAKAM where it managed to not just lead the G20 countries in addressing the current global challenges but also at a time where the international atmosphere is quite turbulent, especially after the escalating West East tensions post the Russian invasion of Ukraine which has spurred the global inflation and has divided the world into blocs once again. Moreover, it is also a time when increased polarization can be threat to multilateralism. With the changing global order, India can see itself becoming a voice of the Global South at one hand with its ever-increasing significance in the international table on the other.
(The author is a Third year student of Delhi University)
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