India will use G20 narrative to push its digital transformation story to world: Amitabh Kant

New Delhi, Apr 11 (PTI) India’s G20 sherpa Amitabh Kant on Tuesday said India will use the G20 narrative to push its digital transformation story to the rest of the world with an objective of transforming the lives of people in the Global South.

Addressing the 8th National Leadership Conclave held by All India Management Association (AIMA) here, he highlighted that globally there are 4 billion people who are without a digital identity and two and a half billion people do not even have a bank account.

There are 133 countries in the world which do not have digital fast payments, he said.

He said India has been able to transform the lives of citizens and become a more productively efficient economy because of digitisation.

“… How do we take this model of India to the rest of the world is the challenge and we will use the G20 narrative to push this digital transformation story of India to the rest of the world and see how we can use this opportunity to transform the lives of citizens in the Global South and that is what is important,” the former CEO of Niti Aayog said.

The phrase “Global South” refers broadly to the regions of Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Oceania.

Kant detailed the advancements India has made in the field of digitisation and digital payments.

During his address, he listed India’s critical priorities — the political narrative about India being a democracy with a strong and popular leader; the content and priorities for G20 that India drives; and how India executes its G20 Presidency.

He said the G20 is important because the world is in the midst of major upheavals as there is a geopolitical crisis in Europe, the world is facing a very severe recessionary trend with one-third of the world (according to IMF) witnessing a recession and 75 countries are facing a severe debt crisis.

He further said in the post COVID-era, 200 million people have gone below the poverty line and almost 100 million people have lost their jobs. And, then there is a crisis of climate action.

“And then, on top of all this, there is a financial crisis with the collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank in the United States and whether it will have cascading impact on other parts of the economy because of inflation in USA and strengthening of interest rates, it has severe implications on emerging markets,” Kant said.

Kant also stressed there must be “huge transformation” in the multilateral financial institutions for greater credit flows to emerging markets.

He further said the success of India’s G20 Presidency will be defined by its push for global priorities and not by war.

Kant said the G7 countries’ argument is that the war is impacting fuel, food and fertilizer situations and affecting economies of Europe and therefore it becomes an economic issue for G20.

However, India’s priorities during its G20 Presidency is to build a new action plan for inclusive, resilient and sustainable global growth, he said.

India assumed the Presidency of the G20 for one year from December 1, 2022, to 30 November 2023.

G20 nations account for 85 per cent of the global GDP and about 78 per cent of the world trade.