Editorial 1: An unforgettable presidency
Recent Context:
- Recently, G20 summit was held in Indian that was concluded with the achievement of consensus on New Delhi Declaration
- For India seems to have demonstrated both wisdom and cleverness (bordering on the crafty), and fortunately, in increasing its gravitas, it has still not lost its soul.
The consensus on New Delhi declaration shows India’s global leader ability
- Shown Convening power:
- It demonstrated India’s convening power, and its ability to generate a consensus at a platform as it was difficult to establish consensus on diverse issues of Ukraine war.
- And addresses key global issues, including climate change, gender equality, SDG goals, financial inclusion as well as terrorism and money laundering
- Use of soft power in global diplomacy:
- The Summit and 200-odd meetings held all over India brought the diversity, colour and genius of the Indian people on to the world stage with a new frenzy and confidence.
- Soft power of India which is source of India’s power, a civilisational strength often suppressed by a lack of self-confidence. This has changed, and changed in a way that India will be perceived as the key destination for dialogue and debate over the most contentious of issues, while experiencing the most breathtaking hospitality.
- India as important pivot for global development:
- New Delhi summit will go down as the one where much of the rest of the world recognised India as an if not the alternative to China.
- The announcement of the economic corridor connecting Europe with the Middle East and India through a combination of rail and sea routes during a session at the G20 Leaders’ summit in Delhi, was clearly a response, if still an early idea, to the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (which seems to hold the main stakeholder countries in a debilitating debt trap).
- India’s as a global leader for global peace and harmony
- India seemed to retain its core values, and its space as well as its conscience. The theme of India’s presidency Vasudhaiva kutumbakam — “one earth, one family one future” — signalled this and is fleshed out in the preamble and the text of the Declaration: “We meet at a defining moment in history where the decisions we make now will determine the future of our people and our planet.
- It is with the philosophy of living in harmony with our surrounding ecosystem that we commit to concrete actions to address global challenges.”
- India’s vision for inclusive growth by raising the voice of global south
- India has clearly become the voice of global south by joining of Africa union as new member in New Delhi G 20 summit.
- Along with it, the staggering possibilities, for instance, offered by the Indian Stack for much of the world is obvious and India may make it available as open-source software.
- World Bank’s G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion document endorsed the transformative impact of DPIs in India. It pointed out that the JAM (Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile) Trinity has propelled the financial inclusion rate from 25 per cent in 2008 to over 80 per cent of adults in the last six years, and it could do so for much of the world.
- India’s insistence on the African Union’s inclusion in what is now the G21 was also rooted in this “alternative” vision of not losing your heart even while being dictated by your head.
Conclusion:
- Therefore, it can be no denying that this was India’s summit that is benchmark the presidency at a level that will be difficult to emulate.
- Few remember the previous presidencies of the G20 India’s will be remembered for its impeccable diplomacy of consensus building on diverse issues that laid down the foundation of global peace and harmony along with include development for all.
Editorial 2: G20 declaration on health: Mention of India’s 3 priorities, digital push
Recent Context:
- Recently, all three health priorities of India’s G20 presidency found a mention in the G20 New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration released on Saturday.
About the declation:
- The declaration spoke of strengthening primary healthcare, health workforce, and essential health services to better-than-pre-pandemic levels, ideally within the next two to three years. In addition to focusing on epidemics such as tuberculosis and AIDS, the G20 recognised the importance of research on long COVID.
- The declaration also stressed the importance of one health approach — where diseases in animals, plants, and humans are tracked by the same mechanism — with focus on tackling antimicrobial resistance.
- The G20 health track that concluded last month was manage to build consensus on all three of its priority areas, it also managed to launch a proposed repository of scalable digital health platforms.
What were the three priorities?
- The three priorities kept in mind the economic and social disruption caused by Covid-19, and what could be done to prevent such losses in the future.
- The priorities included:
- Building resilient systems for health emergency prevention, preparedness, and response.
- Strengthening cooperation in the pharmaceutical sector with focus on ensuring equitable availability and access to vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics during a pandemic.
- Creating a platform for sharing digital health innovations and solutions to ensure better and universal health coverage, like CoWIN and e-Sanjeevani.
- The consensus was reached with some compromises that India did not insist on countries contributing towards a $200-million fund for a digital health programme, or on a permanent platform for sharing knowledge, intellectual property rights, and resources for developing vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics.
What is the interim medical countermeasure platform?
- While there was no consensus on creating a permanent platform for ensuring equitable access to medical countermeasures during a pandemic, the committees agreed to develop an interim platform to promote an end-to-end network for research and manufacturing them till a legally binding pandemic treaty can be agreed upon.
- The outcome document said that the interim platform should be led by an inclusive decision-making arrangement, including effective representation of low- and middle-income countries, and convened by the WHO.
- Although there is an in-principal agreement by the G20 member countries on the need for such a platform, there is no clarity yet on how soon the platform can be developed.
Why have some opposed this interim platform?
- Delegates present at the negotiating table said the push for this interim platform has come from G7 countries, which currently hold the majority of the patents for drugs, diagnostics, and vaccines.
- Even though the outcome document specifically mentions lower- and middle-income countries having a voice in the platform, many said it is likely to replicate the failures of the ACT accelerator — a similar platform developed to share medical countermeasures during Covid-19 — by giving more say to the G7 countries.
- One of the senior delegates said, “This will replicate what the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) did. Even the people who were on the table are not clear about the negotiations that happened during the pandemic. Also, now that Covid-19 is no longer a public health emergency of international concern, those agreements no longer stand, and poorer countries have to keep paying high prices to maintain the level of vaccination.”
- Along with the interim measure would be used as an excuse by the G7 countries to keep delaying a legally binding pandemic treaty.
What is the role proposed for traditional medicine?
- India’s G20 presidency also pushed for integration of evidence-based traditional medicine practices with modern medicine. A global summit on traditional medicine was hosted on the sidelines of the health ministers’ meeting last month.
- The outcome document said: “We acknowledge the potential of evidence-based traditional and complementary medicine practices in public health delivery systems, provided they are rigorously and scientifically validated.”
Conclusion:
- Therefore, G20 New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration on health is significant declaration in the direction of accessible, affordable and inclusive availability of health facilities to diverse nations while focusing of developing and Least developed countries .However consistent efforts need to be made for permanent platform for ensuring equitable access to medical facilities.