India is on course to achieve the millennium development goals (MDGs) much before the agreed 2015 deadline, according to the Finance Secretary, Mr D.C. Gupta. The MDGs are a set of numerical and time-bound targets related to key achievements in human development. The international community had accepted the MDGs at the United Nations Millennium Summit in New York in September 2000. Speaking at a conference here on Thursday on 'Attaining the millennium development goals in India: Role of public policy and service delivery', organised by the World Bank, Mr D.C. Gupta pointed out that the goals of the Tenth Five-Year plan were much more ambitious than the MDGs.