New Delhi/Osaka: At the G20 summit in Osaka on Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi pitched for strong measures to deal with fugitive economic offenders and also highlighted his government’s slogan of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas (support, progress and confidence from all) as he spoke about social welfare schemes initiated welfare in India. On the issue of data, it may be recalled that India had on Friday officially articulated its position that international rule-making on data flows be done within the ambit of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) as data flows are a form of trade and that “digital divide” among nations must be prevented.
The slogan of “Sabka Saath” was described by Mr Prabhu later as a “very important issue and most inclusive statement”.
Highlighting Mr Modi’s anti-corruption fight at the global level, Mr Prabhu said, “We strongly put forward the need to deal with fugitive economic offenders. It has been a strong agenda, we have been working on tax evasion, corruption, economic offences and fugitive offenders. We (India) strongly feel that we as a global community must act in unison to deal with such issues of people committing economic offences and running away from their national domicile country.”
According to reports from Osaka, 19 members (including India) of the G-20, sans the United States, also agreed to the “irreversibility” of the Paris climate deal and pledged its full implementation, after two days of talks.
Warning that there are growing risks to the global economy, leaders of the G-20 said they would play a lead role in the global efforts to fight against corruption by denying safe haven to persons sought for corruption and “work more closely” on asset recovery cooperation.
