Digital Transformation, Infrastructure Our Priorities”: G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant

New Delhi: 

India’s G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant laid out a positive, ambitious agenda for the country’s presidency of the prestigious grouping and said that while the world is full of challenges, India sees them as an opportunity.

Delivering the Keynote Address at the NDTV Conclave today, Mr Kant said India’s priorities during its presidency and the G20 meeting next month will be a focus on digital transformation, infrastructure building and women-led development.

“During G20, our ambition, as the Prime Minister has said, is to be inclusive, decisive, ambitious, and action-oriented. In most countries, the G20 is held in one city, or two cities. Unlike the football world cup in Qatar or the cricket world cup, G20 is through the year. Therefore, we used this opportunity to take G20 out into every single state of India,” the G20 Sherpa said.

Mr Kant said India has covered over 60 cities and used this opportunity to improve infrastructure in those places. “Every single citizen of India was involved in G20 in some manner or the other and, for the first time, foreign policy and diplomacy reached every single household of India. The presidency is being hosted at a time when India is the fifth-largest economy in the world and is likely to be the third-largest economy by 2027,” he said. 

Listing out some of India’s achievements, Mr Kant said a lot had been done in the last seven to eight years. “We’ve built about 40 million houses, which is like making a house for every Australian. We’ve made about 110 million toilets, which is like making a toilet for every single citizen of Germany. We have provided 223 million piped water connections, which is like providing a water connection to every citizen of Brazil,” he said.