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India’s G20 Presidency & Roadmap

Posted on August 12, 2022 by admin1  1878

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?
 
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