India may miss some MDG goals: FM

NEW DELHI: India may miss some of the targets mentioned in the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals but it was in the world's interest that the country achieved these objectives, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said on Sunday.

"We have fallen behind in some of the Millennium Development Goals... while it is possible to meet some of the goals, some others may take another 3-4 years," he said while addressing corporate honchos at the India Economic Summit here.

The Millennium Declaration adopted by UN General Assembly in September 2000 had set eight development goals to be met by 2015. There are 189 countries who signed the Declaration to take measures for reducing poverty, hunger, literacy, gender inequality, disease and environmental degradation.

Chidambaram said it was in the interest of the world that India and China, the world's two most populous nations with nearly one-third of the global population, meet these targets.

Referring to the rising clout of emerging countries such as India and China in the global dynamics, he said it was too early to reach a conclusion that power has shifted from the developed world to the developing nations.

So long as advanced economies such as the US, UK and Russia control knowledge, financial resources and mineral resources -- especially oil and gas, they would continue to have substantial hold on the global economy.

India's strength over the next 10-20 years would come from providing quality goods and services at a lower cost and its managerial capacities, he said.