Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh) [India], January 16 (ANI): Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan inaugurated the two-day Think-20 meeting under G-20 at Kushabhau Thakre International Convention Centre (Minto Hall) in state capital Bhopal on Monday.

Addressing the inaugural session, CM Chouhan said, "We heartily welcome all the delegates in the heart of India, Madhya Pradesh. We treat guests like 'God'. In our country, we have a tradition of Atithi Devo Bhava (the guest is God). Today, I feel that Bhopal has become the intellectual capital.""We will work for with a notion of 'One Earth, One Family and One Furture'. There is one earth and it is for everyone. One family represents that the entire world is a family in which trees and wildlife are also incldued with humna being. One furture represents that we will save the earth for our future generation from issues like global warming, climate change, excessive extration of natural resources that harming nature. We have to think about the development along with nature."Before the inauguaral ceremonry of Think 20 under G-20 meeting, CM Chauhan along with G-20 delegates from different countries planted saplings at Water Vision Park in the state capital Bhopal on Monday morning.

Over 300 ministers, intellectuals and subject-experts from India and abroad will brainstorm on the topic of 'Environment-friendly lifestyle-ethical values and propitious global good governance' in three plenary and ten parallel sessions on the first day.

Earlier, G-20 Chief Coordinator Harshvardhan Shringla gave information about the meeting to be held on January 16 and 17 here. He has said that India has got the chairmanship of G-20 for the first time.

Around 300 participants will attend the various sessions. Of these, 94 will be international, 115 from different states of India and around 100 local participants. It will include 14 G-20 countries, 3 South Asian countries Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka, 21 countries from Africa and other regions and 4 from Egypt, Netherlands, Nigeria and Singapore as official guest countries. Along with this, representatives of 9 international organisations Asian Development Bank, ADB Institute, African Union, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, GIZ, OECD, UN, UNDP and UNICEF will also participate.

The keynote speaker of the inaugural session on the first day will be Tetsushi Sonobe, Dean and CEO, ADBI Tokyo, Japan. The special speakers will be Regional Director for South Asia UNICEF, Nepal George Laryea Adjei, Slamet Soedarsono, Deputy Minister of Political Affairs, Law, Security and National Development Planning, Indonesia, Harshvardhan Shringla, Chief Coordinator of G-20, Government of India and Suman Berry, Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog, Government of India. Dr Indrani Barpujari, Principal Advisor, Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Good Governance and Policy Analysis, will propose the vote of thanks.

The first plenary session on the topic Life, Value and Development Formation. The second plenary session will be based on the subject of Financing Resilient Infra-structure and Sustainable Transition. The third plenary session will be on the topic "Towards Inclusive G-20".

Besides, there will be 10 parallel sessions on the first day. Five parallel sessions on the topics of Institutional Framework for Live, Investing in Children as Investment in the Future, Financing Resilient Cities and Societies, Economic Systems Transformation and One Health Wellness and Traditional Medicine.

The other five parallel sessions will be held on the topics of Ethics in Technology, Women and Youth Led Development, Green Energy and Logistics, Industrial Transformation and Going Beyond GDP-Well-being Measurement.

After the meeting, the guests will visit the Tribal Museum of Bhopal in the evening and participate in a cultural programme in the museum. (ANI)