Bharat Mandapam, the venue of the G20 summit, ahead of the summit, at Pragati Maidan, in New Delhi.
| Photo Credit: ANI
The arrival of heads of governments and foreign dignitaries for the G-20 summit being held in New Delhi spurred Prime Minister Narendra Modi to spell out a strict set of “do’s and don’ts” to be observed by his colleagues in the Council of Ministers. On top of the list was a directive that the Ministers use the G-20 shuttle service to reach the summit venue of Bharat Mandapam rather than their official vehicles.
At a meeting of the Council of Ministers on Wednesday, in the presence of Mr. Modi, Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra made a presentation on protocol and other issues related to the G-20 Summit and the scale at which things were being organised. It was at this meeting that the Prime Minister asked his Ministerial colleagues to ensure that visiting dignitaries were not put to any inconvenience while in New Delhi for the meet to be held on September 9 and 10.
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Apart from asking Ministers to forego the use of their official vehicles in favour of shuttles that will running to the venue at regular intervals, he made them download the G-20 India mobile app and especially use its feature of translation to languages spoken by the various delegates, sources said. The mobile app has an instant translation feature incorporating all Indian languages and that of G-20 member countries.
Some of the PM’s Cabinet colleagues are expected to be Ministers-in-Waiting for the world leaders who have started arriving for the summit.
Union Minister of State for Health S.P.S Singh Baghel received President of Nigeria Bola Ahmed Tinubu on his arrival at New Delhi on Tuesday.
During an informal interaction before the meeting of the Union Cabinet which lasted for nearly one hour, the Ministers were informed how important the summit was for India and its global image.