World should take lessons from India's work in Afghanistan: UK

India's development efforts in Afghanistan provide "more bang per buck" and the international community should take some lessons from it, British high commissioner Richard Stagg said here today.

His remarks come ahead of the London Conference, convened by Afghanistan, the UK and the UN on January 28, to coordinate global reconstruction efforts in the strife-torn country.

"India's reconstruction programme in Afghanistan has more impact per dollar than other international efforts. This is probably what we can learn from India," Stagg said.

He noted that the Indian efforts were more focussed on the civilian sector while international thrust was more on the military side.

Stagg said the European Union had plans to spend $1.3 billion on development programmes in Afghanistan this year. However, he said that Indian efforts were "very underknown and undervalued" and expected external affairs minister SM Krishna to tell the London Conference what India was doing in Afghanistan.

"It is an opportunity for minister Krishna to tell what India is doing, why it matters and some of his perspectives on why the Indian approach is the one we must think about adopting ourselves," Stagg said.

Asked whether Britain had made any request to India to train the Afghan National Army, he said no such request was made.