ON DECEMBER 7, PRECISELY 200 kites flew above the historic Kumbhalgarh Fort, when the participants of the G20 Sherpas meeting—from the 20 economies of the G20, nine guest countries and 14 international organisations—came visiting after finishing three days of marathon meetings 84 km away in Udaipur, Rajasthan. The kites symbolised the 200 meetings that the G20 group of nations would engage in, in 50 cities across India during the country’s year-long presidency that started on December 1. As Amitabh Kant, India’s G20 Sherpa, noted during his opening remarks on December 4: “This is a unique forum of both developed world and emerging economies, so we need to build approaches to benefit the world on key global issues.”
Indeed, the mix of 19 countries and the European Union (see chart) brings…
