Home  /  Editorial Analysis  /  India’s G20 Presidency & Roadmap

India’s G20 Presidency & Roadmap

Posted on August 12, 2022 by admin1  61

In News

  • Recently, there has been a concern that the agenda, themes and focus areas that India will set for 2023, lack vision.
    • India will hold the G20 Presidency from 1 December 2022 to 30 November 2023.

India’s Plan

  • According to the Ministry of External Affairs, India will strengthen international support for priorities of vital importance to developing countries in diverse social and economic sectors, ranging from 
    • Energy, agriculture, trade, digital economy, health and environment to 
    • Employment, tourism, anti-corruption and women empowerment, including in focus areas that impact the most vulnerable and disadvantaged. 
  • Criticisms:
    • It has been criticised that, this plan lacks specificity. 
    • India has lost a chance to nudge the G20 and regional organisations towards its focus areas.
  • Challenges before India’s G20 Presidency
  •  

Know about G20

  • Origin:
    • The G20 was formed in 1999 in the backdrop of the financial crisis of the late 1990s that hit East Asia and Southeast Asia in particular. 
    • Its aim was to secure global financial stability by involving middle-income countries. 
    • As stated by the official G20 Website: 
      • “On the advice of the G7 Finance Ministers, the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors began holding meetings to discuss the response to the global financial crisis that occurred,” 
  • Objectives:
    • Policy coordination between its members in order to achieve global economic stability, sustainable growth;
    • To promote financial regulations that reduce risks and prevent future financial crises; and
    • To create a new international financial architecture.
  • Members & guests: 
    • Members: 
      • Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, India, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Union. 
      • Spain is also invited as a permanent guest.
    • Others: 
      • Each year, the Presidency invites guest countries, which take full part in the G20 exercise. Several international and regional organizations also participate, granting the forum an even broader representation. 
  • Together, the G20 countries include: 
    • 60 percent of the world’s population, 
    • 80 percent of global GDP, and 
    • 75 percent of global trade.
  • Presidency of G20 & Troika:
    • The presidency of the G20 rotates every year among members.
    • The country holding the presidency, together with the previous and next presidency-holder, forms the ‘Troika’ to ensure continuity of the G20 agenda. 
    • Italy, Indonesia, and India are the Troika countries right now.
  • Working of G20:
    • The G20 has no permanent secretariat. 
    • The agenda and work are coordinated by representatives of the G20 countries, known as ‘Sherpas’, who work together with the finance ministers and governors of the central banks. 
    • India recently said ex-NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant would be the G20 Sherpa after Piyush Goyal.
  • Meetings and Summits:
    • Since 1999, an annual meeting of finance ministers has taken place.
    • The first G20 Summit took place in 2008 in Washington DC, US. 
    • In addition to Summits, the Sherpa meetings (that help in negotiations and building consensus), and other events are also organised throughout the year.
    • The Finance Track:
      • Within the G20 process, Finance Track includes the meetings held among Finance and Economy Ministers, Central Bank Governors, Vice Ministers and Sherpas (negotiators) designated by the respective economic ministries.
  • Criticisms:
    • The G-20 has been criticized for various reasons like: 
      • Lack of transparency, 
      • Encouraging trade agreements that strengthen large corporations, 
      • Being slow to combat climate change, and 
      • Failing to address social inequality and global threats to democracy.
    • Membership policies:
      • The G-20’s membership policies have come under fire, too. 
      • Critics say the group is overly restrictive, and its practice of adding guests, such as those from African countries, is not proven very effective.

Suggestions & way ahead

  • Limited focus areas:
    • India should seek collaboration on limited focus areas around science and technology, building on resolutions of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and other multilateral bodies.
  • Emerging economies:
    • Emerging economies are no longer to be considered the source of problems needing external solutions but the source of solutions to shared problems.
  • Economic, social and human rights:
    • The starting point at G20 should be building on the global consensus in the Vienna Declaration on Human Rights 1993 reaffirming the indivisibility of all human rights. 
    • There is a growing recognition of economic and social rights — for example, in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. 
      • Ensuring adequate food, housing, education, health, water and sanitation and work for all should guide international cooperation. 
  • Employment and environment:
    • G20 can act as a forum to exchange experiences on societal benefits and growth as complementary goals would lead to fresh thinking on employment and environment.
  • Science and technology:
    • The global agenda has been tilted towards investment, whereas science and technology are the driving force for 
      • Economic diversification, 
      • Sustainably urbanising the world, and 
      • Ushering the hydrogen economy and new crop varieties as the answer to both human well-being and global climate change.
    • For global society to reap the fruits of the new set of network technologies, open access software should be offered at G20 for more cost-effective service delivery options, good governance and sustainable development.
  • Space technology:
    • Space is the next frontier for finding solutions to problems of natural resource management ranging from climate change-related natural disasters, supporting agricultural innovation to urban and infrastructure planning.
    • Analysing Earth observation data will require regional and international collaboration through existing centres which have massive computing capacities, machine learning and artificial intelligence. 
    • Open access to geospatial data, data products and services and lower costs of geospatial information technology facilities should be proposed at G20 as they do not require huge financial resources.
  • Public health:
    • Public health has to learn from the COVID-19 fiasco with infectious diseases representing a market failure. 
    • A major global challenge is the rapidly growing antimicrobial resistance which needs new antibiotics and collaboration between existing biotechnology facilities.
  • Global minimum taxation:
    • A Global Financial Transaction Tax, considered by the G20 in 2011, needs to be revived to be paid to a Green Technology Fund for Least Developed Countries.

Mains Practice Question 

[Q] What are the key areas of reform if the G20 has to survive in the present context, especially keeping in mind the interest of India?

Recent News

In News Recently, there has been a concern that the agenda, themes and focus areas that India will set for 2023, lack vision. India will hold the G20 Presidency from 1 December 2022 to 30 November 2023. India’s Plan According to the Ministry of External Affairs, India will strengthen international...
Read More

In News  Recently, the Chief Justice of India objected to the lack of media accountability in the media’s coverage of legal issues.  About  Social Media has emerged as a powerful platform for forming an opinion as well as generating mass support.  It can connect policymakers to stakeholders in real-time.  Individual...
Read More

Context In recent weeks, several arms of our polity have expressed concern over the culture of “freebies” in electoral politics.  Views on Freebies  The prime minister, in a thinly disguised attempt to delegitimize welfare announcements by political opponents, has called for an end to the “revdi” culture.  The prime minister...
Read More

In News : Recently United States House Speaker and senior Democratic Party politician Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan.  More In News  The United Nations does not recognise Taiwan as a separate country; in fact, only 13 countries around the world — mainly in South America, the Caribbean, Oceania, and the Vatican...
Read More

Context  Recently the Union Cabinet approved India’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) ahead of the 27th Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC (COP 27)in  Egypt.  About   India’s first pledge, also known as a Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), had three primary targets.  To reduce the emissions intensity of the economy by...
Read More

In News  Recently, Reserve of Bank of India (RBI) released Financial Stability Report (FSR) Financial Stability Report (FSR) It  is published biannually and includes contributions from all the financial sector regulators.  Accordingly, it reflects the collective assessment of the Sub Committee of the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC-SC) on...
Read More