Why in news?

• India and the United Nations have jointly launched an initiative aimed at building the capacity of countries in the Global South.
• The goal is to share India's development experiences, best practices, and expertise through capacity-building and training programs.

What’s in today’s article?

• Global South
• News Summary

What constitutes the Global South?

• Not a geographical line
  • Despite how it sounds, it is not really a geographical term.
  • Many countries included in the Global South are in the northern hemisphere, such as India, China and all of those in the northern half of Africa.
  • Australia and New Zealand, both in the southern hemisphere, are not in the Global South.
  • The Global South is a geographical, geopolitical, historical and developmental concept, all at the same time — with exceptions.
• Brandt Line as the border
  • Many people refer to the Brandt Line as the border.
    • The line was proposed by former German Chancellor Willy Brandt in the 1980s as a visual depiction of the north-south divide based upon per-capita GDP.
  • It starts in the north of Mexico, goes across the top of Africa and the Middle East, makes a loop around India and China, and then goes down to include most of East Asia. It doesn't include Japan, Australia, or New Zealand.
  • 

Which countries make up the Global South?

• The term ‘Global South’ began by loosely referring to those countries that were left out of the industrialisation era.
• It broadly comprises countries in the regions of Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia (excluding Israel, Japan, and South Korea), and Oceania (excluding Australia and New Zealand).
• For the U.N., Global South is something of a shortcut to refer to developing countries in general.
  • The U.N. currently lists 181 jurisdictions as developing countries or territories, and 67 jurisdictions as developed.
• Some use different criteria, such as whether a country was previously colonized or whether a nation's per-capita GDP is above $15,000.

India Emerged As the Voice Of Global South

• One of the various visions of G20 presidency
  • When India assumed the G20 presidency on December 1, 2022, it set out various visions for the nation's year-long presidency and the Global South was one of them.
  • India organized eight ministerial-level thematic segments to address the most pressing concerns of the developing world.
• India Raised the issues concerning Global South on the international forums and at the UN meetings and conferences.
• During Covid-19 pandemic: Made-in-India vaccines were sent to about 100 countries. And about 150 nations imported medicines during this period from the Pharmacy of the World.
• India Hosted the Voice of Global South Summit virtually in January 2023 with representatives from 125 countries.
  • India even ensured that the region remained centre stage at the G7 Summit in Hiroshima.
• African Union as a full member of the G20 under India’s presidency.
• The 15th BRICS Summit in South Africa
  • During this summit, PM Modi said that the Global South is not just a diplomatic term but represents the shared history of these countries against colonialism and apartheid based on which modern relations are being reshaped.
• 2-day event on international taxation at National Academy of Direct Taxes (NADT).
  • This event was an initiative of the Indian Presidency to bolster capacity building for Indian tax officials in the area of International Taxation, with a global south perspective.

News Summary: India, UN launch capacity building initiative

• The “India-UN Capacity Building Initiative” was announced at the event “India-UN for the Global South-Delivering for Development”.
• As part of this initiative, the UN India team and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will partner together.
• This partnership will leverage India's Technical and Economic Cooperation platform to share India's development experiences and best practices across the world.

Key highlights

• Operationalise development-relevant deliverables of India's G20 Presidency. Hence, it is seen as a big boost to India’s G20 Presidency. This includes:
  • the G20 Action Plan for Accelerating Progress on the SDGs,
  • technological transformation and building Digital Public Infrastructure.
• Complements the India-UN partnership in the form of “India-UN Development Partnership Fund”.
  • This fund has reportedly developed a portfolio of 75 development projects in 61 countries in the last 6 years.
• Significance
  • Contribution to global efforts towards accelerating momentum for achieving the SDGs by strengthening South-South Cooperation.
  • Reflects India's continuing efforts to strengthen its development partnership with the Global South.
  • It builds upon the extensive cooperation in development and capacity building that India already has bilaterally with partner countries.