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How India Scaled the Mt. G20 - The Inside Story of the G20 Presidency: A Book Review

Writer's picture: THE GEOSTRATATHE GEOSTRATA

The world, unlike the past, stood at the crossroads of ever-increasing challenges such as rising geopolitical challenges, extremities of climate change and fuel shortages. The growing tensions needed leadership and hopes of driving actionable solutions to foster hope in a divided world.

How India Scaled the Mt. G20 - The Inside Story of the G20 Presidency: A Book Review

Illustration by The Geostrata


Under such interesting circumstances, India assumed the G20 presidency. The book, ‘How India Scaled Mt. G20: The Inside Story of the G20 Presidency’ published by Rupa Publications and authored by the G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant, gives an intense behind-the-scene outlook to strategic manoeuvering and backroom diplomacy that defined India’s successful presidency and Prime Minister’s Modi’s vision for a forward-looking agenda and a masterclass roadmap in complex global challenges.


TOWARDS AN INCLUSIVE WORLD ORDER


As the leading figure in India’s G20 presidency, Mr. Kant offers an outlook of how the well-rooted philosophy of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam - One Earth, One Family, One Future’ was simply not a slogan but a reflection of tireless efforts demonstrated by the long marginalised global south nations shaping India’s approach to the G20 discussions.


Amitabh Kant makes the case for the instrumental role played by India in enabling the G20 to grant full membership to the African Union, reshaping the global order toward a more representative order and giving a voice to the 1.4 billion citizens residing in Africa.


The notion of inclusive development and growth also underscored the announcement of the India-Middle East-Europe Corridor (IMEC), cutting across eight major economic powers and 40% of the global population, with India reinforcing its commitments to multilateral dialogue and inclusion that transformed the summit into a distinctly Indian take of world affairs, a path of sustained progress amid challenges.

India’s growing weight in shaping global economic initiatives has been demonstrated in the Indonesia-India-Brazil G20 Troika and the ‘Voice of the Global South Summit’, showcasing India’s potential diplomatic and political weight in shaping the narratives around diplomatic negotiations and its nuances. 


INCORPORATING DIPLOMACY AND LOCAL DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVES


The author also demonstrates India’s sheer capability of organising the conference spanning 60 cities and its actionable attempts toward nurturing inclusive governance. The massive campaign included the inclusion of notable achievements like the Deccan High-Level Principles on Food Security and Nutrition to the Jaipur Call for Action, emphasised the importance of nurturing regional diversity in economic development, where the elite G20 summit opened the gates to tier-1 and tier-2 cities in shaping the global agenda.


Kant indicates how the summit included local voices and key development initiatives, from revitalising lakes in Kerala to the rapid infrastructural developments in Lucknow integrating transformative initiatives and messages.


Similar initiatives like the G20 University Connect lecture series, Sandur Kushala Kala Kendra and the Prime Minister’s Lifestyle for Environment (LiFe) scheme related not only India’s traditions but also involved the diverse world community with India.

The government’s massive events like the ‘Jan Bhagidari’  scheme and the G20 Cyclothon rally, coupled with urban projects leveraging public engagements and digital communications, redefined India’s unique flavours of unity through large-scale development initiatives, diplomacy, art and its rich cultural heritage. 


NEW APPROACH TOWARD SUSTAINABLE PROGRESS AMID CRISIS


The book also offers the readers insights into the background challenges around successive G20 Summit, how India arose in the circumstances fraught with challenges in the post-COVID-19 era and how it starkly manifested the inequalities in our world.


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The summit under India successfully demonstrated in the New Delhi Leader’s Declaration the challenges in meeting the 2030 sustainable development targets. The unanimous adoption of the G20 Action Plan 2023 highlighting the much-needed transformation in areas such as gender equality, digital innovation, and sustainable transitions at the development ministers meeting in Varanasi is a case in point and a reflection of Prime Minister Modi’s dream and advocacy towards a future marked by opportunities of environmental sustainability and digital transformation.


Kant also demonstrates the importance of India’s remarkable achievements in digital public infrastructure (DPI) like Digital India, the Aadhar Project and the Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) that not only transformed the digital landscape but integrated millions of its citizens into its democratic developmental discourse.

The author also writes about how digital initiatives remained a centrepiece of India’s development agenda during its G20 presidency. Similar approaches have also been observed in the case of establishing a Working Group (WG) focused on women empowerment in the G20 presidency, which was also adopted during the Brazilian presidency. 


NEW DELHI’S DIPLOMATIC VICTORY AMID GEOPOLITICAL RIVALRIES


The book demonstrates the importance of leadership and courage with the audacity of harnessing actionable, transformative leadership. The intense negotiations demonstrated by Kant during India’s G20 presidency provide a hallmark of the nation’s commitment to incorporating sustained progress and action amid geopolitical conflicts and interests demonstrated by the key players such as Russia, China and the G7 countries.


India’s boldness was not limited only to the negotiation table but also to the gruelling sessions that brought all the like-minded nations together before the New Delhi Leader’s Declaration, which included the contribution of all countries and preserving New Delhi’s diplomatic victory. Therefore, the book indicates not only the success of India’s presidency but also the fact that it maintains an everlasting rapport with diverse stakeholders.


The book rightly offers an outlook for the world to envision G20 ‘as a positive next step’ where intense negotiations coupled with strategic manoeuvring and backroom diplomacy can define global governance mechanisms in favour of cooperation, actionable initiatives, and unity. 


 

BY ANIRBAN DUTTA

TEAM GEOSTRATA

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1 Comment


A perfect book review is when it emerges the urge to read the book ! That's what this review did. Excited for deeper insights

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