Amitabh Kant, G20 Sherpa, addresses Capital Talks, Thought Leadership Series by JGU

Mr. Amitabh Kant, G20 Sherpa of India, addressed on May 3 Capital Talks, a Thought Leadership Series, initiated by the Jindal India Institute (JII) of O.P. Jindal Global University (JGU) on the theme ‘India on the High Table-Leadership in G20’.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Kant said India is witnessing a once-in-a-generation economic growth which can be attributed to radical changes that have taken place in the last decade.

“India is an oasis of growth in the midst of a slower economic landscape across the world. The challenge for India is that it needs to sustain it and accelerate the pace of this growth over the next three decades at high rates of 9-10%. Secondly, globalisation, which had enabled us to do global trade, lifted people above the poverty line and global value chains, has come to an end. The world is also seeing the emergence of a range of new technologies. Artificial intelligence, Generative AI, quantum computing and blockchain can enable the world to proceed at very high levels of productivity and transform the lives of citizens across the world. They can have huge repercussions on productivity, growth and transforming lives, and will have implications in terms of creation of jobs. Therefore, the ethical assumptions behind these technologies will be very critical and will require a multilateral effort as no single country can do it alone. I’d like to stress on the Spirit on India on the high table as geopolitics is essentially a function of economic growth,” he said.

“Geopolitically, the world is going through very radical changes. The big power rivalry is back to centre-stage. The consensus established during the post-World War II era, which led to the establishment of the United Nations and global international financial institutions, has been broken because of the war raging in the heart of Europe for over two years now. The Russia-Ukraine crisis is at the centre of the rivalry which has led to a complete freeze of the UN Security Council and therefore, the UN as a body, to my mind, has become totally irrelevant as far as international policymaking is concerned,” he observed.

“India is now accelerating its share of global GDP from 4.5% upwards and aims to be a $30 trillion economy by 2047. In the last decade, India has carried out a huge number of structural reforms. There has been a phenomenal creation of digital infrastructure which is unparalleled and for the first time, innovation of this nature has come from an emerging market. Digitisation has been key and India is the only country in the world where everybody has a digital identity. Between 2015 and 2017, more than 20 million bank accounts were opened, which means that 55% of the bank accounts opened across the world were opened in India. Only 18% of women in India had bank accounts then; today 91% of the women in India have one. And this model has now been accepted by G20, the definition and framework of which will go forward for the future of the world. India introduced the GST which replaced 28 taxes and cesses and has implemented the bankruptcy code which brought in credit discipline. The corporate tax has been reduced and is now at par with global levels and India today is no longer a fragile economy,” he pointed out.

Mr. Kant elaborated on key initiatives which have been important for India’s growth. “In the post-Covid era, there has been enormous focus on infrastructure. In the last nine years or so, India created close to about 14 million houses, which is more than the population of Australia, built about 120 million toilets, almost like creating a complete Germany of toilets in India, and has provided pipe water connections to 260 million Indians, which is like providing pipe water connection to the entire population of Brazil.” He also touched upon the rapid expansion of roadways, expressways and other infrastructural elements which have spurred growth in India.

“Japan, Korea and later China grew at a rapid rate because global trade was also growing at the same time. India needs to accelerate the pace of growth at a point of time when global trade has slowed down. India’s growth story has largely been on the services sector but we need to ensure that we become a manufacturing nation and create about 50,000 large manufacturing companies with size and scale. These large companies will create their own momentum. At the same time, India has to push for sustainable urbanisation in a very big way. To grow at a rapid pace for three decades, we need to also focus on improving learning outcomes, which remain very poor in India. We also need to improve health and nutritional standards, especially for women,” he explained.

In his welcome address, Professor (Dr.) C. Raj Kumar, Founding Vice Chancellor, JGU, and  President, JII, said, “We, at JGU, focus on bringing high-level discussions through the platform of Capital Talks, the thought leadership series. We are grateful to Mr. Amitabh Kant, G20 Sherpa of India, to focus on India’s economic growth and its leadership role in G20. JGU will be celebrating its 15th anniversary this year. We had modest origins in 2009 with little over 100 students and 10 faculty. Today, we have over 12,500 students from over 70 countries and over 1,100 full time faculty members from 51 countries. We have also become a multidisciplinary university with 12 schools, and international collaborations across 450 universities in 75+ countries. We are not just looking East, but we are also acting East with recent MoUs signed with seven leading Japanese and six leading Malaysian universities. Over 50% of our students are studying with some form of scholarship as accessibility is critical when it comes to providing affordable education as well. Today, JGU is ranked as India’s first ranked private university by the QS World University Rankings and is also recognised as an Institute of Eminence by the Government of India.”

Speaking about the JII, Professor (Dr.) Sreeram Chaulia, Director General, JII, and Dean, Jindal School of International Affairs, said, “JII is a think-tank to promote positive understanding and appreciation of all things Indian for the international community. It’s a soft power idea to educate, to engage, to train and to offer higher degrees, as well as to do policy advocacy and to highlight India’s achievements, not just its glorious history and civilisation, but also its contemporary achievements in a range of fields from economy, society, politics, arts and culture, science and technology, ecology and environment, and to position India as a world leader, which is actually changing the existing international order.”

Introducing Amitabh Kant, Professor (Dr.) Mohan Kumar, Dean, Strategic & International Initiatives & Director, Centre for G20 Studies, JGU, said that Kant was one of the most impressive administrative services officers he had met, and had come up with a market changing concept for tourism in Kerala. “Mr. Kant took Kerala from a $20 destination to a $500 destination. He also had the farsightedness to analyse the multi-dimensional poverty index and in his role as Sherpa of India at G20, he has been phenomenal in developing consensus over many issues in the multilateral body.”