Former NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant named new G20 Sherpa

Tags: National News

Former NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant has been appointed as India's Sherpa for the G20 organisation.

• Important facts

• Till now Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal was India's Sherpa for G20.

• The main reason for the appointment of a full-time G-20 Sherpa is India's presidency of the G20 later this year.

• In a way, Sherpa does the main job of coordinating this event between all the agencies within the country and foreign agencies.

• The G-20 meeting is the biggest event to be held in India in recent decades, in which the heads of state of the world's 20 richest countries with their foreign ministers, finance ministers, and other officials will be held at different times.

• The G-20 meeting for the year 2022 is scheduled to be held in Bali (Indonesia) in November 2022.

• The chairmanship of the organisation will be handed over to India from 1 December 2022 to 30 November 2023.

• Who is Sherpa?

• The personal representative of a country attending international summits like G-20 and G-8 is called Sherpa.

• Sherpas discuss economic, political and global agendas with representatives of member states.

• Sherpa is derived from the popular word Sherpa in Nepal. Sherpas act as guides for mountaineers in Nepal. Similarly, Sherpas act as guides in international conferences.

• They are appointed by the government of the country concerned. Officers or senior leaders with diplomatic, political or administrative experience can be appointed to this post.

• Suresh Prabhu, Arvind Panagariya, Shaktikanta Das, Montek Singh Ahluwalia have also been Sherpas from India's side.