Global south: emergence of new world order

General Studies Paper 2

Context

• Union External Affairs Minister Jaishanker led the Foreign Ministers’ session of the Voice of Global South Summit where he said that India has emerged as an education and healthcare hub for the countries of Global South. Jaishankar highlighted India’s capacity-building programmes and its first responder activities in case of Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) situations which showed that the country has emerged as an education and healthcare hub for the Global South countries.

Outcomes of Summit 

• It has provided valuable inputs from the Global South that could facilitate India’s ambition to steer the G20 summit in Delhi to success later this year.
• It underlines the willingness across the Global South to support Indian leadership in addressing the global challenges that have had a massive impact on the condition of many developing countries.
• During the summit, India unveiled three initiatives to assist the Global South in areas ranging from technology to health, medical supplies will be provided to any developing country hit by natural disasters under the “Aarogya Maitri” project.
  • India will establish a Global South Centre of Excellence to undertake research on development solutions for developing countries and call for human-centric globalisation to address their concerns.
  • India will “launch a Global South Science and Technology initiative to share our expertise with other developing nations.”
  • India proposed a ‘Global South Young Diplomats Forum ’to “connect youthful officers to our Foreign Ministries” for synergising the group’s diplomatic voice.

What do you mean by the term Global South?

• The term Global South in common parlance is used for the countries which have low levels of economic and industrial development, which are mainly located in the southern part of the world and are located to the south of the industrialized, developed nations.
• Another way one can understand Global South is the regions of Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Oceania. 
• Additionally, the phrase ‘Global South’ paints a vision of the world with the historically neglected and minor geopolitical players at its center.

India’s Approach towards the global south

• India, with its enormous population and enormous economic capabilities, is working to unite the nations of the Global South into a powerful front so that an action-oriented approach can be adopted for the countries of the global south.
• India has a lot to offer to the world, especially to the countries of the global south.
• In addition, to India’s Vaccine Maitri, which provided medicines and vaccines to over 100 countries during the pandemic, the world has seen how the nation played a significant role in evacuating citizens from Afghanistan and Ukraine during the times of hostilities in those countries.
• India’s digital public assets like UPI, RuPay, and India stack, which are supporting such a large portion of the Indian population, can be a powerful instrument for the digital transformation of other developing and emerging countries.

What are the issues involved?

• The twin crises produced by the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russian war in Ukraine have had a devastating and disproportionate impact on the Global South.
• Multilateralism is now in dire straits thanks to the growing military tensions among the great powers — between Russia and China on one side and the US, Europe, and Japan on the other.
• Major power conflict has been reinforced by the breakdown of the world trading rules and the weaponization of global finance.
• India’s own past experience with the Non-Aligned Movement and the Group-77 developing nations points to the real difficulty of uniting the Global South in pursuit of common goals.

Way forward and Conclusion 

• The world is fully aware of the untapped potential that exists in the growing economies of the Global South.
• The countries of the Global South should unite and change the unequal “global political and financial governance” structures,
• the world should respond to the priorities of the Global South, recognise the principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities for global challenges, respect sovereignty of all nations, rule of law and reform international institutions like the United Nations.
• India certainly needs to contribute in more significant ways to modernising and democratising the global order.
• If the Global South and India worked together, they could make significant advancements in the fight against terrorism, maritime policy, and other fields.
• India looks forward to simple and sustainable solutions from all over the Global South for the betterment of the people.
• The Global South does not have adequate voice in the “eight decades old model of global governance” and it should shape the “emerging order”.

• • As India begins its G-20 Presidency this year, it is natural, our aim is to amplify the voice of the Global South.