#163: Compiled Story of G20
9 mins read
Imagine you are in a new fancy room
An old man walks in with a young man
Former is a Christian from Washington
Latter is a Hindu from London
In another corner, an old Indian man hugs a black man, some new beginning, it seems🤝🏻🥰
Congrats! You are in Bharat Mandapam for G20😅
The room is hosting G20 meeting with India as President
Old Christian is Biden, young Hindu is Sunak
The hug? Well, above image says it all.
No points for guessing: You are in the meeting of G20
The G20 that has 85% of Global GDP, 75% trade & 66% population
The G20 that is most high profile summit in India's history
The G20 that is set to be G21 with African Union
The G20 that does not have its own secretariat
You read it right👇🏻
G20 is not an 'institution' but a 'forum' with three key objectives:
1. Policy coordination to achieve global economic stability & sustainable growth
2. Bat for financial regulations to reduce risks & prevent future financial crisis
3. Design new international financial architecture
..and therefore, no secretariat of its own!
Fun Fact: G20 started as G22 in 1997 to deal with Asian Financial crisis
The crisis had spillover effect trapping Latin America and other parts of the world
In an attempt to sort it, a one time crisis-response meeting was called for firefighting.
The solutions here gave a credible face to the forum opening up newer dimensions.
1998: 11 more members invited for G33
1999: G20 formalized as an informal annual forum for Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors
For the next 10 years, it was not even a part of public discourse (as we see in India today)
So, what mainstreamed it?
2008 Financial crisis
France, as EU President, had called for an emergency meeting
(Crisis brought life to it once again, you see? *wink*)
Nov 2008: G20 Leaders meet in Washington DC with IMF, WB and UN as special invitees.
2008 onwards, annual meetings became a norm!
But how does this norm actually work?
• No secretariat, Presidency by rotation
• President responsible to set agenda, host summits and organize working with assistance from Troika Members
• Troika: Previous, Current and Next President countries
[Indonesia-India-Brazil are current troika, this also means India was assisting Indonesia last year and will assist Brazil the next year]
Among the grand show in Delhi, Did you know?
Decisions taken at G20 meetings are not implemented automatically?😲
Why, you wonder?🤔
G20 is a forum, remember?💡
Leaders come here to signal their intent which is later implemented by Int'l organizations and the countries
"Hm, I am getting it @CSEWhy. But how did India become President?"🤔
Well, the countries are divided in 5 groups.
Presidency is decided by rotation. Every country in a group is eligible and sit down to negotiate among self when it is their turn.
India is in Group 2 with Russia, S. Africa and Turkiye.
(and we negotiated our way to win this one😉)
Umhm, okay.
But meeting in Delhi is where the global leaders are coming.
What was meeting in places like Kashmir, Varanasi, Chennai and 50+ places all about?
You are a serious #UPSC aspirant if you are thinking of this question. 😄
The working structure includes 3 major tracks
Official: Finance & Sherpa tracks Civil society
Unofficial: Civil Society Groups
Finance track is headed by Fin Min & Governors of Central Banks who meet 4x a year to address the fiscal & monetary policy issues
Sherpa track headed by Sherpas who are appointed by President/PM to focus on socio-economic issues (agri, health, tourism, etc)
Unofficial track hosts non-govt. participants to deal with gamut of issues
All three draft recommendations for the leaders to contribute to policy-making process
So @CSEWhy, these people do the real work. I get it but what do leaders meet for?
To issue consensus based declaration
The ones that outline common positions on diverse range of matters.
Interesting. Now, think of where we started "Imagine you are in new fancy room"
How can you be in this room for real?🤔
Crack #UPSC to become an Indian diplomat.
For this, you need to take two important steps among others:
1. Prepare current affairs seriously
2. Focus on personal mentorship for your preparation
For both, you need @CSEWhy
(Follow for personalization and join Telegram for daily current affairs!)
Need any help with your prep? Write to me at whycse[at]gmail[dot]com
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