The first meeting of the Development Working Group under India’s G20 presidency has taken place in Mumbai. Members, guest countries, and international organisations attended the conference from December 13 to 16, 2022, held at the Jio World Centre in the Bandra-Kurla complex. Eleven municipal wards that were to be visited by G20 guests, had been allotted a huge sum of Rs 24.23 crore to beautify the area. The dwellers here had been many times witness to such gala affairs in Mumbai. But they never had any illusion about the permanence of such measures, though they have been the ones to shoulder the financial liabilities, as taxpayers. As supposed to be security measures, white curtain-like barricades were erected at several places between Santacruz and Borivali in Mumbai. Many such shrouds came up to cover the miseries reigning over the famous Mumbai slums. According to activists, there are heaps of garbage and slush covered up behind the curtains. The cars taking the delegates to different places were always running at very high speeds, while children kept playing on the road and running across. These risks had no space in the management’s ‘to be attended’ lists.
Representatives of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank are among the regular invitees. Together, they push for free trade regimes and economic growth as the main agenda drivers. Social and economic justice and human rights have no space here. It has been obvious that free trade and investment agreements have been proven to have destructive effects not only on people’s lives but also on the environment. G20 has proved to be helping the process of liberalisation globally for the advantage of only a few extremely richer sections of the population, at the expense of the majority of others. Formed in 1999, it was originally meant for meetings of the finance ministers and the governors of the Central Banks precisely to formulate and amend the policies that could help resolve the global economic and financial crisis. India holds the presidency of the G20 from December 1, 2022, to November 30, 2023. The presidency is by rotation, and for one year. The member nations face no prohibition about investing in any country among those in G20.
It is meant to discuss climate but includes the countries that were and continue to be the greatest villains in terms of carbon emissions. It includes those that are treaty allies in military terms (Europe and the United States), meaning that an attack on one of them triggers an attack on all of them. Business20, or the B20, presents itself as the “private sector’s voice” of the G20 community. It is also a fact that the world’s largest corporations are based in G20 countries and have considerable economic power. By the late 1990s, it was becoming clear to policymakers that economic troubles did not stop at western borders, and that traditional meetings like the Group of Seven were ill-suited for new challenges. That point had been painfully underscored by the collapse of the Mexican peso, the Asian financial crisis, and the rise of emerging economies. G-20 only exists because of crises that the West cannot handle on its own.
