9 September 2023 : Indian Express
Indian Express
9-September-2023
The Indian Express, CSE candidates can stay informed about current events and developments in India and around the world.
1) G20 marks India’s emergence as a voice to be heard.
Context:
- The G20 summit that began in Delhi marks a turning point in India’s evolution in multilateral diplomacy.
- The summit will also underline India’s growing potential for leadership on global issues.
How has India performed so far in terms of its goals and aspirations?
- India’s presidency began with two parallel crises—the hangover of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war, both affecting economies and geopolitics.
- In terms of the pandemic, India had managed the Covid-19 crisis quite well, and made pandemic preparedness the focus of its presidency.
- Health is a part of India’s domestic agenda as well, so this particular global crisis received the three-dimensional attention it needed for 2023.
- India will further carry the successful health track experience into the Brazilian and South African presidencies too.
- The presidency year was used to take a leadership position in digital inclusion, through digital public infrastructure (DPI), which was India’s unique offering for the G20.
- The Unified Payments Interface which turned out to be a success is now available in nearly two dozen countries, and innovations based on it, especially with small businesses, are thriving.
India’s stand on Russia-Ukraine war:
- A regional border disagreement which has aggravated by ignoring legitimate Russian security interests, forced countries to take sides.
- India has been able to maintain a fine balance in terms of its relationship with Russia while enhancing its bilateral ties with the US which is evident from the many agreements signed between India and US.
- Thus, India’s neutral position on Russia-Ukraine has kept international equilibrium.
Hence these factors have helped India achieve its three-dimensional goals as G20 President.
How accommodative has been the multilateral leadership so far?
- This grouping comprises mostly the G7 countries, which has no dissenting voices and formidable internal cohesion.
- Within the G20, the G7 is having different views and aspirations on many important fronts.
- These include the Russia-Ukraine war, the reform of the multilateral financial architecture, debt forgiveness, digitalisation, energy and climate commitments along with trade.
- The G7 is outnumbered on these issues by other members in the G20 who seek an end to the conflict, an equitable decision on debt and climate commitments, a new model of digital public infrastructure, and a focus on human capital centric trade.
- So, the prevailing multilateral leadership remains unyielding, unwilling to accept the aspirations of the emerging order, and be a partner in writing the new global rules.
How has the G7 grouping been countered?
- An unstoppable force has met the G7 in the form of long-suppressed global intensities like Military coups in West Africa, a desire to reduce the exorbitant privilege of the US dollar, expansion of BRICS, the social liberalization underway in West Asia, implementation of open-source digital public infrastructure, and India’s remarkable lunar landing.
- Also, the food and energy distortions from the openly Western-driven war in Ukraine, fused with confidence from the high scientific and technological achievements of former colonies like India.
- These factors have certainly pushed the G7 grouping on the back foot.
What lies ahead?
- Efforts to create a more equitable multilateral order will continue for the next two G20 presidencies led by Brazil and South Africa.
- The India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) grouping already has a trilateral agenda in place, a good portion of which now overlaps with the G20agenda.
- The IBSA is expected to collaborate in the fields of health, digital inclusion, a reformed or new financial architecture, debt relief, sustainable lifestyle for climate goals, women-led development models — all with the inclusion of the African Union in the G20, a proposal made by India which will surely be accepted.
- There will probably be fewer agreements between the G7 and the rest of the G20 but there will certainly be increased association between the G20 and the Global South which has long been kept out of a process run by the most powerful.
Way Forward:
- Today India is actively shaping the discourse on sustainable development and managing the global economic order.
- It has democratised the G20 process from intention and necessity.
- Rising investment has ensured that the pivot between India and the governments of both developed and developing countries, has taken place.
- Extensive diplomacy would also help in tying all the threads together.
- The G20 summit could see support for India’s new initiatives on promoting digital public infrastructure, managing the global debt burden, and strengthening institutional support for sustainable development.
- This extraordinary moment in India’s multilateral engagement should be a cause for national celebration.
2) How G20 countries can help overcome health challenges faced by women, children, and adolescents.
Context:
- Every year, across all G20 countries, nearly two million preventable deaths occur among mothers, newborns, children, and adolescents which includes stillborn babies.
- This article will explore the steps that can be taken to take care of this major issue.
Which factors are responsible for inflicting damage to the health and wellbeing of women, children, and adolescent?
- In recent years, the key drivers of these negative outcomes have included the “four Cs”: Covid-19, conflict, climate change, and the cost-of-living crisis.
- Systemic discrimination and an increase in extreme weather events, food insecurity, and poverty are major causes of the lack of progress in women’s, children’s, and adolescents’ health.
- In the year 2000, the climate emergency was already responsible for more than 1,50,000 deaths worldwide and an increasing global burden of disease, 88 per cent of which fell on children.
- It is estimated that 80 percent of people displaced by the climate emergency are women, largely due to economic and social disparities between genders.
Impact of such damage:
- Such inequalities, environmental damage, and loss of human life and capital are profoundly distressing.
- As a result, women are negatively impacted, intensifying the “feminisation of poverty”.
- Throughout the world, women continue to earn less than men, despite having similar education levels.
What steps has India taken?
- India which currently holds the G20 presidency is committed to achieving universal health coverage and improving healthcare service delivery globally.
- For example, India has proposed several initiatives for digital health solutions as part of a digital strategy launched in 2021.
- These digital tools enabled the registration of a billion people in order to monitor immunization coverage, and the administration of more than 1.78 billion doses of the covid-19 vaccine.
- India has also proposed initiatives on the climate-health nexus, given the ongoing impacts of the climate crisis on public health, and on efforts towards better pandemic preparedness and response.
- It is important to ensure that these initiatives are gender and age-sensitive.
What steps should the G20 countries take?
The G20 countries are home to two thirds of the global population and the actions they take collectively have a global scale.
- The G20 countries must prioritise increased cross-cutting financing to strengthen health systems, enhance access to essential health services, and address the social determinants of health, such as poverty and gender inequality.
- Investments in physical and digital infrastructure through a gender perspective could reduce the burden of unpaid work, improve wellbeing, create jobs, increase labour force participation, reduce the digital gender gap, bolster productivity, and foster economic growth.
- Global efforts are required to help countries strengthen their health systems by attracting more development assistance for health and finding sustainable solutions to alleviate debt burdens as numerous countries are struggling to maintain pre-pandemic levels of health spending which in turn is affecting women’s, children’s, and adolescents’ health worldwide.
- We need robust data systems to monitor and implement policies and programmes effectively. Since G20 countries account for approximately 85 percent of the global GDP, two-thirds of the global population and carry significant political influence, they are well positioned to advance research and the development of new and improved health technologies and vaccines.
- Investing in the early years of childhood is vitally important, including in family-friendly policies and universal social protection.
Such investments can boost cognitive capital which is the complete set of intellectual skills, primarily nurtured prenatally and in early childhood, that determines human capabilities leading to inclusive economic growth.
- Tackling youth unemployment across the G20 requires developing adolescents’ skills, such as digital literacy, and building technology-driven and environmentally conscious growth.
Way Forward:
- Cooperation across countries is critical for sharing good practices and addressing shared challenges.
- The G20 must prioritize the health and well-being of women, children, and adolescents by making it a permanent fixture on its agenda for action.
- This requires dedicated, enhanced, and sustained financing, as well as more global coordination and solidarity so that no woman, child, adolescent, or country is left behind.
- The health and well-being of this segment is essential for sustainable economic growth worldwide.
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