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 …
BY THE end of the 1980s, 37 per cent of the paper and board consumed by the world was being collected and recycled to make more paper and board. While in the North it was environmental consciousness that brought about this recycling, in the South, poverty was the determining factor. …
INDIA is in "imminent danger of losing a large part of its productive lands through soil salinisation", says N T Singh of the Central Soil Salinity Research Institute in Karnal. Soil salinity is natural to the subcontinent, points out Singh. Even in ancient India, in the period between 2500 BC …
DESPITE sex-role conditioning by teachers and traditional attitudes that rule out floor and site jobs for women, the number of Indian women taking to engineering has increased manifold in the period between 1975 and 1990. The percentage of women enrolled in engineering degree courses has increased rapidly from 1.3 per …
THE FIRST all-India household survey of medical care shows some interesting results. The survey, which was conducted in 1990 in 21 states and Union territories and covered 18,000 households, found that in the perception of these households, males tended to fall ill more than females. As the study puts it, …
BETWEEN 1986 and 1990, the total consumption of ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) by industrialised countries dropped from 971,342 tonnes to 636,588 tonnes -- a fall of 34 per cent. The industrialised countries' halon consumption, too, has fallen from 198,609 tonnes to 151,700 tonnes. Meanwhile, the CFC consumption of developing countries, which …
The UN's World Investment Report 1992 indicates the data available on the geographical distribution of R&D; efforts of MNCs shows a growing trend towards internationalisation. A survey of 33 major firms shows 18 per cent of all their R&D; employees in 1989 were employed in affiliates abroad. Some leading European …
THIS BOOK is a misnomer for "heritage" connotes something far removed from the present. Kautilya's work, for example, might be described as India's heritage. The book, however, presents 10 autobiographical articles by Raghu Raj Bahadur, Debabrata Basu, Vasant Shankar Huzurbazar, Gopinath Kallianpur, Debabrata Lahiri, Pesi Rustom Masani, Keshavan Raghavan Nair, …
BETWEEN the 1960s and 1990s, if there is one thing that is different, it is the level of material consumption of the richer sections of the world. Says Swedish environmentalist Anders Wijkman, "When I used to go to school in the 1950s, I was one of the few kids in …
THE LITERACY level of a country both reflects and influences its economic and social status. It also has a close bearing with a country's population growth rate. In India, the Kerala example shows the correlation clearly. Generally speaking, those states that have low female literacy levels have high growth rates, …
INDIA has been witnessing an explosive urbanisation. The percentage of total population living in urban areas increased from 17.3 in 1951 to 25.7 in 1991. But during 1981-91, the annual rate of urban growth decreased to 3.09 per cent, compared to 3.83 per cent per year during 1971-81. The rate …
INDIANS still do not have the culture of seeking patents. Over the last 15 years, foreigners have obtained two to three times more patents in India every year than Indians. In 1989-90, Indians held less than one-fifth of all patents in force in India. Of the 1,040 Indian applications filed …
A COUNTRY'S economic strength influences its health level, which, in turn, is correlated with its average income level. When the economy grows, the people's health should also improve. The gross domestic product (GDP) of the industrialised West grew five-fold between 1960 and 1980. Meanwhile, male life expectancy increased by 2.7 …
THOUGH India now spends more than Rs 4,000 crore annually in research and development -- 87 per cent of which comes from government and public sector industries and the rest from the private sector -- as a percentage of the country's GNP, the R&D; expenditure has been dropping steadily since …
SOME 3.6 billion ha of the world's drylands -- about a third of the total -- are today lying in a state of degradation. The world would earn some US $42 billion every year in extra income if these lands were nursed back to health. Most of this income loss …
WAR HAS emerged as a major child-killer in the 1980s. Some 1.5 million children died in conflicts; Five million were turned into refugees and another 12 million were rendered homeless. War caused just five per cent of the civilian deaths during the First World War; 50 per cent in the …
THE latest Economic Survey (1991-92) presents a very interesting set of statistics. It shows that, out of all types of commercial undertakings of state departments, only those based on forests and mining have maintained a steady profit margin between 1985 and 1992, while all the others -- industrial firms, dairies, …
The state of forest report 1991 is the third assessment of the forest cover of the country based on visual interpretation of landsat imagery pertaining to the period 1987-89. The new feature of this report is the districtwise estimation of forest cover of the country.
Bihar is a predominantly agricultural State with 86 per cent of her population depending upon agriculture. In my study of the National Income of Bihar published in the Indian Journal of Economics, July 1951, I had estimated the gross agricultural income of Bihar for the year 1846-47 at Rs. 230 …
