Pittsburgh:
There is a new world economic order being shaped in Pittsburgh. G-20 nations have agreed to make the International Monetary Fund (IMF) more representative by increasing the voting power of developing nations like India and China.
This is a big win for US President Barack Obama, hosting his first international summit. Since his election last year, he has pushed for changes to recognize the increasing economic clout of countries like India.
But India also plans to raise other concerns at the G-20 meeting. "While the recovery efforts have been strong, we now need to be careful about the dangers of protectionism. Generally whenever growth falls and unemployment is high, you get an increase in protectionist sentiment and it is our hope that global leadership will make sure that the world does not lapse into Protectionism like it has in the past," says Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman.
Ahluwalia also explains that it may be too early for governments across the world to end stimulus measures injected to fight the global recession: "I think there is a general agreement that right now is not the time to withdraw. If you look at the IMF forecast, they have been saying is that the global economy has been going down till now, it has now bottomed out, and will start rising. It won't reach three per cent growth till the third or fourth quarter of 2010. When it gets back to solid growth, then yes some planned exit from, or withdrawal of stimulus, becomes necessary. Right now we should be saying that we should be staying with the policy. It has worked. Premature withdrawal is not the right solution."