India doubles contribution to population forum
By IANSThursday, October 28, 2010
NEW DELHI - India Thursday announced doubling of its contribution to the Partners in Population Development (PPD), an intergovernmental initiative for population and reproductive health related programmes.
Participating in a meeting of the PPD in Indonesia, Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said that India will increase its annual contribution toward the alliance from the present $40,000 to $80,000.
He urged other participating countries to increase their contribution as well.
“I take this opportunity to request all member countries to consider increasing their contributions according to their capacity,” he said.
Launched in 1994 at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), the PPD is an intergovernmental alliance of 24 countries.
It was created for the purpose of expanding and improving collaboration in the fields of reproductive health, population, and development.
The alliance also has a permanent observer status at the UN General Assembly. India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Egypt, South Africa and Kenya are some of the key members of the alliance which represents more than 57 percent of global population.
India also announced giving 10 new scholarships for the post-graduate diploma course in public health management for one year, in addition to 10 similar ones launched last year.
