India with 2.5% of the global land mass is the home of one sixth of the global population. India has always considered population as the major resource for national development. The country accorded high priority to development of human resources through investments in education, nutrition and health. The national Five Year Plans, enunciated the policies, laid down strategies, outlined programmes to improve health and nutritional status of the population, laid the goals to be achieved in specified time frame and provided the needed funds to implement the interventions. The National Health Policy set ambitious goals for health, population and nutrition sectors to be achieved by 2000 AD. Over years there has been substantial progress but given the vast country and varied problems in different states and various constraints, the progress towards these goals was uneven and the country could not achieve many of the goals set for 2000 AD.