Nine Country Conference (NCC) Treaty.
It is the second most populated country in the world, with over one billion inhabitants. The relative size versus populations plays a significant role, because there are many Indian's who rely on land to raise animals and crops for survival. There are 16 official languages in India. Hindi is the national language and primary tongue of 30% of the people, and English enjoys associate status but is the most important language for national, political, and commercial communication; there are 14 other official languages: Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Oriya, Unjabi, Assamese, Dashmire, Sindhi, and Sanskrit; Hindustani is a popular variant of Hindi/Urdu spoken widely throughout northern India but is not an official language. Economically, India is doing very well. According to an on-line resource, "India has the eighth largest economy, and is considered one of the ten most industrialized countries in the world."1 Economic growth in India has been at an average rate of 5%-7% over the past 10 years. .
Any serious attempt at reducing India's greatest challenge of poverty requires sustained economic growth in order to increase productivity and income. I argue that ensuring economic development requires attention not just to economic growth but also to environmental and social issues as well. This can be a daunting task for a country that has an overwhelming 300 million people at the poverty level. This startling statistic makes the starving masses India's number one priority. .
The Ministry of Environment & Forests is the nodal agency in the administrative structure of the Central Government, for the planning, promotion, co-ordination and overseeing the implementation of environmental and forestry programs. The Ministry is also the Nodal agency in the country for the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).
