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Former NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant appointed as the Sherpa of G-20

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Government of India has appointed former NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant as the Sherpa of G-20. He will take the place of the Union Commerce and Industry minister Piyush Goel.

With the G-20 presidency coming to India in November, India will set the agenda of G-20 for the year, identify the themes and focus areas, conduct discussions and work out outcome documents.

To do all these the government felt that a full-time Sherpa was required, who would need to devote a lot of time to numerous meetings that will be held in different parts of the country. 

India has already announced that some of the meetings of the G-20 will be held in Kashmir and Ladakh .

Currently Indonesia is the chairman of the G-20 group and it will hold the summit meeting this year.

India has been a member of the G20 since its inception in 1999. India will be holding the G20 Presidency from 1 December 2022 and will convene the G20 Leaders’ Summit in 2023 for the first time.

G-20 Process

The G20 process is divided into the Sherpa track and the Finance track. 

Sherpa Track 

Under the Sherpa track, about 100 official meetings are expected to be organized in the areas of employment, health, digital economy, trade, investment & industry, environment & climate, energy, anti-corruption, agriculture, tourism, culture, and socio-economic development, education, and women empowerment.

Finance Track 

Under the Finance track, about 40 meetings are expected to be organized including those in the areas of international financial architecture, financial inclusion and sustainable finance, financing for infrastructure, climate finance and tax matters.

G-20 Group 

• Group of 20 or G-20 is a multilateral organisation which was set up in 1999.
• It consists of the world's major developed and developing countries.
• It consists of 19 countries and the European Union. The 19 member countries are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, United Kingdom, and United States.
• The presidency of the G20 rotates every year among its members, with the country that holds the presidency working together with its predecessor and successor, also known as Troika, to ensure the continuity of the agenda. Currently Italy, Indonesia, and India are the Troika countries.
• Italy was the President of the G-20 in 2021. Indonesia is the President for 2022 and India will be the President in 2023. 
• The first Summit meeting of the leaders of the G-20 was held in 2008 at Washington, United States.
• The G20 has no permanent secretariat.
• G-20 members constitute 60% of the world population, 80% of the World economy and 75% of world trade.