Rama Krishna Sangem
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has voiced confidence that India will soon become “Viswaguru” (World’s Teacher), by taking along all countries on the Earth. He said this in writing for major media publications two days ahead of G-20 summit in New Delhi on September 9-10. Around 60 global leaders including US President Joe Biden, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres will be joining the summit.
The PM has used the word, Viswaguru, not Viswa Shakti (Super Power), a status sought by several other global majors like the US, China or Russia. By saying Viswaguru, Modi wanted to underscore India’s millennial years of legacy of a peaceful and soft power in the world. India wants to become a knowledge centre, rather than a power hub. For India, presidency of G-20 this year is not a diplomatic stature, but an opportunity to showcase its soft power and prowess.
In fact, PM Modi when he took over India’s presidency from Indonesia last November, he made some promises – to make G-20 a people’s centric movement for global development and growth. “We have kept this promise in the last one year. We have held not less than 200 meetings in 60 cities of India in which around 1,00,000 delegates from 125 countries have participated,” said Modi in an edit page article to a leading daily.
India, Global South’s voice
Global south is a word that represents the developing countries in the world. If the US along with G-7 and some Western countries are the developed world, the rest including China are considered developing countries (though China is much ahead of India on most parameters, it is still called an upper income country). So, the question comes who should be the voice of this Global South?
Of course, China wants to play the role, but India too is in the race. If China is wooing many poorer or developing nations, through its money lending power, India wants to get closer to these countries through its power of knowledge, helping or championing their causes on the global forums. Though China took the major initiative to expand BRICS by admitting six more countries recently, India too welcomed it, as part of its commitment to the Global South.
Even at G-20 summit later this week, India will be pushing through a proposal to include African Union , a 50 countries forum of the continent, into the G-20. Already, PM Modi wrote to all leaders of G-20 on this proposal and they have agreed to it too. If this happens, it will be a big boost to the world economy as it will benefit from the huge African Union’s entry.
Digital payments interface, women empowerment, climate change and sustainable development goals and inclusiveness are the focused areas on which India has done considerable home and leg work. PM Modi has stated that Global Biofuels Alliance will be a major step towards clean energy and combating climate change. After its initiatives on Global Solar Alliance and Green Hydrogen, this biofuels alliance will go a long way.
India took over G-20 presidency from Indonesia, a developing country and will hand over the same to Brazil, another voice from the Global South. In its brief 11 months presidency, India has set a new bench mark for G-20 – making it a people’s movement in true sense. Business opportunities will naturally come. But, more important is democratizing global supply chains and knowledge flows. Future will tell us to what extent India succeeded in this.
