India's G20 presidency: A vision of inclusivity, heritage showcase under Prime Minister Modi's leadership

As India assumed the G20 presidency, Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided that all of the nearly 200 meetings of the G20 member-states, invitees and organisations would be held in over 50 cities in India. This was Modi’s idea of bringing inclusivity and showcasing the great Indian culture and heritage. For many decades, all foreign visitors attended ceremonials and events in New Delhi and, at best, went for a photo opportunity at the Taj Mahal in Agra. Foreigners got the impression that India was all about these two places, while the rest of the country was living in poverty. Prime Minister Modi changed all that by taking heads of state for meetings to heritage cities, moving major events to widespread regions, organising defence expositions in different towns to create opportunities for small industries, holding military commanders’ conferences across states, and more recently, moving the Military Day parades to different centres. For once, all Indians, the inheritors of a 7,000-year-old civilisation, felt a sense of belonging and pride in themselves and their country. The world got to see India from a different prism and realised the greatness of this emerging superpower. Image courtesy PIB The G20 meeting venues and locations The G20 meetings and events include summit, ministerial, and delegation-level meetings. Each country has designated a G20 Sherpa to coordinate the programs and interface with their country delegations. Prime Minister Modi chose his favourite theme based on “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam”, the Sanskrit phrase that means “the world is one family,” and G20 is looking at “one earth, one family, and one future.” It is India’s mantra for a healthy and prosperous earth. During the course of the year, meetings are being held in locations that are rarely visited to showcase the beauty and richness of India, from Kashmir to Kanya Kumari. The delegates and guests will catch a glimpse of India’s rich culture and tradition in terms of food delicacies, diversity in language, and cultural heritage. The events kicked off with celebrations at the Hornbill Festival in Nagaland, a rare and beautiful annual event. Events have been held at Hampi, Karnataka; Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh; Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, among many other places, bringing a feeling of pride and inclusivity to 1.4 billion Indians. It is also the largest international event that India has ever hosted and a responsibility that is being handled with grace and élan. Across the country, over a hundred monuments have been beautified and lit up with the G20 logo, encouraging people to take pictures with the monument in the background. There are many business engagements, seminars, Ted Talks, on the sidelines, showcasing regional products, handicrafts, technologies, lifestyle, environment, women-led development, and art and culture. Labour and employment leaders had meetings in Amritsar, Kolkata, Raipur, Nagpur, Bhopal, Guwahati, Mumbai, Srinagar, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Dhanbad, Delhi, Lucknow, Patna, Pune, Indore and New Delhi with a minister-level meeting in Indore. The civil society delegates met in Ladakh, Trivandrum, Kochi, Pune and Jaipur. Academics, civil society delegates and think-tanks convened in New Delhi, Kolkata, Kalinga, Bengaluru, Mysuru, Mumbai, Goa, Bhopal, Pune, Manipal and Hyderabad. The Business (B-20) conferences were held in Imphal, Aizawl, Gangtok and Kohima. Similarly, Nagaland and Sikkim hosted youth, science and space-related meetings. The G20 summit this year will take place on 9–10 September 2023 at the newly constructed “Bharat Mandapam” Convention Centre at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi. Military parades move out of Delhi Since independence, the Indian Army, Navy, and Air Force held their major annual parades and events in New Delhi. These functions were attended by senior government functionaries, diplomats, Delhi’s literary elites, and the military brass. In 2022, the prime minister decided that these parades must move out to other regions, where ordinary Indians could feel associated and witness the might, evoking a sense of pride. The Indian Air Force (IAF) was the first to have its parade move out on 8 October, 2022, to Chandigarh, with an aerial display of its military aviation capabilities for the public at Sukna Lake. This year, the IAF will celebrate its 91st anniversary at Prayagraj with an air display over the Sangam area, in the vicinity of the Ordnance Depot Fort. Just a week prior to that, an air display will be conducted over Bhojtal Lake in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. The Army Day parade moved outside Delhi for the first time since 1949 and took place this year in Bengaluru at the MEG Centre. Before 2023, the Army Day parade used to take place at the Cariappa Parade Ground in the Delhi Cantonment. India celebrated Navy Day on 4 December 2022 in Vishakhapatnam. The Indian Navy demonstrated India’s combat prowess and capability through an ‘Operational Demonstration.’ Such events showcase the armed forces to a large number of Indians, generating pride in the nation and rekindling the desire for them to join the armed forces. Combined Commander’s Conferences in different cities Until 2014, the Combined Commander’s Conference used to be held in New Delhi. In 2015, Prime Minister Modi brought about a change and chaired the conference on board INS Vikramaditya at sea, off the coast of Kochi. A similar conference in 2017 was at the Indian Military Academy (IMA) Dehradun. In 2018, it was at Air Force Jodhpur, and in 2021, it was held at Kevadia in Gujarat. The April 2023 conference was at Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. The theme of the three-day conference was ‘Ready, Resurgent, Relevant.’ National security, Jointness, and ‘Atmanirbharta’ were discussed. Moving the Commanders outside the confines of the capital city gives the commanders greater networking time and also brings awareness of national security issues to local populations and regional media. It also strengthens infrastructure development. Defence Expositions (DefExpo) DefExpo is India’s flagship biennial event showcasing land, naval and homeland security systems. It was first launched in 1999. Until the 8th edition (February 2014) of the event, organised by the Ministry of Defence (MoD), they were held at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi. Immediately upon becoming prime minister, Modi moved these out of Delhi. The 9th Defexpo-2016 was held in Goa. The 10th DefExpo-2018 took place in Tiruvidanthal, Kancheepuram district, on the east coast road near Chennai. DefExpo2020 was held in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. This marked the first time the defence exhibition was held in the largest state of India to explore the potential available for defence productions. The MoD also announced the Uttar Pradesh Defence Corridor to attract investments in defence manufacturing. DefExpo2022 was held in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. For the first time, an investor outreach event ‘Invest for Defence’ was organised with a focus on indigenisation and self-reliance in the Indian defence industry. Defence corridors India is among the top five military spenders and is now fast becoming one of the emerging defence manufacturing hubs of the world. To support the growth of the defence sector and enhance manufacturing capacity in the sector, the government set up two Defence Industrial Corridors (DIC), one in UP and another in Tamil Nadu. Six nodes of the UP Defence Industrial Corridor (UPDIC) are located in Agra, Aligarh, Chitrakoot, Jhansi, Kanpur, and Lucknow. Similarly, five nodes of the Tamil Nadu Defence Industrial Corridor (TNDIC) are situated in Chennai, Coimbatore, Hosur, Salem, and Tiruchirappalli. These corridors will support the defence manufacturing ecosystem through conducive supply chains to promote production, testing, and certification. 1,608 hectares of land have been acquired for the development of UPDIC and 910 hectares for TNDIC. Assured water supply and uninterrupted electricity (132 KVA), 4-lane heavy-duty highway connectivity, single window approvals and clearances for defence and aerospace (D&A) manufacturing units, labor permits for flexible employment conditions, and simplified procedures and a rationalized regulatory regime with easy reimbursement of incentives and subsidies are planned. The combined efforts of the government and private players will help achieve India’s goal of self-reliance in defence, generate direct and indirect employment opportunities, and spur the growth of private domestic manufacturers, Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), and Start-ups. Visits by foreign Heads of State Prime Minister Modi also took foreign heads of state or government to different cities of the country so that they could see different parts of India, and the masses could see them closely. The “Namaste Trump” visit rally event in February 2020 was held in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. Earlier, the one-to-one informal summit with Xi Jinping during his visit to India in September 2014 was in Ahmedabad. A similar meeting between the two in October 2019 was at Mahabalipuram near Chennai. During Russian President Putin’s visit to India in 2014, many Indian and Russian cities were paired up as sister cities, such as Bangalore-Novosibirsk, Chandigarh-Ufa, Chennai-Volgograd, Hyderabad-Kazan, among many others. Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe attended Ganga Aarti at Varanasi with Prime Minister Modi during his visit to India in 2015. In September 2017, soon after their arrival in Ahmedabad, Abe turned out in a kurta-pyjama and a ‘Modi-jacket,’ while his wife Akei wore an Indian dress before they embarked on a historic roadshow leading up to Mahatma Gandhi’s Sabarmati Ashram. Colonial New Delhi to resurgent Bharat’s capital For the first time since Lutyens designed the beautiful Indian Capital nearly 100 years ago, Prime Minister Modi took a major initiative to redesign and make central Delhi more functional for the 21st Century. India now has one of the finest futuristic parliament buildings in the world. The Raj Path (King’s Way) has been redone with larger public spaces and amenities, and is now called ‘Kartavya Path’, reminding us of our ‘sense of duty’. India has a magnificent War Memorial that is very proudly visited by all Indians to pay homage to those who gave their yesterday for our today. The national hero and leading freedom fighter Subhash Chandra Bose’s statue has found its pride of place. The new ministerial buildings that will come up along Central Vista will be more functional and connected with underground high-speed rail connectivity. There is now a Prime Ministers’ Museum covering, with equal importance, the achievements of all past heads of the executive. Once the South and North Block are vacated, India will have one of the world’s largest museums. Finally, India’s vice president and prime minister will move out of their makeshift homes to functionally well-designed residences. Even the heritage of Old Delhi has been restored after the redevelopment of Chandni Chowk. India propelling ahead India is today the de facto leader of the global south. It will soon be the third-largest economy. India leads global digital payments with record-breaking transactions. The world is watching with awe India’s Unique identity system “Aadhaar,” the globe’s largest biometric ID system, and digital direct benefit transfer scheme. The country is achieving all this through original ideas. For once, the world is wooing India and coming to invest in this ever-growing market. It is time for India to showcase itself, enhance inclusivity and lead by example. Democracy is, after all, a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. The writer is Director General, Centre for Air Power Studies. Views expressed are personal. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook ,  Twitter  and  Instagram .