Covid-19 And India's Upcoming G-20 Presidency In 2022

In 2022, India will complete 75 years of independence coinciding with its presidency in the G20 summit.

- Kannan R. Nair

Amid the pandemic, the border tensions with China and President Trump’s announcement on United States withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO) is vital for India in the premises of its presidency for the summit which accounts for setting the global economic agenda and 90 percent of Gross World Product. With a rising toll of COVID-19 cases in India across the world and its increasingly significant for India to lead the post COVID era in regard to formulating opportunities for all.

Is G-20 Relevant?

The G-20 is a group of governments and central bank governors of 19 countries and the European Union. It includes two-third of the world’s population and 85 percent of the economy. The primary mandate of the grouping is for International Economic cooperation with particular emphasis to prevent future financial crises across the world. It plays a significant role in shaping the global economic agenda. From 1999-2008 the forum exalted from a grouping of Central bank governors and finance ministers to Heads of states.

The new standard created by the posture of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Korea) economies became essential to expand the G7. According to Prof. Rajan Kumar of JNU, “The G-7 was expanded to the G-20 when the West realized after repeated recessions that the global financial governance was not possible without including countries such as China, India, Turkey, South Africa, Australia and so on”.