For the past several decades, emerging markets have been responding to the agenda set by the developed world, but with the G20 presidency India and other developing economies will set the agenda for the developed world, said Amitabh Kant, G20 Sherpa of India, on Friday.
He was addressing the members of the CII Southern Regional Council on the topic, ‘India’s G20 Presidency: India in the New World Order’. The Group of Twenty (G20) is the premier forum for international economic cooperation. India holds the G20 presidency from December 1, 2022, to November 30, 2023.
Kant said India’s successful G20 presidency will be determined by three factors, including political and developmental narrative of the country, priorities that India will lay out for the world, and how India will execute these priorities on the ground.
He said in the last eight years, the Indian government has constructed 40 million houses, 110 million toilets, 243 million piped water connections and 55,000 kilometres of road, besides providing electricity to every single household in the country.
He further said unlike in developed economies where digital innovations are driven by big tech companies, in India, the government has created a layer (like UPI) on top of which tech companies are building innovations.
“India’s digital transformation story and digital public infrastructure is what we are trying to tell to the rest of the world,” Kant added.
The former NITI Aayog CEO said there are four billion people in the world without a digital identity and 2.5 billion people without a bank account, and 133 countries do not have fast payment solutions. “If you want to transform the world and make a difference to the lives of citizens across the globe, then the model developed in India has to be replicated across the world,” he added.
Kant said the priorities of India as G20 president will be to push inclusive, resilient, and sustainable growth; accelerate the pace of sustainable development goals (SDGs); climate action and climate financing; and promote women-led development.
State champions
He said India’s GDP should grow at 10 per cent to transform the lives of its citizens and to lead the global economic growth. “That is not possible without having States as champions,” Kant added.
Kant said at least 10-12 States should grow at 10 per cent-plus to enable other States to grow, and added that the Southern States have to play a key and critical role here.
South India contributes to over 30 per cent of India’s GDP and it is a key driver not only in manufacturing and industrialisation, but also in several other spheres. “The south has left a deep imprint, and actually other regions of India have to emulate and follow what the south has done,” Kant added.