As a new world order emerges from the G20 Summit, will India be able to handle the new responsibility that comes with more power being bestowed on it?

It took the worst US recession since the 1930s for the West to make a clean break with old thinking. The Group of 20 (G20) nations that emerged last November to tackle the global crisis and its aftermath will now replace the World War II Group of eight (G8) powers as a permanent council for global economic cooperation.

The initiative was pushed by US president Barack Obama and satisfies the demands of the world's new economic stars — China, India and Brazil — who have demanded a seat at the decision-making table. The US initiative is likely to result in a 5%-point shift in the ownership of the IMF from industrialised to developing countries. "It is a substantial step in the right direction," Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of India's planning commission, has said.

Can India, which has been facing problems like terrorism, draught, population explosion and unemployment on its own turf, handle the world's problems?

With power come responsibilities. Can India fulfill these with ease? Has the time come for the Indian government to shoulder global responsibilities, or should it first fulfill what it owes its own people?  

As a new world order emerges from the G20 Summit, will India be able to handle the new responsibility that comes with more power being bestowed on it?