Mukesh Ambani in UN development group

Reliance Industries chief Mukesh Ambani has been named by the United Nations to a key advocacy group on Millennium Development Goals, whose mandate includes finding ways to fight socio-economic evils such as poverty.

Reliance Industries chief Mukesh Ambani has been named by the United Nations to a key advocacy group on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), whose mandate includes finding ways to fight socio-economic evils such as poverty.

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Ambani is the only Indian to be a part of the group that includes eminent figures including Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, philanthropist Ted Turner and Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, among others.

Ambani is expected to focus on a global partnership for development, that will include development of an open, rule-based, non-discriminatory trading and financial system.

UN said Ambani will also look at the needs of the least developed nations, as well as landlocked developing nations and small island developing states.

The MDGs are eight international development goals that all 192 UN member states and at least 23 global groups have agreed to achieve by 2015. These include reducing extreme poverty, reducing child mortality rates, fighting epidemics such as AIDS and developing a global partnership for development.

Ambani's appointment comes at a time when the 2010 Millennium Development Goals report card paints a dark picture for South Asia, including India.