Under the UoH HARMONY Friends Tea House initiative, a panel discussion was organised on the 21st of September, 2023, at the Friends tea house in the OIA building. The panel discussion was conducted on the theme “India and the International: A panel discussion on the G-20 Summit”. The programme was initiated by the students – Ms. Sanjeevani, Mr. Mohammed Naseeh and Ms. Lasya Priya, who attended the HARMONY Boot camp at Varna University of Management (VUM), Varna in July 2023. The panel discussion was aimed at encouraging students of the campus to discuss the G20 Summit Meeting that took place in India in September 2023, a major multilateral event in the country in the recent times. Along with students, the UoH Team members too participated in the Panel Discussion. The activity also had the broader objective to popularise the HARMONY Friends Teahouse among various stakeholders of the university.
The Friends tea house is an initiative of the Erasmus+ funded Project Harmony that aims to bring internationalization within the university by creating a platform for student interactions across the globe. Under this project, three of UoH’s IMA students had participated in a bootcamp in Bulgaria along with international students. The tea house offers the opportunity for students to engage in fruitful academic and socializing endeavors that shall enhance their world-view.
In this regard, two PhD scholars, Muhsin PP and Prakash Raj, both from the Department of Political Science, University of Hyderabad, were invited to present their expertise on the subject of the G-20 Summit that took place in New Delhi on September 9-10. Dr. S. Shaji Department of Political Science, moderated the discussion.
Dr. Shaji began with a brief introduction about the history and role of G-20 and the significance of this year’s presidency for India and its leadership. Muhsin PP’s presentation focused on status aspects of India’s G20 presidency. He argued that India’s assumption of the G20 presidency extends beyond mere facilitation of the platform for discussing global economic and geopolitical issues. Instead, it served as a conduit through which Delhi’s status-related anxieties and aspirations as a prominent global power was exhibited. He identified four distinct dimensions characterizing India’s involvement in this capacity, which encompassed India’s contribution to enhancing the G20’s efficacy, its utilization of the presidency as a strategic platform for advocating reforms in global governance arrangements, the amplification and projection of its capabilities, and the accommodation of domestic status concerns for a domestic audience.
Prakash Raj, Ph.D. scholar from the Department of Political Science, spoke about the way in which India succeeded in conducting the G20 and became the Voice of the Global South. Further, he articulated the manner in which India challenged China with regard to the Global South Leadership in the G20 Summit. He briefed India’s stride in including the African Union as a new G20 member and its significance for India. This was followed by enthusiastic discussion amongst the presenters, moderator and the audience touching upon various aspects of India’s position in the international arena, Indo-China relations, domestic impacts of the Summit, etc., The discussion provided all the participants refreshing inputs and perspectives and set the stage for more such academic sessions and events to take place at the Tea house henceforth. Ms. Lasya Priya, proposed the Vote of Thanks.