Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh's prescription for G-20

New Delhi, Sept 20 (ANI): Buoyed by the successful firefighting at home with global financial crisis, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh will have much to prescribe and advice to the developed countries, which are still in the stranglehold of economic meltdown.

Dr. Singh will be participating in G-20 Pittsburg Summit on September 24-25.

Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao told reporters here on Saturday that India would advocate reforms of the international financial institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to keep pace with the ground realities of the changing world.

India is demanding from the developed world to increase its vote share in the World Bank and the IMF respectively.

Last year, the IMF has proposed raising India's quota and vote share, which would push its position up to 11th among the 184 member nations.

In fact, BRIC nations-Brazil, Russia, India and China-are together increasing the pressure on the developed world to reform and take a common position on the increase of vote share in the international financial institutions, which presently gives sweeping powers to the US.

Dr. Singh, who has been an ardent advocate of democratization of international financial institutions, has voiced India's stand on all multilateral forums.

In wake of signs of fast recovery from meltdown shown by the developing countries, Dr. Singh is likely to be more vociferous in his demands this time.

India is going to make strong objections to protectionism in all its forms covering trade and goods and services and investment. Introduction of tax cuts on the outsourcing by the Obama administration, which has hit India's BPO sector hard, is also likely to crop up when India will present its point of view in the plenary session.

Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia and National Security Advisor MK Narayanan will accompany Dr. Singh.

Economic crisis have hurt India as well. Its growth rate had sunk from 8-9 per cent to 5-6 per cent. But the country is still doing better and recovering faster than its western counterparts.

Climate change is expected to remain another hot topic of debate in G-20, which is seen as precursor to the much talked Copenhagen Summit on climate change slated to take place in December this year.

Some even say that climate change is going to hijack the G-20 Summit, which is organized to assess the developments and measures taken to tackle the economic crisis in the previous Washington and London Summits respectively.

India will be demanding for technology and monetary support from the developed countries to tackle climate change.

While Dr. Singh will be attending G-20 in Pittsburg, Foreign Minister SM Krishna will be making India's case at high-level event on climate change in New York as a representative of the Indian Prime Minister.

Emphasizing that climate change is a historical responsibility of the developed countries, Nirupama Rao told reporters that developing countries like India, which are vulnerable to and are already suffering from the impact of climate change, have an important stake in establishment of a truly global, transparent, rule-based and equitable climate change regime based on the principles of the UNFCCC.

India will also be asking the UNGA for concluding comprehensive convention on terrorism proposed and prepared by India and restructuring of UNSC permanent and non-permanent membership.

India is claiming its stake for the permanent membership at the United Nations Security Council and Rao told reporters that India is in touch with friendly countries.

G-20, which is formed in 1999 in the wake of East Asia financial crisis, is a mighty group, which is made up of 90 per cent of global GDP, 85 per cent of world trade and two-thirds of humanity. By Naveen Kapoor (ANI)