The G-20 has provided Prime Minister Narendra Modi an opportune stage before the next general election in 2024. Promotions of the G-20, with Mr. Modi’s picture a part of them, are everywhere. Of greater significance to the world is that the G-20 is being led by India, the world’s most populous country. Global financial crises in the last 30 years compelled the G-7, the United States-led cabal of western countries (and Japan) that controls global financial institutions, to expand the G-20 by adding China, India, Russia, Brazil, and a few other countries for solutions to global problems. The G-20 is at an impasse because the U.S. wants its members to shut out Russia and China who it sees as threats to its global hegemony. India is not easily swayed by pressure from the G-7. It wants the G-20 to concentrate on the agenda of 90% of humanity outside the G-7.
Governance is facing trouble
Global governance is in bad shape. The trajectory of progress must change. The world is being divided by wars amongst nations, and strife within them — wars with military weapons and with financial and trade weapons. Desperate millions are being pushed back to their deaths while trying to cross borders and oceans in search of better lives and safety, while three multi-billionaires are competing to create commercial space ventures to take a handful of wealthy people (paying hundreds of thousands of dollars each), for a brief joyride in borderless space.
