In 2023, the Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT) recorded a total of 399 disasters related to natural hazards. These events resulted in 86,473 fatalities and affected 93.1 million people. The economic losses amounted to US$202.7 billion. The 2023 earthquake in Türkiye and the Syrian Arab Republic was the most catastrophic event …
Water consumption the world over is growing - it is likely to grow by five times between 1940 and 2000. This, coupled with the pollution of existing water resources is causing water scarcity in more and more parts of the planet. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, the …
India's investment in research and development activities in 1990-91 was Rs 4,186.83 crores. This was just 0.89 per cent of the country's gross domestic product - a paltry figure compared to investments in'this field by member nations of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. The government continues to shoulder …
EVEN as debate on conservation of biodiversity gathers momentum, tropical forests which account for between 40 to 90 per cent of the world's biodiversity, seem to be fighting a losing battle against deforestation. According to the report People and the Environment, released recently by the US-based World Resources Institute, the …
To lessen the burden that the burgeoning world population puts on resources, family planning programmes will have to cover about 650 million people by AD 2000 and about 880 million by AD 2015, according to the Washington-based Population Action International. Financial resources have to be mobilised to meet the growing …
OVER the years, the application of chemical fertilisers has grown vertiginously in India. In percentage terms, however, this spectacular rise has left far behind the growth in food production, according to a report released by the Bombay-based Akhil Bharat Krishi Goseva Sangh. From 1951 to 1953, fertiliser application increased by …
All disasters, natural or human-made, have one thing in common; their capacity to maim, cause unmentionable misery, and loss of property and lives. But there is a twist in the tale. The World Disaster Report, 1994, published by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Socities, suggests that …
conced in a rarified world of lecture rooms and ivory towers, pilloried by their critics as lazy, overpaid and irrelevant, the dons of the academic world were pinned squirming on a wall by a study which was released recently. The study, The Academic Profession: An International Perspective, carried out by …
They do not always make it to the front pages or to the television screen, yet every minute disease and malnutrition kills nearly 24 of them. According to the report, The State of the World's Children 1994, released by the United Nations International Children's Educational Fund, over 13 million children …
THE Human Development Report 1994 of the United Nations Development Programme reveals that economic relationships between the North and the South remain as skewed as before. Development assistance or aid to developing countries from developed nations is often driven by political expediency, ideological confrontation and commercial self interest. Some of …
• Fertility rates (the number of children a woman can have during her reproductive lifetime)have declined dramatically since the '70s. In Thailand, It has plummeted 50 per cent, from 4.6 children per woman in 1975 to 2.3 in 1987; similarly, in Colombia. It fell from an average 4.7 children per …
THIS story is one of horrifying domestic slaughter. The preamble to it is that the World Conservation Strategy (International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources 1980), recognises livestock breeds as genetic resources, with rare breeds considered worthy of conservation: the genes they carry may be commercially applicable …
THE World Health Organization has identified New Delhi as one of the 10 most polluted cities in the world, a dubious distinction that Delhi now shares with other megacities like Mexico City, Seoul and Beijing. According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), about 2,000 tonnes of pollutants are hurled …
* The state of health around the world shows a broad improvement, but the gap between the least developed countries (LDCs) and the rest of the developing world has actually widened. * More people can expect to live longer. In 1990, 91 countries with a combined population of 3,600 million …
DURING the '60s and '70s, firewood prices in India shot up dramatically following the gross neglect of the needs of people from forests. The ratio of firewood to food grain prices doubled between 1975 and 1985, says firewood expert N C Saxena. The disastrously short-term but attractive economics of this …
IT IS extremely difficult to measure the scientific performance of a nation, both statistically and in terms of effect. But the few indicators that do exist clearly indicate that developing countries are not performing very well. And a giant like India is performing particularly badly. Between themselves, the USA, the …
"THE international mobility of students is a massive phenomenon, " says the World Science Report 1993. Out of a total of 61 million students in the world, about 2 per cent (1.2 million) study in foreign universities. The regions that send the most students abroad are: the Middle and Near …
GIVEN the state of pollution in Indian cities and rivers, most people would conclude that nothing is being done to control pollution. But figures have an unusual knack of belying common thinking. According to the Central Pollution Control Board, in 1992 no less than 5,535 cases were filed against pollution …
GLOBAL bicycle production rose by more than 5 million in 1992 but world automobile production remained almost stagnant at the 1991 level of 35 million. In 1992, 100 million bicycles were produced the world over -- a remarkable journey indeed for the cheap and most environment-friendly mode of transport. In …
EVIDENCE of protein shortage is accumulating all over the world, according to Vital Signs 1993, a World Watch Institute publication. The disturbing evidence comes from the production trends of the three biggest sources of high-quality protein: fish, soya bean and meat. Oceanic fish catch has remained lower than the record …
India faces an acute double burden of disease. While nutritional and communicable diseases remain serious, non-communicable diseases are on the rise, says the eighth report of the World Health Organization on the world health situation. India spent slightly more than 3 per cent of its GNP on health in 1988. …