150 foreign delegates from 50 countries & over 250 delegates attended the G20 summit in person.

The G20 Digital Economy Working Group's third meeting came to an end on June 14, 2023.

During the summit, India signed MoU with four countries on sharing INDIA STACK i.e. successful digital solutions implemented at a population scale.

The G20 DEWG deliberated on its priority topics of "Digital Public Infrastructure," "Digital Skill Development," and "Cybersecurity in the Digital Economy."

The Global DPI Summit (12-13 June 2023)

The "Digital Public Infrastructure," "Digital Skill," and "Cybersecurity in the Digital Economy" priority topics of the G20 DEWG were discussed.

Over 250 delegates physically attended the summit, including about 150 international delegates from 50 different nations. Over 2000 people participated virtually. India and four nations, namely Armenia, Sierra Leone, Suriname, and Antigua & Barbuda, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on sharing INDIA STACK, or effective digital solutions deployed at a population scale.

The summit gave participants from all over the world a forum to discuss sector-neutral (foundational) and sector-specific DPIs. This included discussions at the leadership, policy, and practitioner levels that were insightful, provocative, and future-shaping.

Overview of Digital Public Infrastructure, Digital Identities for Human Empowerment, Digital Payments and Financial Inclusion, Digital Document Exchange for Efficient Service Delivery, Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) for DPI, Digital Education and Skill Development, DPI for Digital Health and Climate Action, Digital Agriculture Ecosystem, and Building the Global DPI Ecosystem. India took the initiative and furthered its position of acting as a strong bridge between the Global North (G20 members) and the Global South (Developing and LMIC countries) by giving the global platform on DPI to digital decision-makers from 50 countries and several international organizations. The sessions from the Global DPI summit can be seen on demand at https://www.indiastack.global/global-dpi-summit/

The Global DPI Exhibition (12-14 June 2023)

The exhibition featured 14 experience zones with successfully implemented DPIs for digital identity, fast payments, digilockers, soil health cards, e-national agriculture markets, unified mobile apps for new-age governance, open networks for digital commerce, seamless airport travel, language translation, learning solutions, telemedical consultation, and the Digital India Journey. The delegates that were in attendance at the summit and G20 DEWG meeting went there. The exhibition was also visited by residents of Pune, including professionals, young people, and elderly people.

The Closed-Door Meeting of G20 DEWG (13-14 June 2023)

On June 13, 2023, 77 foreign representatives from G20 Members, 9 Guest Countries, 5 International Organisations, and 2 Regional Organisations entered the G20 DEWG meeting behind closed doors. Shri Sushil Pal, Co-Chair of the G20 DEWG, conducted the discussion while India held the presidency. Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), the idea of "One Future Alliance & One Future Fund" for DPI, enabling principles for excellent DPI, and acknowledgment of the need for financing opportunities for DPI in Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMIC) were all topics covered throughout the meeting. After that, topics like knowledge sharing, developing a mutual recognition framework for digital skills, capacity building, and upskilling and downskilling were covered.

On the last day of the meeting i.e. 14 June 2023, the security for a safe, resilient and trusted digital economy and various aspects such as capacity building for children & youth, and countering potential security threats were deliberated.

The dedelegatesere exposed to Indian culture, Indian cuisine, Indian arts, Yoga, and Indian folk forms during the course of the last three days through a variety of cultural programs that were organized. The state government of Maharashtra provided complete assistance and coordination in the planning of this event, which is acknowledged and appreciated by the federal government of India.

As a next step, the fourth in-person meeting of the Digital Economy Working Group and Digital Economy Minister’s Meeting is planned to be organized in the month of August 2023 at Bengaluru, Karnataka.

#thecommunique #tc #tcn #G20 #event #event2023 #digital #GlobalDPI #Indian

Culture Working Group under India's G20 Presidency to organise a Global Thematic Webinar

The Culture Working Group (CWG) under India’s G20 Presidency will be organising the Global Thematic Webinar on “Leveraging Digital Technologies for the Protection and Promotion of Culture”. The webinar is the last in the series of the four organised by the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, which is being facilitated by UNESCO (Paris), as a knowledge partner of CWG.

The webinar is scheduled for 20 April 2023, from 12:30 PM to 8:30 PM (IST), with the intent to foster an inclusive dialogue and initiate an in-depth discussion from an expert driven perspective on the priority area articulated by the CWG and supported by the G20 membership. The aim is to discuss the digital upskilling and capacity building of cultural practitioners and sharing of best practices to digitise cultural heritage assets for long term preservation by experts from G20 members, guest nations, and relevant international organisations.

At the global thematic webinar, experts would also discuss the impact of emerging technologies and the new opportunities they present to memory institutions for reaching wider audiences and engage them in novel and immersive ways. These include artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented reality and robotics among others.

Artificial intelligence, for instance, can help memory institutions analyse and categorise vast amounts of data, making it easier to organise and access digital archives. Virtual and augmented reality technologies can create immersive experiences that enable visitors to interact with historical artefacts and cultural heritage sites in a more engaging and personalised way. Robotics can be used to create replicas of artifacts and cultural objects, enabling their preservation and dissemination beyond the physical boundaries of the institution.

However, the constantly evolving nature of digital technologies also presents challenges for memory institutions, particularly in the areas of digital preservation. This challenge requires an agile, context-specific, and global framework for the digitisation and digitalisation of culture. The potential of emerging technologies to transform the way we engage with culture is immense, and memory institutions need to be proactive in leveraging these technologies to achieve their mission of preserving and disseminating cultural heritage by exploring opportunities for collaboration among the various stakeholders for digitalisation and digitisation of culture, especially with private technology firms.

The upcoming webinar will consist of three speaking segments, specifically designed to explore and discuss significant aspects of the theme - Leveraging digital technologies for the protection and promotion of culture. These segments will aim to facilitate knowledge sharing and exchange of good practices, identify gaps and priorities, and provide recommendations to the CWG.

The webinar will have three speaking segments and experts will be distributed across these segments based on their respective time zone. The webinar will be moderated by representatives from ICOM, ICOMOS, and UNITAR with expertise on the topic. It will be live streamed on the YouTube channel of UNESCO. The previous global thematic webinars on priority one, two and three were conducted on 28 March, 13 and 19 April respectively.

#thecommunique #tcn #tc #event #G20 #UNESCO #CWG #event2023

Ministry of Tourism to organise the SCO Millets Food Festival from 13th -19th April 2023 in Mumbai

Ministry of Tourism, Government of India will organise the 4th and last event SCO Millets Food Festival from 13th -19th April 2023 in Mumbai at Taj Mahal Palace where Chefs from SCO member countries ( Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan Uzbekistan and Russia) and will attend the 9 day event and showcase their various cuisines and offer to the guest at the hotel. Taj Mahal Palace will be hosting the SCO Millet Food Festival to commemorate the International Year of Millets (IYM 2023). This festival will feature a selection of organic meals made with millets that have been hand-selected by our SCO Member Chefs. From 14th to 19th of April the festival will be open to public for lunch and dinner at Shamiana Restaurant, Taj Mahal palace Hotel, Mumbai.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is an Intergovernmental Organization comprising eight Member States China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, four Observer States and fourteen “Dialogue Partners”

India is hosting presidency of SCO for the year 2023, the Ministry of Tourism Government of India has successfully completed SCO Tourism Mart from 9th - 11th February 2023, SCO Expert Level Tourism Working Group Meeting and SCO Tourism Minister's Meeting in Kashi (Varanasi) from 13th - 18th March 2023 during the meeting discussed the Joint Action Plan for implementing the Agreement between the Governments of the SCO Member States on the Development of Cooperation in Tourism. The Experts from the member countries of SCO prioritised various activities under areas of cooperation such as Promotion of the SCO tourism brand, Promotion of the cultural heritage of the SCO Member States in tourism, Sharing and Exchange of information and digital technology in tourism, Promotion of mutual cooperation in medical and health tourism, Improving the quality of services.

The SCO countries have a diverse mix of cultures and traditions, which is aptly reflected in their cuisines. The cuisine of SCO countries will offer unique delights to food lovers. With the aim to create awareness and increase the production & consumption of millets, United Nations had declared 2023 the International Year of Millets. The idea behind the international year is to promote millets as they are climate resilient and consuming them can help the world meet at least six United Nations-mandated sustainable development goals.

Spearheaded by the Prime Minister, the Government of India sponsored the proposal for International Year of Millets (IYM) 2023 which was accepted by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). The declaration has been instrumental for the Government of India to be at the forefront in celebrating the IYM. The PM of India, Shri Narendra Modi has also shared his vision to make IYM 2023 a ‘People’s Movement’ alongside positioning India as the ‘Global Hub for Millets’.

#thecommunique #tcn #tc #event #event2023 #G20 #TAJ