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Leaders and delegates from the world's richest nations and top developing countries are gathering this weekend for the Group of 20 summit in South Africa, an event overshadowed by the boycott of US President Donald Trump and his administration. Africa's first G20 summit will see representatives of 42 countries, but not the United States, a founding member of the group and one that's supposed to be taking over its rotating presidency in Johannesburg. Trump has denounced South Africa's leadership of the G20 and said he would not attend, citing alleged discrimination of the country's white farmers. South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa has said he's told Trump that information about the alleged persecution of Afrikaners is completely false. Last Friday, Trump also said that no US officials would attend the gathering. The US boycott has dominated discussions more so than the summit's agenda, which includes climate resilience, debt sustainability for poor nations and growing ...
India's unemployment rate of 2 per cent according to World Economic Forum is the lowest among G20 nations, Union Labour & Employment Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on Monday. The minister highlighted how employment generation has taken place across sectors in tandem with India's rapid economic growth and underlined the schemes, including Pradhan Mantri Viksit Bharat Rozgar Yojana (PM-VBRY) that have contributed towards the same. He was addressing a gathering at the signing of MoUs between the ministry and digital mentorship platform Mentor Together' and classifieds online site Quikr' for enhancing employment opportunities as well as youth employability on the National Career Service (NCS) portal. Mandaviya said that these partnerships would make suitable employment opportunities as well as structured mentoring available to jobseekers, particularly in light of PM-VBRY coming into effect in August this year. Under PM-VBRY, Rs 99,446 crore is allocated towards incentivising the ...
Israel on Tuesday expressed keenness to collaborate with India on the India-Middle East Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) and said a team is working on an element of the project. Billed as a path-breaking initiative, the IMEC envisages a vast road, railroad and shipping networks among Saudi Arabia, India, the US, and Europe to ensure integration among Asia, Middle East, and West. The IMEC initiative was firmed up on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Delhi in September 2023. An agreement was signed by India, Saudi Arabia, the European Union, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the US and some other G20 partners for the corridor. "We are more than happy to collaborate on IMEC which is actually connecting India and Asia to Europe via Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Israel," Israeli Minister of Economy and Industry Nir M Barkat told reporters here. He was addressing the media after co-chairing India-Israel CEO Forum meet with Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal. Barkat is leading a big .
Brazil launched what it called a social summit Thursday ahead of next week's Group of 20 meeting of top economies, the first such event focused on drawing civil society input ahead of the main annual summit. Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira said 40,000 people from G20 countries were expected to attend meetings and panels through Saturday in revamped warehouses of downtown Rio de Janeiro's port area and nearby Museum of Tomorrow. The main summit takes place in Rio on Monday and Tuesday. Vieira told the opening ceremony, also attended by other government ministers and First Lady Rosngela da Silva, that the gathering is part of Brazil's G20 agenda to promote sustainable development and green energy, fight poverty and reduce inequality. There couldn't be a discussion or effective measures on this issue without welcoming society's contributions, Vieira said. Proposals developed at the social summit will be summarized in a final document to be presented at the leaders' summit. First lady d
Most G20 members, including the US, Australia, Canada, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, need to significantly step up climate action, according to a Climate Accountability Matrix launched at COP29 here on Tuesday. The Climate Accountability Matrix (CAM) is a first-of-its-kind assessment tool from the Global South to analyse countries' performance in climate aspects beyond mitigation, including adaptation and means of implementation. As against the rich nations, countries from the Global South, such as India and South Africa have made significant efforts in climate action by actively participating in key agreements, undertaking reasonable efforts domestically and adhering to their obligations, the CAM, featured in a report by independent, New Delhi-based think tank the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), found. The CEEW report Are G20 Countries Delivering on Climate Goals? Tracking Progress on Commitments to Strengthen the Paris Agreement unveiled at the COP29 here introduces
Group of 20 leaders agreed Friday to join efforts to fight disinformation and set up an agenda on artificial intelligence as their governments struggle against the speed, scale and reach of misinformation and hate speech. The ministers, who gathered this week in Maceio, the capital of the northeastern state of Alagoas, emphasised in a statement the need for digital platforms to be transparent and in line with relevant policies and applicable legal frameworks. It is the first time in the G20's history that the group recognises the problem of disinformation and calls for transparency and accountability from digital platforms, Joo Brant, secretary for digital policy at the Brazilian presidency, told The Associated Press by phone. G20 representatives also agreed to establish guidelines for developing artificial intelligence, calling for ethical, transparent, and accountable use of AI, with human oversight and compliance with privacy and human rights laws. "We hope this will be referenc
Finance ministers from leading rich and developing nations agreed Friday to strive toward effectively taxing the super-rich, a joint ministerial declaration said. With full respect to tax sovereignty, we will seek to engage cooperatively to ensure that ultra-high-net-worth individuals are effectively taxed, the declaration said after the two-day meeting in Rio de Janeiro. Brazil has made a proposal to impose a 2% minimum tax on billionaires a top priority of its presidency of the Group of 20, ahead of the Nov. 18-19 summit in Rio. While the final declaration stops short of agreeing on a specific global tax, Brazilian Finance Minister Fernando Haddad nevertheless called it a significant step forward. We were always optimistic about this result, but it really exceeded our initial expectations, Haddad told reporters. Brazil's proposal to tax billionaires has divided G20 nations. France, Spain and South Africa have expressed support, while the U.S. is against. Tax policy is very diff
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is keen on continuing the momentum of Multilateral Development Banks (MDB) reforms initiated during the G20 presidency of India, Chairman of the 15th Finance Commission N. K. Singh has said. Singh, who had met Guterres at the UN headquarters in New York on April 12, said he had a positive interaction with the UN chief. Deputy Secretary General Amina Mohammed was also present during the meeting. Guterres was very keen on continuing the momentum of MDB reforms initiated during India's G20 Presidency and as contained in the 2 Vol. IEG Report, Singh said in a post on X, referring to the report of the Independent Expert Group. Singh said the report had been accepted by the G20 and, therefore, had ongoing traction. Guterres said that the UN would endeavour to keep this item high on the agenda for the Summit of the Future in September and thereafter in the Summit on Financing for Development in June 2025, Singh said. The ambitious Summit of the Futu
India's G-20 sherpa Amitabh Kant on Thursday said the global future will not be driven by big technology firms but by the digital public infrastructure platforms developed locally. Speaking at the 'We Made in India' event here, Kant said India will transfer its digital public infrastructure (DPI) to the rest of the world, and already there are many examples of countries warming up to the same. The DPI consists of the digital identity through Aadhaar, real time payment through the UPI platform and other services like account aggregator, and was showcased to the world during India's presidency of G-20 last year. Kant said during the G-20, the world accepted the definition and framework of the DPI, given the strides that India has made through its strategies. "During G-20, the world accepted the definition of digital public infra, the world accepted the framework of DPI and to our belief, the future will not be driven by big tech, it will be driven by DPI," he said. It can be noted t