Consensus on 99% issues, readying first draft by July: G20 Sherpa Kant

India is looking to pass on its successes in digital public infrastructure through its G20 Presidency to all 133 nations who do not yet have fast digital payments, G20 Sherpa AMITABH KANT tells Arup Roychoudhury in an interview. He expresses confidence that India will be able to get all countries together on contentious issues like the war in Europe.

Edited excerpts:

What are your key takeaways from the G20 Sherpa meet, heading towards the leaders summit in September?
 

The conversation has moved vigorously forward in a positive and constructive manner. I think everybody wants a very ambitious agenda. They are asking us to be more ambitious. Everybody agrees with what the Prime Minister said that the agenda should be inclusive, decisive, and progressive. Well before the Hampi meet, we will circulate the first draft of the leaders statement. It will be forward-looking.
 

How are you dealing with the Group of Seven (G7) on the one side and Russia-China on the other, and their differences?
 

We talk to all countries individually at bilateral meetings. We have spent a lot of time with Russia and China and discussed threadbare. We have conveyed our concerns freely and frankly. Everybody agrees that there should be consensus.
 

What will it take to arrive at that consensus?
 

It will take a lot of discussions with all our G20 partners. There are several strategies we are pursuing. Everybody wants G20 to move forward under India’s Presidency.
 

What have you discussed at the bilaterals with the US, China, and Russia?
 

They want us to push for reforms in the multilateral financial system. They want inclusive, resilient, and sustainable growth and acceleration of action on sustainable development goals. They want action on climate and on digital public infrastructure. They are broadly in agreement with all of India’s priorities that have been adequately spelt out.
 

The sticking point is the language of criticism of the Russia-Ukraine war.
 

There is agreement on 99 per cent of the issues. The disagreement is regarding paragraphs three and four of the Bali leaders statement. That is an issue we are discussing to iron out. But on all other developmental economic growth and financial issues, everybody is in agreement that the world needs radical reforms. We are confident that we will get everybody around on the contentious issues.
 

What have been the discussions on multilateral reforms, especially with G7 and Russia-China?
 

One must understand that in future, productivity increase, growth, and development will come from the emerging markets. They will not come from the developed world. What the world needs is a flow of capital from the developed world to the emerging world, and therefore, you need long-term financing instruments.

We need a larger pool of resources from the private sector to flow into these countries, which is a job to be led by World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Both these institutions, to my mind, have failed to do their job and therefore, you need to rethink the role of these institutions, which should be told very clearly by the G20 and that is what is being discussed.

What has been the progress on spreading digital public infrastructure to low- and middle-income countries?

It’s important to understand that India could do this because in the past seven to eight years, there’s been a lot of governance will for this. We have to realise that there are 4 billion people without a digital identity. There are 2.5 billion people without a bank account. At least 133 countries do not have a fast payment mechanism. So this is a model which needs to be taken to other parts of the world.

India is looking to evangelise its successes in digital public infrastructure through its G20 Presidency to all 133 nations that do not yet have fast digital payments.

There is a need to create some kind of structure because there is a governance vacuum in the model of digital public infrastructure, the need for a governance model that should be a global model. We will try and put the contours of that together.

When you take this to other countries, there are some resources which are required to do some initial spadework in terms of research, and project preparation, which can be done but not by India alone. It should be a global effort like the International Solar Alliance.