India can transform and become the global leader, exporter, producer of electrolyzer and global champion of green hydrogen, but for that, multilateral institutions must also finance our entrepreneurs said India’s G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant on Monday.
Addressing a press conference ahead of the G20 summit in India, Mr. Kant said many of those issues would be discussed from December 13 to 16.
“The basic challenge is that many of the multilateral institutions do direct lending, they don’t do lending based on first-loss guarantee or credit enhancement or blended finance. The U.S. Treasury Secretary has said that these institutions should be restructured,” Mr Kant said.
Stating that India has built UPI, Bharat Pay, JAM Trinity, COWIN, DIKSHA, Swayam and many things, Mr. Kant said, “We have also created an inclusive and scalable model of health infrastructure, we are both the pharmacy and vaccine capital of the world, we have converged Ayurveda and Yoga.”
He said for the first time, India has created a new group in G20 called Startup 20, since India today has more than 80,000 start-ups. “We are giving a big thrust to startups,” he said.
“This is a huge opportunity to create a win-win collaboration between developing countries, global south and advancing countries. While we shape an inclusive future, we are also sharing India’s experiences,” he said.
He said for the first time India would be setting the agenda of G20 Presidency.
Mr. Kant said despite a challenging scenario, India has emerged as a global hotspot.
“We are bold and ambitious, reforms are driving our economy, fastest-growing large economy, largest energy consumer, number 3 economy in PPP terms,” he said.
“India assumes G20 Presidency in a time of global turmoil – climate crisis, job losses for 20 crore people, 10 crore people pushed into extreme poverty, disruption of global supply chains, regression in SDGs, debt crises, geopolitical, food and energy crises,” he added.
Mr. Kant said G20 has had a very major impact in the past on global economic and financial issues, on geopolitics, for example in 2008 crisis, recapitalisation of IMF, sustainable debt packaging to developing countries.
He said G20 is the most powerful forum, representing more than 85% of world GDP, almost 75% of global trade, almost 90% of global patents and and 60% of global population
“Powerful since not unwieldy like UN; both developed and developing countries are represented,” he said.
Emphasising that India’s objective is to create a unique experience of India for G20 delegates, he said “This is a huge opportunity for collaboration among states, to transform city infrastructure, to carry out reforms and to improve investment climate.”
“We can build a very big travel and tourism and leisure and wellness brand for India, through G20India,” he added.
About 215 meetings are scheduled to be held in 56 cities located in every state and Union Territory of the county.
