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The Indian Presidency of G-20 was a memorable event that facilitate exchange of culture, trade, and goodwill.
The finale, during September 2023 in New Delhi, was the culmination of an unbelievably complex exercise that merits multiple case studies at IIMs and other ‘business schools’. Here is an informal report. That it also promises great benefits for India— tangible and intangible—is a bonus.
Government of India and all those involved in the mammoth task must have heaved a collective sigh of relief as the last VIP guest was seen off and the gargantuan juggernaut came to an end. As we are all aware the
two-day jamboree in Delhi was preceded by year-long efforts to conceptualize and
flawlessly execute what is widely considered as crowning glory of the present government’s highly successful efforts at international diplomacy. Just to give you an idea of the dimensions of this mega event, undoubtedly the biggest India has ever hosted, (a) there were leaders from 20 member nations and
9 invited countries including 23 Heads of State + representation of 14 international organizations mostly at the top level and (b) a mind boggling 200 meetings were held at 60 locations. Just the team of POTUS consisted
of 19 aircraft, 60 cars, 150 journalists; 400 persons in all. If we assume that average size of a delegation was just 25 per cent of that of Biden and multiply it by the countries attending, we have an astounding figure of nearly 4000 foreigners assembling in New
Delhi and this is only the ‘two-day culmination of the Summit’ at the end of almost a full year’s work that started the day Prime Minister Narendra Modi received the official gavel in Bali from the president of Indonesia. Olympic games and even the Asian and Commonwealth ones do handle larger number of people but then they do not host a score or more of the tallest leaders of the world!
Just think of the logistics involved in arranging 200 high level meetings in 60 cities; sprucing up the host cities, fittingly receiving all guests, aarti-teeka-shawl routine, putting them up in hotels of their choice, parking
of vehicles and aircraft (for the New Delhi Summit some aircraft had to be parked at places like Agra as IGIA did not have adequate space), ferrying the VIPs to the meeting locations, photo opportunities, working out arrangements and special menus for each meal, gifts for the visitors, eco-friendly
floral decorations, their site seeing & other social visits, air quality checks, seeing off the leaders, not to mention the humongous ‘security bandobast’…..the exercise must have been a nightmare for those in charge.
Allow me to reflect on just one of the kind of problems that arise in an event of such magnitude. When the
Chinese delegation was checking in at the Taj Palace Hotel, security team noticed unusually large bags of some members. The team had of course advance instructions to facilitate smooth passage of ‘diplomatic baggage’ and yet size of the bags was too odd to evade attention of the vigilant trained eyes. Keeping ‘diplomatic protocols’ in mind they allowed the bags in. Once in the room, a staff member reported what looked like suspicious equipment. Superior security staff asked for the bags to be put through the scanner. The Chinese wouldn’t agree to that - especially they didn’t want anyone to see the contents. The 12-hour standoff, including several discussions with MEA, ended only when the guests agreed to send the “suspicious” bags to the Chinese embassy. Incidentally the delegation had also requested for a ‘separate private internet connection’ which was of course refused.
State of the Art ‘Media Centre’ at the Mandapam—spectacular venue for the summit - was by itself a major project. 2,000 odd foreign journalists + our own, installation of high speed internet, creating 1,300 work stations, provision of 400 laptops, several printers, 1,500 seats, lounges, information kiosks, help desks, medical room, briefing hall with 600 seats, refrigerators all over for water & soft drinks and variety of food catered by 5-star hotels. Journalists khush to sab khush! Most tenuous part of the event was reaching consensus on a ‘unanimous adoption of the ‘New Delhi Declaration’. This “Mount G20” was scaled after a nerve-wrecking exercise led by our ‘Sherpa’ Amitabh Kant and his select team of one additional secretary and three joint secretaries from the G20 Secretariat, regular interaction with the concerned ministers—EAM and Finance in particular - and even invoking the PM himself when parties got stuck on the language of the part pertaining to certain crucial issues in the document. PM’s mandate to Kant was clear—it had to be an ambitious & and inclusive presidency, with the interests of the ’Global South’ at the heart. The 83-paragraph unanimous document finally emerged after 15 drafts, 300 bilateral meetings at multiple venues including the magnificent ITC Grand Bharat Hotel in Haryana—on arguably the most complex part to bring consensus on the wording— understandably—of the Russia-Ukraine geopolitical issue. There are several points in this declaration including those pertaining to replenishment of the Green Climate Fund international taxation (c) enhancing cross- border payments (d) sustainable and inclusive growth (e) gender equality and empowerment of women (f) better access to global value chains, and (g) inclusion of African Union as permanent member of G20.
In addition to the possible economic and political gains, there are many benefits for our country and the time and money spent is well worth the gains. In any case, bulk of the amount has gone towards building infrastructure which would serve us well for decades. Let me recount some for your discerning readers.
Let us now look at the many intangible benefits for the nation:
■ Image of the country has taken a huge jump upwards and we are now likely to be a part of the high table in all global confabulations. The world seems to already treat us as a ‘hard power’ in contrast to our image of being a ‘soft nation’—not competent of taking any bold actions concerning its sovereign integrity against those who are a threat to the same. However unpleasant and tragic the stand-off with Canada may be, irrespective of India not having a hand in the killing of the extremist based there, every country realizes that India is not to be trifled with. In this situation of the two sides sticking to their stand, it looks like that Canada will blink first.
■ As the focus of the summit was on ‘Healing, Harmony and Hope’ for the World, there is now much greater chance of (a) galvanising green initiatives as one Earth (b) promotion of inclusive growth and narrowing of the divide between the rich and the poor and (c) synergisng of technology for one future.
■ All Heads of State and other visitors were exposed amply to our culture, music & dance as well as our awesome digital prowess and unique payments system and everyone seems to be keen on adapting the same. We have indeed taken a big leap on the digitization front and the world is now ready to learn the same from India.
■ Millions of eyeballs witnessing our ancient heritage Konark Wheel from the revered temple in Odisha—as the prime minister stood there shaking hands with or hugging all VVIPs arriving at the inaugural session of the summit and explaining to them how this architectural marvel was built in the 13th century—is bound to generate huge interest in our ancient history and how 800 years ago this unique architecture with geometrical patterns was carved and how its wheel was used as a sun dial. Many of our own people dismissed the photo op as an egotistical move by the PM but it was actually a brilliant idea for drawing attention of the global community in our unparalleled building competence long ago. Here’s something that the leaders could see for themselves and marvel at how advanced India was eight centuries ago. A similar effect was created by the 27 ft. tall ashtdhatu (special alloy made by mixing 8 metals) installed at the entrance to the imposing Bharat Mandapam, which is not just a beautiful sculpture but a testimony to our metallurgical skills. Everyone now knows its connection with the original bronze statue made in the ninth century, which got stolen and, after going around the world and through many auctions, finally landed in Australia and how the gracious government of that country returned it to India on ethical grounds and is now lodged in the National Museum. Obviously a lot of thinking and planning had gone into every single action related with the summit!
■ Visits of ‘Heads of State’ and First Ladies, to our ancient buildings like the Qutub Minar and Humayun’s Tomb as well as the display of the Konark Wheel and the Nataraja (one of the manifestations of Lord Shiva) are bound to give a huge—much needed—push to our tourism industry. As we are all aware the Qutub complex also has the fourth century, 24 feet tall astonishing Iron Pillar, which was constructed by Chandragupta, perhaps outside the Udaygiri caves, and moved to its present location by Anangpal Tomar in 11th century. Metallurgists worldwide have wondered how this unique anti-rust iron was created 1700 years ago long before modern metallurgy found stainless steel and other alloys. All these years the pillar—exposed to vagaries of nature—has stood proudly without even a speck of rust on it. Some VVIPs also went to see the third century BC Ashoka Pillar at Kotla Feroze Shah and the remains of the world’s oldest university in Magadha (now Bihar). How can we put a price on these immense intangible benefits to the country?
■ Then there was the awesome exposure of ancient Indian cereals— millets—at almost every meal used in a variety of scrumptious dishes created by the wonderful chefs of several star hotels in the city. Just think of the discussions in various groups about how these humble millets could well ensure ‘food security’ of the whole world which is shuddering about what is climate change doing to food productivity and nutrition content, also depletion of fish species in the seas and how all humanity could face food shortage in the not too distant future. Indeed, scientists are experimenting with plant based meats—especially from plants that are resistant to droughts and need less water for cultivation—and our own hardy staples (till the British rulers stopped their cultivation) like jowar (sorghum), bajra (pearl millet), ragi (finger millet), etc. in India, in favour of indigo and cotton, that they needed for their factories back home, and opium for trading, in the early 1870s and left our people vulnerable to famines. Cultivation of millets started dwindling and great tragedy of the Bengal famine claimed an estimated four million lives! Of course, an added factor for this holocaust was the cussedness of the British rulers to divert our stocks to their military forces. It was long after independence that we achieved some sort of food sufficiency with the celebrated ‘green revolution, led by Dr MS Swaminathan. For decades we survived on the rotten wheat from USA under the PL-480 largesse and lived under the horrid ration card scheme. It is a well-known fact that millets growing needs an average 1,000 liters of water/kg whereas wheat and rice consume anywhere between 1,650 to 2,800 liters. Also, as I have mentioned above, millets are largely climate resistant and also—unlike rice and wheat—have a lower glycemic index that leads to greater risk of diabetes and iron deficiency. Visit of at least eight First Ladies to the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) to enjoy a ‘farm to fork millet experience’ was a memorable day for our scientists there.
■ Imagine the joy of school children when Akshata Murty—First Lady of UK—went to play football with them or high powered VVIPs visited artisans at the Craft Bazar and Dilli Haat…the intangible gains are just too many to count. Detractors will of course criticise the money spent on the “jamboree” or children missing school for two days or inconvenience to commuters and loss to traders but these are all minor sacrifices for greater good of the country and what benefits we shall reap in the years to come. The Indian presidency of G-20 was indeed spectacular and we will cherish the memories for a very long time.
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