Prime Minister Modi’s article on the achievements made during India’s G-20 presidency

Today has completed 365 days since India assumed the presidency of G-20. This is a moment to reflect, recommit to, and bring to life the spirit of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’, ‘One Earth, One Family, One Future’.

When India got this responsibility last year, the world was grappling with various challenges: efforts to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, growing climate threats, financial instability and debt crisis in developing countries. Moreover, weakening multilateralism was making these challenges more serious. Amidst increasing conflict and competition, the spirit of mutual cooperation among different countries decreased and this affected global progress.

After becoming the chair of G-20, India presented to the world a vision of human-centric progress by moving beyond GDP-centric thinking. India tried to remind the world what unites us. Our focus was not on what divided us. Ultimately, these efforts of India bore fruit, the global dialogue advanced and the aspirations of many countries were given importance over the limited interests of a few. This required a fundamental reform of multilateralism as we know it.

Inclusive, ambitious, action-oriented and decisive – these four words define India’s vision as Chair of the G-20. The New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration (NDLD), adopted unanimously by all G-20 members, is a testament to our commitment to act on these principles.

The spirit of inclusion has been at the center of our presidency. The inclusion of the African Union (AU) as a permanent member of the G-20 brings 55 African countries into the grouping, expanding its reach to 80 percent of the global population. This proactive step has promoted detailed dialogue in the G-20 on global challenges and opportunities.

The ‘Voice of the Global South Summit’, the first meeting of its kind by India, marked a new beginning in multilateralism. Two editions of this meeting were held. India was successful in mainstreaming the concerns of the countries of the Global South in the international discourse. This has ushered in an era where developing countries will get a fair opportunity to decide the direction of the global narrative.

Due to inclusivity, the impact of India’s domestic approach was also visible in G-20. This event took the form of a public presidency, which was quite appropriate considering it was the world’s largest democracy. Through “people engagement” programmes, the G-20 reached out to 1.4 billion citizens and included all states and union territories (UTs) as partners in the process. India ensured that the international community’s focus on key issues was directed towards broader development goals in line with G-20 obligations.

Keeping in mind the 2030 Agenda, India presented the G20’s 2023 Action Plan to accelerate the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). For this, India adopted a comprehensive action-oriented approach on interrelated issues including health, education, gender equality, environmental sustainability.

A key area driving this progress is strong digital public infrastructure (DPI). In this case, India, which has directly experienced the revolutionary impact of digital innovations like Aadhaar, UPI and DigiLocker, gave decisive recommendations. Through the G-20, we successfully completed the Digital Public Infrastructure Repository, an important step forward in global technical cooperation. This repository, covering more than 50 DPIs from a total of 16 countries, will help the Global South create, adopt and disseminate DPIs to harness the power of inclusive growth.

In the spirit of One Earth, we introduced ambitious and inclusive goals to drive immediate, lasting and equitable change. The Declaration’s ‘Green Development Pact’ addresses the challenges of choosing between tackling hunger and protecting the planet by outlining a comprehensive roadmap. In this roadmap, employment and ecosystem complement each other, consumption is climate change conscious and production is earth friendly. Additionally, the G-20 declaration calls for an ambitious tripling of global renewable energy capacity by 2030. The G20’s ambitions to build a cleaner and greener world are undeniable, with the establishment of a Global Biofuels Alliance and a concerted effort towards the adoption of green hydrogen. This has always been India’s value and through Lifestyle for Sustainable Development (LiFE), the world can benefit from our age-old traditions.

The declaration further outlines our commitment to climate justice and equity, for which the Global North has been requested to provide adequate financial and technical assistance. For the first time, the need for a massive increase in the total amount of development financing, from billions of dollars to trillions of dollars, was acknowledged. The G-20 recognized that developing countries need $5.9 trillion to meet their ‘Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)’ by 2030.

Given the need for so many resources, the G-20 placed special emphasis on the importance of a better, larger and more effective Multilateral Development Bank. At the same time, India is playing a leading role in implementing reforms in the United Nations, especially the restructuring of key institutions such as the UN Security Council, which will ensure a more equitable global order.

Gender equality was placed at the center of the New Delhi Declaration, which will culminate in the formation of a special working group on the empowerment of women next year. India’s Women’s Reservation Bill 2023, which reserves one-third of India’s Lok Sabha and state assembly seats for women, symbolizes our commitment to women-led development.

The New Delhi Declaration embodies a new spirit to ensure cooperation on these key priorities, focused on policy clarity, credible trade, and ambitious climate action. It is a matter of great pride that during our Chairmanship the G-20 achieved 87 outcomes and adopted 118 documents, which is significantly higher than in the past.

During our Chairmanship of the G-20, India led wide-ranging discussions on geo-political issues and their implications for economic growth and development. Terrorism and killing of civilians is completely unacceptable, and we must deal with it by adopting a zero-tolerance policy. We have to go beyond hostility and embrace humanism and reiterate that this is not an era of war. I am extremely pleased that India has achieved extraordinary achievements during our presidency: it has revitalized multilateralism, raised the voice of the Global South, championed development, and fought for the empowerment of women everywhere.

As we hand over the Presidency of the G-20 to Brazil, we do so with the confidence that our collective actions for all people, for the planet, for peace and prosperity will continue to resonate for years to come.

-Narendra Modi

(The author is the Prime Minister of India)