Like a big fat Indian wedding: How India has prepared for G20 mega meet
India has never hosted anything of the scale of the G20 Summit which will happen over the weekend in Delhi, with more than 30 heads of state and 10 global organisations converging at Bharat Mandapam, the glamping new meeting venue at Pragati Maidan.
By November 30, when the term of India's G20 Presidency ends, over 220 meetings would have happened across 60 cities in all 28 states and 8 union territories. Over 1.5 crore people would have been involved in these programmes or come in touch with some aspects of them. Over 1 lakh participants from around 125 nationalities would have witnessed different parts of India and interacted with Indians of different regions.
How did India manage to pull off such a large-scale event spread over a year and across the country? India had all hands on deck as ministers, government officials, state governments, civil society groups, businesses and common people came together to host foreign dignitaries. It all started last February when the G20 hosting process began.
The G20 secretariat
G20 summit: Indian street food, millets on world leaders' platter
The G20 Secretariat in Delhi is at the heart of all preparations. On February 15, the Union Cabinet approved the setting up of a G20 Secretariat and its reporting structures, which was given the responsibility of implementation of overall policy decisions and arrangements needed.
The G20 Secretariat has been handling work related to content, technical, media, security and logistical aspects of India’s G20 Presidency. It is staffed with officers from the Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Finance, and other relevant line ministries/departments and domain knowledge experts. The Secretariat will be functional till
