NDTV Mega Conclave: The high-octane sessions saw leaders and experts discuss brilliant ideas
NDTV's mega conclave 'Decoding G-20' brought the biggest names behind India's G-20 success on one platform.
From Chandrayaan-3 Moon mission to India's foreign policy to renewable energy to the economy, the NDTV G20 Conclave saw it all. The high-octane sessions also saw leaders and experts discuss brilliant ideas to solve global and domestic issues, such as climate change, the war in Ukraine and the future of energy.
Union minister Piyush Goyal said that India is aiming to go "from 3.5 trillion dollar economy to 35 trillion dollar economy in 25 years" by the time it celebrates its Independence centenary.
Mr Goyal, who handles the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, said, "We are all optimist and young. The demographic profile of India is in 30s, we will add 30 trillion dollars India's economy in coming years."
Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said India's digital public infrastructure, which has been making waves across the world and has earned praise from the likes of Bill Gates, has now caught the attention of even the powerful G20 countries,
Stating that it is the vision of PM Modi, Mr Chandrasekhar said the ambition of the Centre is to intensify the digitalisation of the governance process and expand the DPI framework to cover almost all public services. He said the government wants to widen and expand the innovation ecosystem that supports and takes DPI forward.
Union Minister Jitendra Singh said India will send a female robot "Vyommitra" in the Gaganyaan mission. Mr Singh said a trial spaceflight will be attempted in the first or second week of October. In the subsequent mission, the female robot "Vyommitra" will be sent to space.
India's G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant laid out a positive, ambitious agenda for the country's presidency of the prestigious grouping and said that while the world is full of challenges, India sees them as an opportunity.
"During G20, our ambition, as the Prime Minister has said, is to be inclusive, decisive, ambitious, and action-oriented. In most countries, the G20 is held in one city, or two cities. Unlike the football world cup in Qatar or the cricket world cup, G20 is through the year. Therefore, we used this opportunity to take G20 out into every single state of India," the G20 Sherpa said.
Union Minister Hardeep Puri said that Green Hydrogen is the "fuel of the future". Mr Puri said, "People might not want to use fossil fuels 20 years from now because there will be options. Green Hydrogen will succeed when there's domestic demand and domestic production".
"In 2021, in his address from the Red Fort, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke of adopting Green Hydrogen, and many questioned it. When PM says from Red Fort, take it he means it," he said.
Union Power Minister RK Singh said India is a world leader in energy transition and climate action and the narrative being spread by "some NGOs in the developed world" is totally misleading. The minister said the NGOs will, for example, say that India is a huge country and therefore its total emissions are high.
"That is ridiculous, you don't decide on the emissions depending on the size of the country. A small island will be consuming huge quantities of energy per capita, yet its total emissions will be less. You have to talk about it in per capita terms, like you talk about GDP. The narrative has to change," he said.
Harsh Vardhan Shringla, the chief coordinator for India's G20 presidency, said many nations are looking at India with a ray of hope for progress, as India is "perceived as the voice of the global South".
UK's envoy to India Alex Ellis said India's scale and ambition to tackle problems of the world is huge. "India has broken the mould on how to do the G20 presidency - the scale and ambition to tackle big problems of the world, like global hunger, low growth and poverty," he said.
"Interest in India is a long-term thing. The Ukraine invasion shows the very contested world we are in. India will remain an extremely central country in the world, and we have to find a path to deal with Russia," Mr Ellis said.
Former US diplomat Atul Keshap said pragmatic forward-leaning countries - democracies like India - have an even greater relevance to each other. He said the Ukraine war must end.
"We must focus on ending human suffering... India has been exceptionally generous towards its neighbours... India and US are reacting in a very constructive and positive way to challenges," Mr Keshap said.