With an aim that India should meet Millennium Development Goals (MDG), the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon held a high-level meeting involving health wings of UN bodies, Indian industry and Bollywood in Mumbai on Saturday.
Discussions on market opportunities for Indian companies in scaling up optimal, affordable and high quality products and services in quest of MDG was the key theme of the meet. Talks were held with the business leaders on a host of issues, particularly health indicators related to women and children. Coordinated by Reliance Industry, the UN Secretary-General urged for continuous support of the industries so that India could meet the MDG.
Sources say that his visit was organised to get Indian industry involved in health-related issues as India holds the key to global progress. “The global targets are influenced by the progress made by India. The high level delegation came together to mobilise the might of the industry so that progress in India could be accelerated,” sources said.
The top level UN delegation, consisting of heads of UNFPA, WHO, UNAIDS, deputy director-general-Unicef, attended the meeting and tried to press upon the issues so that the industry could pitch in and help government achieving the targets.
Citing private sector a critical partner in the initiative — Every Woman Every Child — launched by the Secretary-General more than a year ago, he suggested that a collective effort was required from all the sectors so that MDGs can be met.
Bollywood industry, which included stars like Aamir Khan, along with his spouse, Imran Khan and his wife, Shabana Azmi, Javed Akhtar, Karishma Kapoor, Raveena Tandon, Vidhu Viniod Chopra, Sajid Nadiadwala, Kiran Kher etc, also attended the meeting. “The aim was increase public awareness, sensitisation,” sources said. Issues like skewed sex ratio, female foeticide, infant mortality, maternal mortality remained high on the agenda.