India’s G20 presidency, where photo-ops are mistaken for outcomes and a stage for a summit

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Editor's note: For India, the presidency of the G20 is nothing if not a big party. The government has turned it into a tourism festival, with mid-level functionaries from member countries being garlanded, made to sport turbans and watch dancers welcome them to dull and drab preparatory meetings for a summit that will only be held in September. As a spectacle, the New Delhi summit will dwarf the Non-Aligned Movement summit and Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting that the national capital hosted in 1983, though it will host a smaller number of heads of state/government. With the Indian government directing all its energies towards making the G20 summit a huge success, there are many questions in the air:  What is the point of the G20? What does India bring to the table? How does the presidency further India’s strategic interests? The evolution of G20 It was the G7 that was instrumental in founding the G20 in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis. On behalf of the G7, Canada’s then finance minister, Paul Martin, extended an invitation to his Indian counterpart, Yashwant …