Dear Editor,
India is hosting the G20 summit this weekend in Delhi. It will be the largest gathering since the body was founded in Washington DC in 2008. Host Prime Minister Narendra Modi is using the summit to showcase India and his own global leadership and to champion funding and technology for developing countries (Global South) like Guyana. Although the world’s fifth largest economy with the largest middle class of over 200 million, India is a developing country. It is the only country in G20 that champions the agenda of the South. The G20 is a concept proposed by Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin (2003-05) that came into being after he demitted office. It started out as an inter-government forum of Finance Ministers of nineteen of the largest economies and the EU rep in 1999 to address issues related to the global economy.
In 2008, it was transformed into a leadership summit. It is a grouping of the 20 largest economies accounting for 85% of world’s GDP, 60% of population, and 75% trade.
Sincerely,
Vishnu Bisram
