The G20 summit in Johannesburg takes place amid an environment of rising economic fragility, widening inequality, and deepening pessimism about the capacity of global institutions to deliver meaningful results. A growing share of the world’s population now lives in countries grappling with the combined pressures of mounting debt and tightening financial conditions. Climate change is accelerating faster than the collective response, and adaptation costs rise sharply each year. Digital technologies and Artificial Intelligence are reshaping power dynamics in ways many governments find hard to influence. These forces converge on a single question that now defines international cooperation: can the system still respond with impact, or has it slipped into a cycle of rhetorical ambition and operational decline?

This year’s meeting is especially significant because the G20 continues to absorb the political shift introduced during India’s chairmanship. Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the forum adopted a stronger emphasis on the priorities of the Global South and elevated the African Union to permanent membership. That adjustment was more than symbolic. It reflected the changing geography of global growth, energy demand, digital innovation, and demographic expansion. Johannesburg now stands as the place where political alignment must be translated into mechanisms capable of addressing concrete challenges. India’s long-term legacy, and the G20’s credibility as a platform for collective action, will be judged against this operational benchmark.

The most immediate challenge is the expanding sovereign debt crisis. More than sixty low and middle-income countries devote more public resources to debt servicing than to essential sectors such as healthcare. This pattern reflects global interest rate cycles, fragmented financing, limited access to concessional credit, and a lack of effective shock absorbers across the international system. The G20’s Common Framework was introduced to manage these pressures, yet it has struggled to gain broad participation because of its........

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