2023 G20 summit will be milked by 'world's greatest event manager' for LS polls: Congress
New Delhi (PTI): As India was handed over the presidency of the G20, the Congress on Wednesday alleged that the grouping's summit in 2023 will be milked by "the world's greatest event manager" for the Lok Sabha elections, an apparent jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
India was handed over the presidency of the influential bloc at the end of the two-day G-20 summit in Bali which was hosted by Indonesia.
India will officially assume the G20 Presidency from December 1.The next G20 Leaders' Summit at the level of Heads of State/Government is scheduled to be held on September 9 and 10 in New Delhi.
Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said on Twitter, "G20, a grouping of 19 major economies & the European Union was set up in 1999. Since 2008 an annual summit is held in each member country IN TURN."
Each country gets a chance and India will host the summit in 2023, he said.
"It's certainly to be welcomed like similar summits held earlier The Non Aligned Summit of over 100 countries took place in New Delhi in 1983 followed by the Commonwealth Summit," Ramesh said.
"The 2023 Summit will of course be milked by the world's greatest event manager for the Lok Sabha elections a year later to distract from real issues of the people," he alleged.
In his remarks at the closing ceremony of the summit in Bali, Prime Minister Modi on Wednesday said India's G-20 presidency will be inclusive, ambitious, decisive, and action-oriented, noting that the country is taking the charge at a time when the world is grappling with geopolitical tensions, economic slowdown and rising food and energy prices.
The G20 or Group of 20 is an intergovernmental forum of the world's major developed and developing economies.
It comprises Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the UK, the US and the European Union (EU).
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Melinda French Gates resigns as Gates Foundation co-chair, 3 years after her divorce from Bill Gates
New York, May 13: Melinda French Gates will step down as co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the nonprofit she and her ex-husband Bill Gates founded and built into one of the world's largest philanthropic organisations over the past 20 years.
“This is not a decision I came to lightly,” French Gates posted on the X platform on Monday. “I am immensely proud of the foundation that Bill and I built together and of the extraordinary work it is doing to address inequities around the world.”
She praised the foundation's CEO, Mark Suzman, and the foundation's board of trustees, which was significantly expanded after the couple announced their divorce in May 2021.
“The time is right for me to move forward into the next chapter of my philanthropy,” French Gates wrote in her statement. She organises some of her investments and philanthropic gifts through her organisation, Pivotal Ventures, which is not a nonprofit.
Bill Gates thanked French Gates for her “critical” contributions to the foundations in a statement, saying, “I am sorry to see her leave, but I am sure she will have a huge impact in her future philanthropic work.”
French Gates will receive $12.5 billion as part of her agreement with Gates, which she said would commit to future work focused on women and families.
The Gates Foundation did not immediately return a request for comment about whether those assets would come from the foundation itself. In an emailed statement, the foundation said that Suzman announced the decision to employees on Monday.
“After a difficult few years watching women's rights rolled back in the US and around the world, she wants to use this next chapter to focus specifically on altering that trajectory,” Suzman said of French Gates.
Suzman said he knew many had joined the foundation in part because of their admiration for her advocacy, especially around gender equity.
“I know how beloved Melinda is here,” Suzman wrote.
The Gates Foundation holds $75.2 billion in its endowment as of December 2023, and announced in January, it planned to spend $8.6 billion through the course of its work in 2024.
The Associated Press receives financial support for news coverage in Africa from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and for news coverage of women in the workforce from Pivotal Ventures.
