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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
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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.
- The global agenda has been tilted towards investment, whereas science and technology are the driving force for
- 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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