Proud moment

Union Minister of State for External Affairs and Parliamentary Affairs of India V Muraleedharan on Friday said that the G20 under India’s Presidency has turned into a people’s movement.Muraleedharan was speaking on the second day of the second G20 Sherpas meeting under India’s G20 Presidency at Kumarakom village of Kerala.”We had 46 meetings across 26 countries. The biggest difference in this G20 under India’s Presidency compared to the earlier G20 is that this is not an exclusive diplomatic exercise, it has become a people’s movement. Amongst the various topics discussed, we have suggested and is newly added is disaster risk education, which is a major problem world is facing”, Muraleedharan said.Minister further added that “Going through the pandemic period helped in major learnings in the science and technology, including health. This is a new topic in G20. Then there are start-ups. Start-up 20 is a new engagement group in this.” On speaking about the challenges, he said, “Even before we took the Presidency, ultimately for any conflict that we face, diplomacy and dialogue is the only way forward and continue to make efforts and we are very optimistic that things will be in the positive route.”