Next round of G20 meetings to be held in Gujarat from March 27- April 4

Gandhinagar: Three conclaves on a variety of topics will be conducted in Gujarat during the next round of G20 meetings, which will take place there from March 27 to April 4, according to a government official on Tuesday. Delegates from various nations will gather for participation.

The Group of 20 (G20), which consists of 19 nations from different continents and the European Union (EU), is presently headed by India and will hold the presidency for a year. According to IAS officer Mona Khandhar, who is in charge of organizing G20 events in Gujarat, the first gathering of the "Environment and Climate Sustainability Working Group (ECSWG)" will take place between March 27 and 29 in Gandhinagar.

"This is the second meeting of ECSWG. It will be inaugurated by G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant in the presence of several senior central government officials and subject experts," said Khandhar, who serves as Principal Secretary (Economic Affairs) in the state finance department. Some of these dignitaries include Leena Nandan, Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change, Debashree Mukherjee, Additional Secretary - Water Resources, Ministry of Jal Shakti and G Ashok Kumar, Director General, Mission for Clean Ganga, she told reporters. Officials from the Central Water Commission, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management (NCSCM), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Environment Programme and the Indian National Center for Ocean Information Services would also participate, said the senior bureaucrat.

"Representatives from nearly 30 countries, including the United States, Argentina, Brazil, China, France and Germany, will take part in the three-day event," said Khandhar. On the first day, discussions will be held on the subject "Best Practises on Water Resources" and other related topics. Later, guests will be taken to the famous Adalaj Stepwell, Narmada canal syphon on the Sabarmati river and the Sabarmati Riverfront.

On March 28, technical sessions would take place on five focus areas - climate resilient infrastructure, groundwater management, water sanitation and hygiene, climate change mitigation and resource efficiency and circular economy, she said. On March 29, technical sessions will be organised on topics related to oceans, sustainable blue economy, conservation of marine and coastal ecosystems and marine spatial planning among others, the IAS officer said.

As per a release by PIB (Press Information Bureau), the second meeting in this series on the topic "Disaster Management" will be held in Gandhinagar from March 30 to April 1.

In January and February, Gujarat hosted a series of meetings related to G20, one of them on tourism.

With PTI inputs