SDG, green growth will top India’s G20 presidency agenda

Blending green and digital transition with the revival of global economic growth will top the agenda of India’s year-long G20 presidency beginning December this year. The G20 summit, under India’s leadership, will seek to achieve sustainable development goals by 2030, said newly-appointed G20 sherpa Amitabh Kant.

“India will use its political capital and leadership to evolve a consensus to also achieve short-term goals including on climate finance,” said Mr Kant at an event organised by RIS, a Delhi-headquartered think tank that works on development and economic issues in New Delhi on August 27.

“India will showcase its achievements, including in SDG localisation, as well as its development of open source platforms including on Covid-19 vaccination registration and unified payment interface,” said Mr Kant. He underlined that India has created a unique digital public infrastructure on the basis of individual consent, a model that can be replicated across the world. He exhorted emerging economies including Brazil and South Africa, the next two countries holding G20 to focus on sunrise sectors such green hydrogen and digitalisation of health and education to penetrate global markets instead of fighting for space in sunset sectors.

With the world in a deep turmoil and riven with multiple crises such as the Russia-Ukraine war, supply chain disruptions and the escalating US-China tensions, the G20 has a huge responsibility to reset global governance to meet these urgent global challenges, said Manish Chand, CEO & Editor-in-Chief, India Writes Network and India and The World magazine-journal.

In this regard, India’s presidency of G20 will be watched closely for the direction it sets for stabilising the global flux and crafting innovative consensus-based solutions to these global issues, said Mr Chand.

India will host the summit of the G20 grouping in September 2023, the first time New Delhi will host the leaders of the world’s most advanced economies. The preparations for India’s G20 presidency are in full swing, with a full-fledged secretariat set up by India’s Ministry of External Affairs. The government has appointed Harsh Vardhan Shringla, former foreign secretary, as G20 Chief Coordinator.