India's G20 presidency: First Y20 meet in Guwahati from February 6 to 8

The first meeting of the Youth20 (Y20) group, being organised on the sidelines of the G20 summit, will be held in Assam's largest city Guwahati from February 6 to 8, an official statement said on Sunday.

This is the first of the various meetings to be held on the five Y20 themes across India in a run-up to the final Youth20 Summit in August 2023, it said.

"More than 250 delegates from across the world are expected to participate in the three-day event in Assam. It will focus on five themes of Future of Work; Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction; Peace Building and Reconciliation; Youth in Democracy and Health, Wellbeing and Sports," the Press Information Bureau (PIB) release said.

Y20 is one of the eight official engagement groups under the G20 umbrella. The youth summit usually takes place some weeks prior to the traditional forum to know what the youths are thinking and incorporate their suggestions in their own policy proposals.

The Y20 India Summit in 2023 would exemplify the country's youth-centric efforts and provide an opportunity to showcase its values and policy measures to the youth across the globe, the statement said.

In order to create a participative and inclusive deliberation process in the run up to the Y20 meeting, over 50 universities and colleges across all districts of the state are organising seminars, workshops, debates and panel discussions in their campuses from January 19 onwards.

Over 12,000 students are expected to participate in these events and each higher education institution will be also be organising awareness drive at 10 nearby schools to sensitise the schools about G20 groupings and functioning.

A total of 400 participants, including prize winners of competitions from various university/college, will participate in the central event at IIT-Guwahati on February 7 and will be accordingly mentored for understanding Innovations and Industry-Academia linkages, the statement said.

"They will also get an opportunity to interact with the international youth delegates to exchange ideas for a shared future," it added.