The UN Millennium Development Goals adopted unanimously by the Members of the UN at the UN
Millennium Summit held in 2000 represent a Global Common Minimum Programme for sustainable human well-being and security. The first among these goals relates to reduction in hunger and poverty. Achievement of these goals will depend heavily on the technological and knowledge empowerment of the socially and economically underprivileged sections of the society. Starting with the Industrial Revolution in Europe triggered by the invention of the steam engine in 1780 by James Watt, technology has been an important factor in the rich-poor divide. If technology has enlarged social and gender divides in the past, the challenge now is to enlist technology as an important instrument for achieving social and gender equity. If technology is to serve this purpose, access to it must be based on the principle of social inclusion. The antyodaya or ‘unto the last’ principle of Mahatma Gandhi is the pathway for inclusive economic growth.