Taking Indian Presidency’s Priorities Forward: Road to Rio de Janeiro Summit
G20 Annual International Conference, 2024

10:00-1:30 PM, October 3, 2024

Aftab-Mahtab, Taj Mahal Hotel, Man Singh Road, New Delhi

Indian G20 Presidency was considered successful with many tangible outcomes. In the midst of a raging war and fractured geo-politics, the New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration was unanimously adopted by all members. From the inclusion of the African Union as a permanent member of the G20 to introducing digital public infrastructure (DPI) into the global policy lexicon, and putting forward a blueprint for reforming multilateral development banks (MDBs), Indian presidency had many achievements. Against such a backdrop, this year ICRIER’s G20 Annual International Conference, in partnership with the Gates Foundation, will bring together important policymakers and practitioners to discuss the current status of the Indian priorities and how they are being meaningfully pursued in Brazil and what could be achieved in South Africa.

Session 1: Advancing India’s development priorities through G20 engagement
(10:00 AM – 10:45 AM)

Opening remarks: Deepak Mishra, ICRIER, Director & CE
Inaugural Address: Shri N. K. Singh, Co-Convenor, G20 Independent Expert Group on Strengthening MDBs; President, Institute of Economic Growth; Chairman, 15th Finance Commission
Keynote address: Shri Amitabh Kant, G20 Sherpa, India
Q&A session with roundtable participants
Vote of Thanks: M. Hari Menon, Country Director – India & Lead, South & South-East Asia, Gates Foundation

(10:45 AM – 11:00 AM) Tea/Coffee Break

Session 2: Putting MDB Reforms in the Fast Lane
(11:00 AM – 12:15 PM)

While the MDBs have embarked on significant reform of themselves, the outcome of their effort continues to fall short of their stakeholders’ expectations. This session will bring together some of the thoughtful and well-informed experts in this area to debate on the following issues: (i) Is far-reaching reform of MDBs feasible in the current geo-political context or are their critics suffering from undue expectations? (ii) How will the rise of Global South, especially the expansion of NDB (BRICS) bank, affect the pace of MDB reforms? (iii) Among the various reforms suggested by IEG, why the private capital mobilisation target seems to be most daunting; (iv) Will MDB reforms continue to languish without deep-rooted governance reforms? and (v) How does the working with MDBs look from the grounds-up, especially at the sub-national level in India?

Chair: Shri Ajay Seth, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Government of India

Panellists: Suma Chakrabarti, former President, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)
Masood Ahmed, President Emeritus, Center for Global Development (CGD)
Anil Kishora, Vice-President and Chief Risk Officer, New Development Bank
Vera Songwe, Nonresident Senior Fellow – Global Economy and Development, Africa Growth Initiative, Brookings Institution
Auguste Tano Kouamé, Country Director for India, World Bank

Session 3: Financial Inclusion through Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) led Innovation
(12:15 PM – 1:30 PM)

India’s G20 presidency endorsed the role of digital public infrastructure (DPI) in advancing the objectives of financial inclusion. As evidenced from examples across countries, all three foundational elements of DPIs – identities, payments and consent-based data exchange – have the potential to transform access to financial services. Given the agenda of the ongoing presidency, and discussion in Brazil, this session will focus on the following issues (i) How can DPIs address the persistent last mile challenges in financial inclusion for individuals and MSMEs? (ii) What are some of the infrastructure and regulator complements that can help accelerate digital financial inclusion? (iii) What are the necessary guardrails to protect vulnerable communities from systemic risks of cyber frauds, mis-selling, excess borrowing, etc.? (iv) How can outcomes of financial inclusion be better measured?

Chair: Anantha Nageswaran, Chief Economic Advisor, Government of India

Panellists: Chanchal Chand Sarkar, (Co-chair, G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) and Economic Advisor, Ministry of Finance, Government of India)
Dilip Asbe, MD & CEO, National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI)
Maha El Dimachki, Head of the Singapore Centre, BIS Innovation Hub
Nontobeko Lubisi, Director – Financial Inclusion, National Treasury, South Africa

Vote of Thanks Peter Morgan, Senior Consulting Economist and Advisor to the Dean, Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI)

(1:30 PM) Lunch