India and the Millenium Development Goals

There are times when growth and progress needs to be seen from the perspective of human development; and not just in terms of % GDP growth or industrial output. The UN Millenium Development Goals (MDG) provides an alternative reference point.

The UN published a report on where the world stands with regards to meeting the MDG in 2010.
There are three references to India in the text of this report. I reproduce these below ...

The fastest growth and sharpest reductions in poverty continue to be recorded in Eastern Asia. Poverty rates in China are expected to fall to around 5 per cent by 2015. India, too, has contributed to the large reduction in global poverty.

Asia, on the other hand, registered a net gain of some 2.2 million hectares annually in the last decade, mainly because of large-scale afforestation programmes in China, India and Viet Nam.
These three countries have expanded their forest area by a total of nearly 4 million hectares annually in the last five years.

Impressive!
And if you thought that this report was written to show India in favourable light, consider this ...

[P]roblems of contamination with naturally occurring inorganic arsenic, in particular in Bangladesh and other parts of Southern Asia, or fluoride in a number of countries, including China and India, have affected the safety of water supplies.

There you have it.
India is doing rather well in (almost) all fronts - beyond that indicated by the macro-economic indicators. What is more interesting is the India is and China seems to have the similar growth trajectory as far as the MDG is concerned.

It must be borne in mind that this report came out in the middle of 2010. Wonder what impact the recent spate of inflation will have on the above statements.

Make your voice heard - Seal the Deal

In another 100 days (7th December 2009) environment ministers from all over the world will meet in Copenhangen to discuss environmental issues and thrash out a new climate treaty that will succeed the Kyoto Protocol.

Governments have been playing politics as the environment continues to deteriorate. Time you make your voice heard. UNited Nations has launched a worldwide campaign on climate change. It is called SEAL THE DEAL. Go to the Seal the Deal website and sign the petition for a fair climate agreement at the Copenhagen conference.

Even if you do not believe in Global Warming - for whatever reason - it is worth trying to create a greener and cleaner earth, isn't it?

What India Must Do - A Must Read

Martin Wolf, the famous columnist of the Financial Times has just published an article titled What India Must Do If It Is To Be An Affluent Country. While the details and the solutions suggested is well known, I am struck by the conclusion.

What I take for the world is that India, for all the huge challenges it confronts, is likely to continue its rise, if more slowly than the report assumes. The job of adjusting the familiar western ways of thinking about the world to the new realities has hardly begun. Within a decade a world in which the UK is on the United Nations Security Council and India is not will seem beyond laughable. The old order passes. The sooner the world adjusts, the better.

Many years ago Rabindranath Tagore had penned this ...

Sound the clarion
India is going to reclaim its position at the top in the world stage.
(Lousy translation of the excellent Bangla poetry, I agree, but the meaning is conveyed, I hope)

But before that we need to change. The good thing is the path is clear, but do we have the political and social will?

read the article by Martin Wolf.