AIR Spotlight: Significance of Science20, Startup20 and FAWG under India’s G20 Presidency

AIR Spotlight is an insightful program featured daily on the All India Radio News on air. In this program, many eminent panellists discuss issues of importance which can be quite helpful in IAS exam preparation.

This article is about the discussion on the Significance of Science20, Startup20 and FAWG under India’s G20 Presidency.

Participants 

1. Veena Sikri: Former Ambassador
2. Umesh Upadhyay: AIR Correspondent

Context – India under its G20 presidency is aiming to make the grouping more inclusive, ambitious and action-oriented. There have been back-to-back important meetings of G20 in India during the last days of the month of January 2023-  Startup20, Science20 and International Financial Architecture Working Group (IFAWG) Meetings. 

India’s G20 Presidency

India holds the Presidency of the G20 from December 1, 2022, to November 30, 2023.

• Through its G20 Presidency, India will host more than 200 meetings in over 50 places spanning 32 distinct streams, showcasing its rich cultural history in the process. India desires to prioritise a human-centred approach to technology while allowing increased knowledge sharing among G20 members in important sectors.
• India’s presidency is also important as it beacons a ray of hope for the developing world owing to the fact that in the past, only the developed nations of the forum had decided the future of the developing world. The key element of India’s G20 presidency is to take it closer to the public through Jan Bhagidari and make it a ‘People’s G20’.

India’s G20 Presidency: Science20 (S20)

The Science 20 (S20) Inception Meeting took place in Puducherry (30-31st January) with Indian National Science Academy (INSA) President Dr Ashutosh Sharma as the country’s chair of the deliberations. The S20 Engagement Group, comprising the national science academies of the G20 countries, was initiated during Germany’s Presidency in 2017. 

• The two-day meeting with the theme ‘Disruptive Science for Innovation and Sustainable Development’ focussed on scientific and technological aspects that would help G20 nations to grow. 
• The S20 inception meeting aimed to promote and encourage fruitful scientific dialogue among the G20 member nations providing constructive solutions for problems like climate change, and healthcare and making science an integral part of society and culture.
• Under the theme of Disruptive Science for Innovative and Sustainable Development, the conference engaged three sub-themes: clean energy for a greener future, universal holistic health and connecting science to society and culture. 
• Disruptive science deliberated in the Science 20 (S20) meeting is about the approach to research and development for producing new solutions. While some of the technology and its challenges are emerging exponentially, society and culture experience the change linearly with a small slope.
• The Science-20 Summit meeting will be held in Coimbatore, in July 2023. 

India’s G20 Presidency: International Financial Architecture (IFA) Working Group

The International Financial Architecture Working Group is one of the important work streams under the G20 Finance Track with a focus on strengthening international financial architecture. 

• International Financial Architecture (IFA) Working Group deals with issues related to international financial architecture such as global financial safety net (GFSN); matters related to development finance; managing debt vulnerabilities and enhancing debt transparency; capital flow management and promoting local currency bond markets. The working group is co-chaired by South Korea and France.
• It aims to address multiple challenges faced by vulnerable countries. India aims to bridge the divide of inequality between developed and poor countries by bringing changes in the global financial architecture.
• Approximately 100 delegates from across the G20 Membership, invitee countries and international organizations participated in the two-day meeting (January 30 – 31) held in Chandigarh.
• It aims to enhance the stability and cohesion of the global financial architecture and to make it fit to address the global challenges of the 21st century.

India’s G20 Presidency: Startup20 – the newest engagement group of the G20 India Presidency

Startup20 aspires to create a global narrative for supporting startups and enabling synergies between start-ups, corporates, investors, innovation agencies and other key ecosystem stakeholders.

• A two-day inception meeting of the Startup 20 Engagement Group was held in Hyderabad, on Jan 28-29.
• Startup 20 is an important group of the G20 to generate more entrepreneurs from developing nations.
• The group will also bridge the knowledge gap between the startup ecosystems of G20 member countries and emerging economies through partnerships with enablers such as incubators and government agencies.
• The Startup 20 summit will be held in Gurugram in the month of July 2023.

Read previous AIR Spotlight articles in the link.

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