In Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India, the Business Meeting (B20) has been organized as part of the G20 Presidency of India, which deliberated on issues concerning climate change, global digital cooperation, innovation, and resilient global value chains, as said by the officials.
During the three-day meeting, the delegates visited the museum of Mahatma Gandhi, Dandi Kutir, situated in Gandhinagar, as said by the Gujarat finance department’s principal secretary, Mona Khandhar. The B20-India 2023 Dialogue is taking place under the theme “RAISE.” The acronym RAISE stands for Responsible, Accelerate, Innovative, Sustainable, and Equitable Businesses.
A plenary session of the B20 meeting was organized at the Mahatma Mandir in Gandhi Nagar, in which Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, Ashwini Vaishnaw, the Railway Minister, the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Bhupendra Patel, and India’s G20 Sherpa, Amitabh Kant, were present. The session takes up deliberation on themes like climate change, financial inclusion, sustainable economic development, and resilient global value chains. The transformative initiative undertaken by the Gujarat government is discussed in the deliberation, which is enabling greener, cleaner, and more inclusive economic growth, as said by Mona Khandhar.
A host of international and Indian industrial leaders participated in the plenary session. Around 600 delegates, along with 250 international delegates, are present from the G20 and other guest countries. Moreover, multilateral organizations and academia, as well as 250 to 300 delegates from Indian industries, have participated, as said by Khandhar.
On the last day of the event, the government organized the visits of the delegates to the GIFT City (Gujarat International Finance Tec-City) and Adalaj Stepwell, along with yoga sessions, as said by the Industries Commissioner Rahul Gupta. He also stated that the United Nations has designated 2023 as the International Year of Millets, and Gujarat will serve millet-based dishes to delegates during meetings.
This meeting is the first among the 15 meetings that need to be hosted by Gujarat as part of the G20 presidency of India. 10 such meetings will be hosted by Gandhinagar, two meetings in Ahmedabad, and one meeting each in Surat, Ektanagar, and Kutch, as said by officials. Khandhar said that B20 is the official G20 dialogue forum, which will officially convey its final recommendation to the G20 presidency. The process of galvanising global business leaders for their perspectives on global economic and trade governance issues is led by the B20.
The Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) is the secretariat of the B20 Forum India, and the chairman of the B20 Forum India is Tata Group Chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran. The representatives and mayors from G20 countries, the C40 (cities climate leadership group), UCLG (United Cities and Local Governments), member cities, and observer cities are expected to become participants in these events.
