B'luru to host G20 finance ministers' meeting in Feb

Bengaluru will play host to the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors’ meeting in February, Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman said here on Saturday.

G20 is a grouping of the world’s 20 largest economies. India will host the G20 Summit next year as part of a rotating presidency.

Sitharaman said G20 meetings would take place in different parts of India. “As a member of parliament from Karnataka, I am happy to announce that the Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors’ meeting will be held in Bengaluru in February 2023,” she said at the Start-up Inclusion Summit (SIS) on Saturday.

Organised under the patronage of CoRE Talent and Leadership Development Pvt Ltd, Vananam and 10,000 startups, the SIS is aimed at promoting startups in the country and contributing to building an Atmanirbhar startup ecosystem by breaking all the barriers brought out by disparity in age, experience, digital access, gender and geography.

The conference featured three rounds of panel discussions on ensuring a successful transition from academics to entrepreneurship; nurturing and building women-led startups, and supporting founders in tier-2 and 3 cities to bring in the next wave of startup growth in India. Sitharaman appealed to citizens working on startups and organisations facilitating startups to think beyond software and service-related innovations and look at newer areas and different units which are predominantly not touched upon.

She specifically laid stress on the climate change conditions and urged the youths working on startups to keep climate change and climate-related solutions in mind. “We are not the adapters of technology anymore, we are not seeking technology but we are moving towards becoming technology providers,” she said.