India's G20 Sherpa and former CEO of NITI Aayog Amitabh Kant announced his resignation from public service to 'embrace new opportunities'
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will participate in G20 meetings and attend Spring Meetings of the IMF-World Bank, among other bilateral engagements, during an 11-day official trip to the US and Peru, the finance ministry said on Saturday. Sitharaman is leaving for the official trip on Saturday night. The finance minister will also interact with top CEOs from prominent fund management firms during a Roundtable meeting with investors, besides holding bilateral meetings with CEOs from top information technology (IT) firms based in San Francisco. As part of the US visit, she would land in San Francisco to deliver a keynote address at the Hoover Institution at the Stanford University on April 20. Sitharaman will also participate in an event featuring Indian diaspora in San Francisco and interact with the Indian community settled there, the finance ministry said in a statement. During her visit to Washington, USA, from April 22-25, Sitharaman will participate in the Spring Meetings
The two-day meeting comes after the Trump administration announced plans to gut its USAID arm and Britain slashed its aid budget by 40 per cent to divert funds towards defence spending
South Africa had hoped to make the G20 a platform for pressuring rich countries to do more to tackle climate change
BS Manthan: Business Standard's flagship thought leadership summit returns on February 27-28, themed 'India and the Great Reset'
The National Career Service (NCS) portal has mobilized over 440 million vacancies and registered 4 million employers, a top official said. NCS is a mission mode project under Ministry of Labour and Employment that provides a host of career-related services. The information was given by Labour Secretary Sumita Dawra during the first G20 Employment Working Group (EWG) meeting in South Africa that concluded on Friday. Case studies were presented on both eShram and NCS, which drew much interest of delegates of G20 members on India's strides in harnessing technology for the labour market, the ministry said in a statement. As per the case study on NCS portal, Dawra pointed that the portal had mobilized over 440 million vacancies and registered 4 million employers, bridging the gap between job seekers and employers. NCS is also integrated with the Skill India Digital Hub (SIDH). Upskilling initiatives in green jobs, AI, and the platform economy were prioritized to meet future workforce .
Highlighting the complexities of the current geopolitical landscape, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said the G20's ability to harmonise viewpoints is key to advancing the global agenda. Jaishankar is in Johannesburg on a two-day visit to South Africa to participate in the G20 Foreign Ministers' Meeting, Addressing the G20 session titled 'Discussion on the Global Geopolitical Situation', Jaishankar said the G20 is an important expression of the world's growing multi-polarity. "The global geopolitical situation remains difficult by any definition. Some of it is the accumulated challenges of the Covid pandemic, conflict situations, financial pressures, food security and climate concerns," he said on Thursday. But there are also the current anxieties about concentrated supply chains, weaponisation of trade and finance, and transparency of data flows, Jaishankar said. "Looking ahead, differential progress on Artificial intelligence and Electric vehicles, space, drones or gr
A meeting of foreign ministers from G20 countries will get underway in Johannesburg on Thursday, but US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will not attend amid diplomatic tensions between South Africa and the US. Diplomats including Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi are expected to attend the gathering, while the US will be represented by acting ambassador to South Africa Dana Brown. The European Union, the United Nations and the African Union, which is part of the G20, will also be in attendance. Rubio snubbed the meeting after an executive order by U.S. President Donald Trump stopped foreign aid to the country over a law that the White House said amounts to discrimination against the country's white minority. The US is also displeased with South Africa's case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. South African Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola has said that Rubio's decision was not a complete boycott of South Africa's G20." He s
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will skip a two-day meeting of foreign ministers from the leading rich and developing nations that starts on Thursday after criticising host South Africa's policies as anti-American. Instead, Rubio was headed back to the United States on Wednesday from his first trip to the Middle East as America's chief diplomat after leading a US delegation in talks with Russia in Riyad over the war in Ukraine. Rubio spoke with the foreign ministers of France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and the European Union's foreign policy chief to brief them immediately after Tuesday's meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, the State Department said. Top European diplomats, as well as Lavrov and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi are all expected at the Group of 20 meeting in Johannesburg while the US will be represented by a lower-level delegation. A G20 meeting would normally be an opportunity for a US secretary of state to push for support on US positio
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will be on a two-day visit to South Africa beginning February 20 to participate in the G20 Foreign Ministers' Meeting, the MEA announced on Wednesday. The minister is expected to hold a few bilateral meetings on the margins of the meet. South Africa is currently the chair of the influential grouping. "External Affairs Minister (EAM) Dr S Jaishankar will be visiting Johannesburg, South Africa on 20 & 21 February 2025 to participate in the G20 Foreign Ministers' Meeting (FMM) at the invitation of the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation of the Republic of South Africa, Mr. Ronald Lamola," the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement. The minister's participation in the G20 FMM will "strengthen" India's engagement with G20 countries and "bolster the voice of the Global South" in this important forum.
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 .
India's insurance market is projected to be the G20's fastest-growing economy over the next five years, with total premium volumes -- life and non-life -- up 7.3 per cent in real terms on average each year aided by macroeconomic stability and the conducive regulatory environment, a report said on Tuesday. Life insurance, the mainstay of India's insurance market, accounts for 74 per cent of total premium volumes, according to a Swiss Re report on the insurance market outlook for India. Life premiums are estimated to grow by 4.8 per cent in 2024 in real terms and by 5 per cent in 2025 (2025-29: 6.9 per cent), following a meagre 0.7 per cent growth in 2023, when the savings segment was adversely impacted by regulatory and taxation changes, it said. The non-life insurance business is forecast to expand to 7.3 per cent (up from 5.7 per cent in 2024) on the back of rising risk awareness, robust economic growth and regulatory initiatives in support of digitalisation, it said. Apart from .
India's G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant on Friday said the country needs to become a global champion in sunrise sectors to achieve the target of becoming a developed nation and USD 32 trillion economy by 2047. Addressing the 'Bharat Climate Forum 2025', Kant further said the US, Europe and India have lost the art of manufacturing, and this will have huge implications for the global economy. "My belief is that without India becoming a global champion in sunrise sectors, we would not be able to achieve the target of becoming a developed nation by 2047, we will never be able to become a USD 32 trillion economy," he said. Kant pointed out that in solar panel manufacturing, Indian industries are 5-7 years behind the curve. Noting that India's industry is persistently focusing on fossil fuel vehicles, he said, "If you do not become a manufacturer of electric vehicles (EVs), then you will lose the EV market globally". The former Niti Aayog CEO said if India does not make a major radical shift ..
South American nation has become a significant contributor to world crude supply
World leaders are trying to shore up a global response to climate change before Donald Trump retakes the US presidency
Last year, then-presidential candidate Javier Milei declared Argentina would not "make deals with communists" in China or Brazil, calling their leaders "murderers" and "thieves" in a bid to channel the populist energies of Donald Trump and other global far-right icons into a winning political message. But on Tuesday, President Milei found himself at the Group of 20 Summit in Rio de Janeiro shaking hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping and vowing to boost trade with the Asian powerhouse, a day after his economy minister signed a preliminary agreement to export Argentine natural gas to Brazil. Milei even acquiesced to a joint declaration endorsed by world leaders late on Monday despite his earlier attempts to play spoiler to the G20 host, Brazil's left-wing President Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva who was once called by Milei a "corrupt communist". The final moments of the high-profile summit on Tuesday revealed Milei's more pragmatic streak, coming as a surprise after the irascible ..
Developed countries, including in Europe, argue that the contributor base needs to be expanded to include richer developing countries like China and richer Middle Eastern countries in order to agree
The leaders' statement also expressed deep concern about the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, and called urgently for more aid and protection for civilians along with
They noted the progress in the recent disengagement in Ladakh and exchanged views on the next steps in bilateral ties