India was among the 26 countries that have pledged about USD 560 million in support of UN development activities for the next year.
The amount represents an increase of about USD 72 million in comparison to pledges made in 2013.
"As a developing country, while India has its own plate full of developmental challenges to be addressed, even then, we have always attempted to contribute to increasing the availability of core resources for development activities of the United Nations system," First Secretary in the Indian Mission to the UN Prakash Gupta said at the 2014 UN Pledging Conference yesterday.
India's USD 9.28 million pledge of contributions include USD 4.5 million dollars to the UN Development Programme (UNDP), a million dollars to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), USD 900,000 to UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), USD 500,000 to Population Fund (UNFPA), USD 1.92 million for the World Food Programme for biennium 2015-2016 and USD 100,000 to UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
Opening the conference, Director of the Office for Economic and Social Council Support and Coordination, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Navid Hanif noted that contributions for United Nations operational activities in 2012 had totalled USD 23.9 billion, with the share of core resources at 28 per cent.
The long-term absolute funding trend for United Nations operational activities for development had been favourable, with contributions having nearly doubled in real terms over the past 15 years.