India’s New G-20 Sherpa: Amitabh Kant

Amitabh Kant, the former CEO of NITI Aayog, has been chosen as India’s new Sherpa for the G-20, replacing Piyush Goyal, the Minister for Commerce, Industry, and Consumer Affairs, who was appointed as the G-20 Sherpa in September of last year.

Kant’s appointment comes ahead of India assuming the G-20 presidency later this year, from December 1, 2022 to November 30, 2023. The need for a full-time Sherpa for this duration is one of the reasons for the change.

India will host the G-20 presidency, and the Sherpa is expected to devote a significant amount of time to numerous meetings held in different parts of the country, according to a source.

Previous Sherpas for the G-20 include Goyal, Suresh Prabhu, Shaktikanta Das, and Montek Singh Ahluwalia.

Kant completed his extended term at NITI Aayog last month, after leading the government think tank for about six years. A retired 1980-batch IAS officer (Kerala cadre), Kant took over as the NITI Aayog CEO in 2016, and last received an extension in June 2021. Kant was also the chairman of Empowered Group-3, one of the 11 groups set up by the Centre to tackle the spread of the pandemic.

The G-20 brings together the world’s developed and developing economies, accounting for 85% of the global GDP, 75% of international trade, and two-thirds of the world’s population, making it an influential forum for international economic cooperation. As the G-20 presidency, India will set the agenda for the year, identify themes and focus areas, conduct discussions, and work out outcome documents. The G-20 Leaders’ Summit will be held in India for the first time in 2023.

The G-20 process is divided into the Sherpa track and the Finance track. Under the Sherpa track, about 100 official meetings are expected to be organized in the areas of employment, health, digital economy, trade, investment, industry, environment and climate, energy, anti-corruption, agriculture, tourism, culture, socio-economic development, education, and women empowerment.

Under the Finance track, about 40 meetings are expected to be organized, including in the areas of international financial architecture, financial inclusion and sustainable finance, financing for infrastructure, climate finance, and tax matters.