Indian PM to attend G20 summit in France

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will head for France on Wednesday to attend the G20 Summit in Cannes, with Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia as his chief interlocutor, according to official sources Monday. According to Ahluwalia, India will have a somewhat limited role this time as the main focus of the visiting world leaders would be on how to resolve the Eurozone crisis. "This year, this is not an issue on which there is much of an India focus. It is an annual event, and it will get dominated by issues related to the management of the global economy and the Eurozone crisis," he told the media over the weekend. Ahluwalia said policymakers in India and China, who co-chair an initiative called the mutual assessment process, will nevertheless have inputs for the leaders on how the fiscal policies of members fit together to collectively achieve the G20's goals. "The mutual assessment process also includes four Eurozone countries -- Germany, Italy, France and Spain -- and it, of course, includes other countries, including China and India," he said. He added: "This process will come forth with what would be regarded as the policy priorities in each of these countries which could bring about or create the global condition for the revival of global growth."