Most south Asian nations will fall short on the Millennium Development Goals, a set of eight globally agreed development goals due to be achieved by 2015, a study by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund said.The report has warned that developing countries stand to suffer the most from climate change and the degradation of natural resources.
India is also set to achieve the goal of reducing hunger by half and reduce maternal mortality by three quarters.
The Asian Development Bank said on Wednesday India, despite making significant improvement in access to primary education, will not meet the millennium development goal targets as in the case of other countries in the Asia Pacific region.
India and many other countries are unlikely to achieve the UN Millennium Development goals of halving poverty and education for all children by 2015, said India's Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma.
The two maps, above, show the change in Under-five Mortality Rate and the change in Maternal Mortality Ratio during the time period 1990 to 2013 across the world.
However, the country is facing a tremendous challenge in sustaining drinking water security in rural areas.
Yet in many areas in South Asia, including India, naturally occurring arsenic and fluoride contamination are threatening to reverse the gains made in providing improved drinking water.
In September 2000, world leaders had agreed to tackle eight developmental challenges including poverty, employment, education and health.
'Government officials use Gmail and ordinary phones without basic security consciousness.' 'Interoperability, especially in joint exercises with countries like the US, worries me.' 'It often means we open our systems to them, but they don't reciprocate.' 'They could have kill switches in their systems and might even be able to affect ours.'
Five Indians have won top prizes in various categories of an international photography contest organised by the United Nations to spotlight the Millennium Development Goals.
The report gives India a pat on the back for bringing a large number of children to schools. However, it scores poorly in the matter of getting girls to school.
"Unfortunately, the trend is in the opposite direction," Ambassador Ajai Malhotra said and demanded increased voice for the developing nations in the decision making process of international financial institutions.
"In the last five years, government has begun to listen. Not that they do anything."
India has still a long way to go to meet the Millennium Development Goals such as elimination of poverty by 2015, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said.
The report says the first goal of halving the number of people whose income is less than $ 1 a day by 2015 is within reach. But it adds: Higher food prices may push 100 million people deeper into poverty. Most of this increase, it says, will happen in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Even though poverty figures have improved, people lacking access to food are more in number, it says.
Analysts and several reports have suggested that despite high economic growth, India is falling behind on achieving the Millennium Development Goals set by the United Nations
India has contributed to a large reduction in global poverty, according to the UN annual report on the Millennium Development Goals, which also pointed out that despite progress, the most vulnerable sections of society were being left out.
The bulk loan offered to India is for developing its infrastructure projects and to achieve the millennium development goals. Further, part of the loan would be spent in the seven low-income states -- Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh -- to support the poverty reduction programmes.
Stating that the global financial crisis threatens the livelihoods of nearly 1.4 billion people globally, a United Nations agency has asked the G-20 leaders to commit themselves to save the world poor from the adverse impact of the downturn.
India's external affairs minister takes a stroll in Manhattan.
Gates was referring to the impact of the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals, especially about the goal to reduce child mortality.
The Fifth World Telecommunication Development Conference of International Telecommunication Union got underway in Hyderabad with a resolve to push the world community for faster rolling out of broadband connectivity to bridge the digital divide between the developed and developing countries and achieve the millennium development goals of the United Nations.
Development issues of vital interest to India are expected to receive focused attention at the G20 Summit beginning in Cannes on Wednesday, a Ficci Paper on the B20 Working Group on Development said.
About a third of the world's population has access to Internet.
About a third of the world's population has access to Internet.
Between 1997 and 2008, aid commitments for sanitation and water fell from eight per cent of total development aid to five cent per cent, according to the latest UN-Water Global Annual Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS) report.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB), on Wednesday said it has approved $17.51 billion in financing operations last year to assist its developing member countries achieve their Millennium Development Goals.
Hinduja noted that there are lots of skilled people who are not able to get employment.
Welcoming government's decision to keep the common man in focus in the Union Budget, country director of United Nations Development Programme Deirdre Boyd said the enhanced funding to social sector will also help India achieve the Millennium Development Goals.
India, Brazil and South Africa received the 2010 Millennium Development Goals awards for South-South Cooperation at a prestigious gala at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York.
Britain has launched an India country plan for 2008-2015 under which it will spend 825 million pounds in the next three years to help India achieve the Millennium Development Goal (MGD) and assist the poorest of the poor in the country.
Welcoming the $1.1 trillion package committed by the world leaders at the G-20 Summit in London, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has said the developing and poor countries must get the "crucial" funds to avert a human development crisis.
India has asked rich nations to end protectionism, which costs developing countries $ 700 billion a year in export income, if the world is to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), aimed at eliminating or sharply reducing several social and economic ills by 2015. India's UN Ambassador Nirupam Sen asserted that the problem is not lack of resources, but little stomach for structural changes. A separate action is required to attack poverty and hunger and promote progress.
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