India’s Presidency of the G20 summit will go down in history as one of the most vibrant, inclusive, and goal-oriented summits that have taken place so far. The G-20 summit has not only helped India in showcasing its push for development, but also enabled it to project its technological prowess, which has been used to change the lives of 1.4 billion Indians, raising their standard of living, and exploring the alternative to ‘Energy of the Future’.
India under the able leadership of PM Modi has seen significant accomplishments and highlights, as it brought together all member countries to address important global issues, especially the Russia-Ukraine war, and amplified the voice of emerging markets as mediators, and also included the African Union into the G-20 group. The New Delhi Declaration, which was issued by the PM Modi has perfectly outlined the direction for future negotiations on key economic, social, and diplomatic matters.
This was unarguably the most vast G20 event in history, as far as the scale is concerned. The G20 event has held 220+ meetings, in 60 Cities, covering all Indian States and Union Territories, with 25,000+ delegates arriving from more than 115 countries across the world. The event reflected and propagated the message of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ as it also availed the largest participation from the ‘African Union’.
The G20 events held across India offered an opportunity to showcase inclusive growth across various sectors.
- Here are some critical footprints of India on G20 outcomes
- Deccan High-Level Principles on Food Security and Nutrition
- Chennai High-Level Principles for Blue/Ocean Economy
- Goa Roadmap for Tourism
- Gandhinagar Implementation Roadmap for land restoration.
- Jaipur Call for Action to enhance MSME’s access to information.
- Delhi Summit inclusion of African union as a permanent member of G-20.
India’s capable leadership infused unity in the World Power
India was able to bring all powers onto the negotiation table, and created a consensus on Russia-Ukraine war. It was India, which acted as a catalyst to include the 55 nations of African Union, which spread the India’s growing message of inclusive growth and becoming a voice for all.
India pushed the agenda of One Earth, One Family, One Future, which talks about prioritizing sustainability-based development to reduce pollution and other burden and offer a better world for our future generations. India’s efforts to push for food security through the promotion of Millet and ensuring equitable healthcare for all also garnered adequate support and appreciation from all quarters.
Here are some important achievements of India
Green Development Pact for a sustainable future – This summit will be known for giving importance to ensuring sustainable development growth to decrease the burden that would be passed on to future generations. To ensure this climate finance has been set up so that developed countries meet the USD 100 billion goal Signaling an ambitious New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) beyond 2025.
Technological Transformation and Digital Public Infrastructure – India effectively showcased how technology can be used for ‘Minimum Government, Maximum Governance’. With the increased access to technology, governments can ensure better transparency and efficient delivery of services to the last mile. The digital economy has helped India to create million of new job opportunities and uplift millions of people from multidimensional poverty. Indigenously developed technology platforms coupled with the cheap Data has helped in propelling India to new heights.
India’s Human Centric approach appreciated – India showcased its resilience, path for development whilst ensuring welfare of citizens equitably. Easy access to welfare, providing affordable and quality healthcare. The increase in social security by provision of homes for the homeless, banking the unbanked, giving access to clean drinking water and toilets, have piqued interest of countries that have participated, as it showcased the scale and speed with which it was delivered.
Multilateral Frameworks and Institutions for 21st Century – G20 event helped in showcasing India’s aspirations of achieving goals that were unthinkable few years back. Here are few important multilateral Frameworks and Institutions evolved as an outcome of this summit.
- MDB reforms: Strengthen, Evolve, Raise ambition of MDBs; Expert Group Report (Vol I)
- Crypto Assets Roadmap; IMF-FSB Synthesis Paper
- G20 commitment to Common Framework for Debt Treatment beyond DSSI
- IMF quota review (December 2023)
- Multilateral reform – UNGA 75/1 (UNSC) reference
- Condemning and countering terrorism
New Mechanisms for Energy – The G20 event also witnessed the push for promotion of Startup ecosystem across the world and use of alternate fuels to reduce dependency on fossil fuels. Discussion of alternate fuels such as Hydrogen, ethanol blending and faster adoption of renewable energy to ensure sustainable growth to support nations energy demands were discussed.
Gender Equality and Women Empowerment – The G20 event pushed for the inclusive participation of girls in the education sector and women in the workforce. India showcased the various steps taken to ensure the provision of women-oriented healthcare and increase opportunities for women through access to bank accounts. India also showcased increased participation of women in STEM.
India was able to put its Narrative – PM Modi’s has called for implementation of the following narrative.
- Adoption of principles of LiFE
- Using technology for governance
- Access to quality healthcare equitably
- Promotion of Millets ensuring food security
- Reducing land degradation
- Skilling of youth to meet future proof them
- Increased inclusive participation in the labor force
- Women empowerment
- Building of disaster resilient infrastructure
How India’s presidency was different from previous ones?
Compared to previous presidencies the G20 event witnessed, the current one was unarguably the most inclusive and delivery-oriented events. India was able to bring out 91 line of efforts and presidency documents which is more than the previous G20 presidencies till 2017.
- 73 outcomes (lines of effort) and 39 annexed documents (presidency documents, not including Working Group outcome documents).
- With 112 outcomes and presidency documents, Bharat has more than doubled the substantive work from previous presidencies.
- 2x-5x number of outcomes and annexed documents as compared to previous presidencies.
In the end, we can say that the Indian Presidency of the G20 has been the most ambitious and action oriented in all of G20 Presidencies. India was able to put forth a collective agenda, was able to create a consensus, was able to prevent unnecessary issues and make it the most successful G-20 Summit ever.