Tata Group Chairman proposes a new India-based global business institute to transform G20

In the run-up to the G20 Summit in early September, leaders from the B20 — a platform representing businesses from the world’s top 20 economies — held a conclave today (August 25) in New Delhi. Tata Group Chairman N Chandrasekaran, who opened the dialogue, said that a global business institute should be set up in India to guide the upcoming changes at the G20 (an intergovernmental forum comprising 19 countries and the European Union).

The new business institute is expected to provide an institutional framework. “The purpose of the B20 Global Institute is to be an evangelist; is to be a change agent; is to be the knowledge base, thought leader, think-tank with highly experienced people who will work with the B20 nations and B20 chair every year. Whichever nation holds the B20 leadership that year (the institute will) be able to drive the agenda,” Chandra said in his opening remarks.

This proposal (for a global business institute based in India) was one of four made by Chandrasekharan (who leads a business empire with a combined market capitalisation of over $311 billion in 2022).

The other three recommendations are as follows:

1. Expediting the financing to help decarbonisation in the “global South”,

2. Acceleration of the global funding for sustainable development,

3. Creation of a compendium of use cases that will help in converging technologies with development.

The emphasis was clearly on sustainable development, particularly in emerging economies. The Global South refers to less-developed countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The proposed fund is expected to supplement public resources with private capital to help developing economies reach their sustainable development goals by 2030.

The United Nations (UN) has identified 17 goals that the world should strive to achieve by 2030. These include reduction in poverty and inequality, slowing down climate change and environmental degradation, as well as ensuring peace and justice.

While most countries and world leaders agree on the importance of these goals, achieving them needs both intent and resources.

The UN estimates that it will cost $3.9 trillion per year to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in developing countries. However, current levels of public, private, and philanthropic funding only cover $1.4 trillion, leaving a significant gap of $2.5 trillion.

“Bridging these funding gaps cannot be achieved by relying solely on public and philanthropic funds. There is a need to attract private and commercial capital into the developmental sector,” wrote Vibha Tilwalli Sharma, lead for Impact Financing at Villgro (a 22-year-old incubator for social enterprises that was formerly known as Rural Innovations Network)

Chandra, as the chair of B20 India, led the first plenary session of the B20 Summit India 2023 taking place August 25-27 in Delhi. The session featured all the chairs of the various task forces including Kotak Mahindra Bank CEO Uday Kotak and Tractors and Farm Equipment Ltd. Chairperson Mallika Srinivasan.

The B20 has identified seven task forces to focus on their priorities which revolve around "RAISE" or responsible, accelerated, innovative, sustainable and equitable businesses.