Reinventing G20

India has set the bar high for G20. But will decisions taken at the summit be translated meaningfully on the ground?

- Seema Guha

SINCE last December, when India took over the chair of G20 from Indonesia, the summit was projected as a major feather in the government’s cap. Though G20 has a rotating presidency, India decided to make it a mega celebration—something no other country had done before. Ordinary Indians, even those not interested in foreign affairs, now knew that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was hosting important world leaders, so pervasive was the publicity around the event. The nation was bombarded for months with G20 cutouts at every nook and corner.

In fact, the celebrations began from day one, when the G20 logo was launched by the Prime Minister. Some 250 events were organised across 60 cities. It was a people-oriented celebration, with school and college kids participating in debates and workshops on the various themes of India’s presidency. Many Indians saw the G20 as a turning point, which would leapfrog India, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Vishwaguru, into the big league. India today believes that the time has come to take its rightful place on the world stage. Its economy is doing well, the Chandrayaan mission has made it one of the select nations to successfully send a mission to the moon, and in the next decade, India wants to emerge as the world’s third-largest economy.