ManufacturingpresentsoneofthebiggestandthemosttransformativeopportunitiesforIndiatoreachtheambitious,yetachievable,targetofbecominga USD 30-trillion economy by 2047. India’s massive and skilled workforce, anemerging supply base,localizedaccess tonaturalresources, entrepreneurialcapabilities and a strong domestic market makes it an attractive manufacturinghub. Some of the current emerging trends in industry comprises of: Tech enablement of manufacturing (Industry4.0), reconfiguring production with focus on IT, 3D printing, advanced robotics, artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented reality. Besides, there is increased emphasis on servification of manufacturing.
Encouraging Sustainability: Green incentives, improved waste management, building a circular economy; adoption of Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) ratings and Goals. Higher integration with Global ValueChains remains a critical part of this process especially in the post pandemic scenario. It is in this context that India’s G 20 presidency plays a key role in highlighting major issues, given the current geopolitical and geo- economic scenario.India’s presidency can help voicing the concerns of global south, focus on issues relating innovation, sustainability and creation of knowledge frameworks, along with, encouragement of current emerging trends gaining ground in the existing Industrial milieu, promotion of digital public goods and enabling access of open source digital infrastructure across all strata of society and for all countries. The Group of Twenty (G20) is the premier forum for international economic cooperation. It plays an important role in shaping and strengthening global architecture and governance on all major international economic issues. The Group of Twenty (G20) comprises 19 countries (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Türkiye, United Kingdom and United States) and the European Union. G20 members represent around 85% of the global GDP, over75% of the global trade, and about two-thirds of the world population. The G20 Presidency steers the G20 agenda for the year and hosts the Summit. India’s invitees are: Bangladesh, Egypt, Mauritius, Netherlands, Nigeria, Oman, Singapore, UAE and Spain(permanent invitee). India holds the Presidency of the G20 from 1 December 2022 to 30 November 2023.Drawing inspiration from it’s G20 Presidency theme of ‘VasudhaivaKutumbakam’-‘OneEarth One Family One Future’. Business 20 (B20)is the official engagement group of G20 created in 2010 under the Canadian presidency, with the aim to galvanize global business leaders for their views on issues of global economic and trade governance and speak in a single voice for the entire G20 business community. This engagement group conducts work through various taskforces, the recommendations of which are summarized at the B20 Summit and presented to the G20 leaders prior to the G20 Summit. Under India’s presidency the work of the B20 is to be conducted through seven
(7) task forces and two(2) action councils, namely
Taskforces:
1. Inclusive GVCs for Resilient Global Trade and Investment
2. Future of Work, Skilling,and Mobility
3. Energy, Climate Change and Resource Efficiency
4. Digital Transformation
5. Financing for Global Economic Recovery
6. Tech, Innovation and R&D
7. Financial Inclusion for Economic Empowerment
Action Council:
1. ESG in Business
2. African Economic Integration
With India’s emphasis on world as One Family, as a corner stone of it’s Presidency, it is time to look forward to adoption of sustainable and positive steps enabling economic development across all countries and all income groups within the country.
A series of events including the subject-specific task force meetings with participation from businesses, policy makers, experts, and international diplomats are to be held as part of this agenda. Around 100 meetings and events, both hybrid and in-person have been planned across India and overseas under India’s Presidency.B20 Inception Meeting is to be held in Gandhinagar in January, 2023.
With a motto of ‘RAISE’ Responsible, Accelerated, Innovative, Sustainable and Equitable Businesses, B20 India would be an important forum for discussions and deliberations on various issues as climate action, innovation, digital cooperation, resilient GVCs, and financial inclusion. Start-ups have become the engine for innovation-fuelled economic recovery, reorientation, and growth.TheStart-up20Engagement Group, being initiated under India’s presidency of G20, aspires to create a global narrative for supporting start-ups and enabling synergies between start-ups, corporates, investors, innovation agencies and other key ecosystem stakeholders. The primary objective of the new engagement group is to develop an inclusive framework to support innovative start-ups, through strategic collaboration across the G20 nations. Given this entire perspective, some of the key initiatives assuming center stageare:
Emphasis on Digitalisation and industry 4.0. Businesses need to discuss global issues related to development and optimization of GVCs to intensify participation in global markets andexport diversification by businesses. It It is important to shape the future of GVCs in a sustainable and inclusive way to enhance economic growth and improve business competitiveness.
Ways to create employment at scale aligned to the jobs of the future and action plan for reskilling and upskilling of the workforce to operate in a world focusing on adoption of advanced technologies
Accelerating financing for economic recovery, particularly encouraging support towards MSMEs
Boosting efforts towards debt servicing and facilitating funding support for most vulnerable economies
Promoting financial inclusion amongst the G20 countries, particularly through digital financial services
Sharing best practices from strategies focused on the digitalization of financial services
In addition to environmental imperatives, priority would be given to sustainable, balanced and inclusive investment, balancing social and economic imperatives, keeping in mind the local and regional context.
All above mentioned initiatives/ objectives require collective and coordinated efforts amongst all G 20 nations, to take concrete steps in the post Covid World. While all countries are focusing on taking optimal steps for Post Pandemic recovery of their economies, the necessity of looking at collaborative and combined efforts for working towards synchronized and synergized economic development across nations, imbibing the principles of collaboration and cooperation assume critical importance. With India’s emphasis on world as One Family, as a corner stone of it’s Presidency, it is time to look forward to adoption of sustainable and positive steps enabling economic development across all countries and all income groups within the country.
(The author Principal Adviser, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India. Press Information Bureau-PIB Srinagar has mailed this article to “Kashmir Horizon” for publication in this newspaper. The views, opinions, facts, assumptions, presumptions and conclusions expressed in this article are author’s own and aren’t necessarily in accord with the views of “Kashmir Horizon”.)
