Important International Institutions: UN, WTO, IMF, World Bank and G20

What the syllabus asks

GS2 lists "important international institutions, agencies and fora: their structure and mandate". For Prelims you need facts: headquarters, membership, founding years and main functions. For Mains you need analysis: reform debates, India's role and the effectiveness of the institutions. This lesson covers the core institutions. Regional groupings are covered in the neighbourhood and wider-world lessons.

The United Nations system

The UN Charter was signed in San Francisco in June 1945 and came into force on 24 October 1945 (UN Day). India was a founding member: it signed the Charter in 1945 even before independence. The UN has 193 member states; the most recent is South Sudan (2011).

Six principal organs:

1. General Assembly: all members, one vote each. Important questions need a two-thirds majority. Its resolutions are recommendations, not binding.
2. Security Council: 15 members. The five permanent members (P5), the USA, UK, France, Russia and China, have a veto. The ten non-permanent members are elected for two-year terms. Its decisions under Chapter VII are binding. India has been a non-permanent member eight times, most recently in 2021–22.
3. Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC): 54 members.
4. Trusteeship Council: suspended since 1994, after Palau became independent.
5. International Court of Justice (ICJ): in The Hague; 15 judges elected for nine years. Indian judges have included Dalveer Bhandari (re-elected in 2017). The ICJ ruled for India in the Kulbhushan Jadhav case (2019), ordering Pakistan to give consular access and review the conviction.
6. Secretariat: headed by the Secretary-General, appointed by the General Assembly on the Security Council's recommendation for a five-year term. António Guterres has held the post since 2017; his second term ends in 2026, so a selection process is under way.

Key specialised agencies and funds:

UNSC reform and India's claim

India's case for a permanent seat:

• It is the most populous country and the largest democracy.
• It is among the largest economies.
• It is one of the biggest contributors of troops to UN peacekeeping (about 2.9 lakh personnel have served since the 1950s).
• It is a leader of the Global South and a responsible nuclear power.

Groups in the reform debate:

• G4 (India, Brazil, Germany, Japan): support each other's bids.
• L.69 group of developing countries.
• African Union's Ezulwini Consensus: two permanent seats with veto for Africa.
• Uniting for Consensus (UfC, "Coffee Club"): led by Italy and including Pakistan. It opposes new permanent members.

Intergovernmental Negotiations (IGN) take place in the UN General Assembly but have no text-based process. Reform needs an amendment to the Charter under Article 108: a two-thirds vote of the General Assembly and ratification by two-thirds of members, including all P5. All P5 except China have expressed some support for India's bid.

Bretton Woods institutions

These came out of the Bretton Woods Conference (1944) in New Hampshire, USA.

International Monetary Fund (IMF), headquartered in Washington DC, with 191 members:

• It oversees the international monetary system through surveillance (Article IV consultations).
• It lends to countries with balance of payments problems, with conditions. India borrowed in 1981 and 1991.
• It issues Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), valued against a basket of five currencies: the US dollar, euro, yuan, yen and pound.
• Voting is linked to quotas. The 2010 reforms raised India's share (about 2.75%). The US has a veto over major decisions, which need 85%.
• By convention the Managing Director is European.

World Bank Group, headquartered in Washington DC:

• IBRD: lends to middle-income countries.
• IDA: concessional loans and grants to the poorest. India graduated from IDA in 2014.
• IFC: private sector.
• MIGA: investment guarantees.
• ICSID: investment disputes. India is not a member.
• By convention the President is American.

The World Bank publishes the *World Development Report*. Its *Doing Business* report was discontinued in 2021.

World Trade Organization (WTO)

The WTO was set up on 1 January 1995 under the Marrakesh Agreement, which ended the Uruguay Round of GATT (1947). It is headquartered in Geneva and has 166 members. Comoros and Timor-Leste joined in 2024. India is a founding member of both GATT and the WTO.

Main agreements:

• GATT (goods).
• GATS (services).
• TRIPS (intellectual property).
• Agreement on Agriculture, which classifies subsidies into amber, blue and green boxes. Amber-box support is limited by de minimis limits of 10% of production value for developing countries.
• SPS and TBT (standards).
• Trade Facilitation Agreement (2017).

Principles: Most-Favoured-Nation treatment (no discrimination between trading partners) and National Treatment (imported goods treated like domestic ones after entry).

Decision-making: the Ministerial Conference, the highest body, meets at least every two years. MC13 was held in Abu Dhabi in 2024, and MC14 is scheduled for Cameroon in 2026. Decisions are by consensus.

Dispute settlement crisis: the Appellate Body has been non-functional since December 2019, because the US blocked appointments. An interim arrangement, the MPIA, operates, but India has not joined it.

India's positions at the WTO:

• A permanent solution on public stockholding for food security (the Bali peace clause of 2013).
• Protecting special and differential treatment for developing countries.
• Opposing the inclusion of non-trade issues and plurilateral agreements such as investment facilitation.
• Supporting the TRIPS waiver for COVID vaccines (a proposal with South Africa in 2020; a limited decision came at MC12 in 2022).
• Defending its fisheries subsidies for small fishers.
• Pushing for the e-commerce customs duty moratorium to end, though it was extended at MC13.

G20

The G20 was formed in 1999 after the Asian financial crisis, as a forum for finance ministers and central bank governors. It was upgraded to leaders' summits in 2008 (Washington) after the global financial crisis. It has 19 countries plus the EU, and the African Union became a member in 2023. Together these account for about 85% of world GDP and about two-thirds of the world's population. It has no permanent secretariat. A troika of the past, current and next presidencies coordinates its work.

India's presidency (December 2022–November 2023):

• Theme: "Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam: One Earth, One Family, One Future".
• The New Delhi Leaders' Declaration was adopted by consensus.
• The African Union was admitted.
• Initiatives included the Global Biofuels Alliance, the launch of IMEC, high-level principles on DPI, and calls to reform multilateral development banks.

Brazil held the presidency in 2024 and South Africa in 2025. The US holds it in 2026.

Other important forums

• Commonwealth: 56 members; secretariat in London.
• G7: India is invited regularly as an outreach partner.
• OECD: India is not a member.
• FATF: Paris; anti-money laundering standards. India became a member in 2010, and its mutual evaluation was adopted in 2024.
• Export control regimes: India is a member of the MTCR (2016), Wassenaar Arrangement (2017) and Australia Group (2018), but not the NSG, where China blocks it.

Practice: Mains question

*"Multilateral institutions created after the Second World War no longer reflect contemporary realities." Discuss with reference to the UN Security Council and the Bretton Woods institutions, and India's demand for reform. (250 words)*