Lunch with BS: 'G20 is about thinking and acting big', says Amitabh Kant

From tourism to development to projecting India's soft power to the world, Kant tells Ruchika Chitravanshi and Nivedita Mookerji that G20 is about thinking and acting big

Going against the house rule of us hosting the guest at a restaurant, Amitabh Kant settles for a club where he feels at home. So, Delhi Golf Club it is, with its surrounding greens and the magnificent view of the city from the terrace of its first-floor pub, which is called simply The Pub. It’s a glorious December afternoon and we instantly know that we must sit outside to enjoy the sun and the sights, besides the food and, of course, the conversation with one of the country’s most well-known bureaucrats today.

We’ve arrived early enough to select a good setting. We ask for an umbrella over the largish table at the risk of it toppling in case the breeze gets stronger. Kant, who’s now in the news for his current role as G20 Sherpa, arrives at the appointed time. Formally attired, he gets down to business immediately. The Kerala-cadre 1980 batch IAS officer, who was last NITI Aayog CEO, asks for a lemon soda. We opt for one too, plus a ginger ale. For lunch, Kant suggests a stir-fry vegetable and chicken dimsums along with steamed sole with a garnish of cilantro and spring onions dipped in soy sauce, while we settle for green Thai curry and boiled rice.              

Kant, 66, is a regular at the Golf Club, playing here thrice every week. This is his second lunch with BS in some seven years — a rare thing for a career bureaucrat who typically stays behind the scenes. Both times, he’s chosen the same venue. How does he find time for leisure with such a packed, 24X7 job? “I work every day, and that includes Saturdays and Sundays….’’

But that doesn’t stop him from teeing off every now and then. He may not be much of a TV or OTT watcher, but he did make time to catch the best of the FIFA World Cup that ended recently. Speaking of sports, does he believe hosting the G20 is comparable with hosting the Olympic Games? Kant laughs, saying it’s many, many times larger than the Olympics or the World Economic Forum at Davos. The Olympics is spread over 15 days, Davos is for less than a week, while the G20 India presidency is round the year — December 1, 2022, to November 30, 2023 — with 215 meetings scheduled in 56 cities, leading up to the main summit on September 9 and 10 in New Delhi.  

We’re trying to get some news out of this very media-savvy bureaucrat, who’s known for coining the catchy Kerala tourism campaign – ‘God’s own country’ – and the ‘Incredible India’ slogan during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee regime. Incredibly enough, Kant continues to wear his tourism hat. As Sherpa, he is betting on G20 as the biggest tourism tool, besides meeting other political, diplomatic and business objectives.

We ask him if Arunachal Pradesh would be left out of the G20 meetings for obvious reasons. “We will have G20 meetings in each and every state and Union Territory without any exception,’’ comes the reply. What about the list of dignitaries; is that final? “It’s too early for that,’’ he says, smartly skirting the question.

By this time, the table is laden with tempting food and as we dig in, we overhear other club members and their guests appreciating the gorgeous greens and the generous sunshine. The Thai curry is nicely flavoured and rich with the aroma of oriental herbs. Kant serves us the stir-fry vegetable and then puts some on his own plate; they go well with the Thai combo. We also try the fish, which doesn’t disappoint.

Staying with G20, Kant says that the Prime Minister is looking beyond just the G20 content. “A good presidency works on political narrative to development,’’ he points out. ‘’The PM is using this opportunity to improve the infrastructure of the cities — from repairing roads to greening initiatives.’’

Isn’t one year too short a time for a city’s makeover? “A lot can be done in a year. I have seen this in Udaipur (where the first G20 India presidency Sherpa track meeting was held early December)… In one month, the Fateh Sagar lake was cleaned up, so were the roads.’’ He reiterates that G20 is an opportunity to make cities top-class and project the states’ arts and cuisines to the world. Eventually, this should enable states to promote tourism and grow India’s presence in the global MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibition) market, he adds. Currently, India’s share in the MICE pie is negligible at less than 1 per cent. “It’s a chance to project India’s soft power.’’

At this point he stops to tell us not to waste food and distributes the fish equally among the three of us. And then he proceeds to scrape the curry from the serving bowl till the last drop has been poured into his plate.

So, is he kind of joining the dots from Kerala’s God’s-Own-Country campaign to Incredible India to G20 in the tourism push? “In addition to that (tourism), G20 is also about a lot of content,” he says. “It’s about getting your priorities right at a time when there are so many global challenges – 200 million people have gone below the poverty line because of Covid-19. Some 100 million have lost their jobs…. Several countries are getting into recession.’’ The list of troubles is long and in that context Kant explains that India is bringing a lot of philosophical feel to realpolitiks to find solutions.

With the Union Budget around the corner, how will G20 be covered on February 1, we ask. G20, which is being coordinated primarily by the Ministry of External Affairs, is hardly a Budget component as the financial outlay will not be large, Kant tells us. That said, his guess is that G20 would find mention in the finance minister’s Budget speech as it’s a matter of pride for India.

“So far, in the last 75 years, India has been responding to an agenda set by the developed world. Now we’re setting the agenda, we’re deciding the priority for the world.’’ From a leadership viewpoint, the first and foremost objective of the G20 should be how to provide impetus to inclusive, resilient and sustainable growth, he says. “Cryptocurrency and everything else is secondary to my mind.’’  

What really is the cost of hosting G20 for India? Kant directs us to the MEA for that query, but he explains that the G20 India presidency would be a shared responsibility— between the G20 secretariat, central ministries and states. The cost could be in the region of Rs 300 to Rs 400 crore, he estimates.

During our conversation, Kant mentions Prime Minister Narendra Modi several times, about his inclusive approach, his leadership qualities, his appreciation for detail…. Staying on that subject, we ask: Is Modi then the most dynamic PM? “He has the ability to think beyond… I have not come across any other PM who’s a techie at heart,’’ Kant says, all animated while listing Modi's achievements in digital payments, bank accounts for the underprivileged and other new-economy areas including the PLI (production-linked incentive) scheme.

Our next question: How accessible is PM Modi? “Every time I have sought an appointment with him, I have got it… I’m one officer who has probably made the maximum number of presentations to him.’’ Kant’s interactions with Modi on G20 suggest that he wants India’s G20 to be the best — it has to be path-breaking. Kant says that Modi gets into details unlike other PMs. “He contributes to everything.’’ What about the other PMs, specifically Manmohan Singh? “I don’t want to talk about it… As an officer, it is not my job to compare PMs,’’ he says.

The conversation veers towards Kant’s many important projects including Make In India, Startup India, PLI. About the PLI scheme, he says, “if we don’t get into sunrise areas of growth, it will be very difficult for India to grow at a rapid pace.’’ PLI should aim at more than just attracting Apple, he says. Plans should be specifically designed for other major players. Kant counts Dholera among the successful projects that he’s been involved with. We interrupt to ask if Dholera, envisioned as a smart city in Gujarat, is really an ideal destination for the industry. “Noida took 30 years and Gurugram 35. Give Dholera a minimum of another decade, it will be a top-class city,’’ he assures.

We’re done with the main course and order a kulfi faluda, slipping in a question on the stumbling blocks in governance. “There are too many laws and rules. We need to scrap all those relics of the socialistic era, and you need to give a larger continuity term to officers — perhaps a decade to deliver transformational things,’’ he says. As NITI Aayog CEO, for example, he tried some kind of a transformation, he points out. ‘’I brought in young people, I got in the lateral entrants’’ for NITI to think afresh.

Kulfi takes a long time to arrive and Kant makes calls to reschedule his next meeting of the day. We wrap up by asking him what’s next for him after the G20 assignment. “I have had my innings, there are many other things to do besides being in the government,’’ he tells us. As we walk to the parking lot, he shares his thoughts on G20 once more. "Think big" seems to be at the centre of it all.