WHO published its World health statistics report 2025, revealing the deeper health impacts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic on loss of lives, longevity and overall health and well-being. In just two years, between 2019 and 2021, global life expectancy fell by 1.8 years—the largest drop in recent history— reversing a …
North Koreans are dying at a rate that is more than 40 per cent higher than in 1994 when a series of devastating floods and famines hit the country, said Gro Harlem Brundtland, director general of World Health Organisation. She revealed that in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, the annual …
Asian countries seem to compete with each other to spew out waste. Rising populations, increasing urbanisation and better incomes mean the volume of waste generated is bound to go up in the future. How much of the municipal solid waste is organic and what other substances present depends, to a …
Around 30 per cent of pesticides marketed in developing countries do not meet internationally accepted quality standards, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and World Health Organisation (WHO). These pesticides have an estimated market value of us $900 million annually. "The labeling often fails to provide data …
Project Tiger has been the first major conservation scheme in India. It has gone through phases of vex and vane. All eyes are set on the fate of charismatic tiger. Every possible effort is being made to save the tiger in spite of various odds. Ironically, demand for tiger parts …
A special technology mission is being set up by the government for states that have unsatisfactory population control records. The states are Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Assam, Bihar and Rajasthan. C P Thakur, the Union health and family welfare minister, said that the mission will help in providing focused …
india's overall health care system performance has helped the country to the 112th position among World Health Organisation members, according to the World Health Report 2000 released in the latter part of June. India stands 133rd on the basis of per capita expenditure in the field of health. With these …
The future adequacy of freshwater resources is difficult to assess, owing to a complex and rapidly changing geography of water supply and use. Numerical experiments combining climate model outputs, water budgets, and socioeconomic information along digitized river networks demonstrate that (i) a large proportion of the world's population is currently …
THE mythical clock has struck. A billion and ticking at the rate of 29 per minute, 1790 per hour... The rise in human numbers is accompanied by a host of problems. Knowledge of the carrying capacity of India's lands is extremely limited. There is no worthwhile study covering even the …
WITH his newborn in his arms, 30-year-old Pooranmal stands helplessly outside Jaipur's J K Loan Hospital. The doctors have refused to operate upon his son. "There is no hope. They say my child is not going to live for long,' he says. The child was born on February 25, 2000, …
India is fast becoming the land of superlatives. For all the wrong reasons, of course. Be it August 15, 1999 (UN prediction), or May 11, 2000 (government of India estimates), the nation has reached the inevitable mark. At the time of Independence, the country's population was as low as 350 …
EVERYBODY wants growth and development. Yet, there is a serious cost attached to it. The point is what kind of growth is both desirable and sustainable. Resources of all types constitute our capital for growth. But, for growth to be made meaningful and enduring, the capital base has to be …
After World War II, average life expectancy rates have been increasing all over the world. This means a person born today will live 20 years longer than a person born in 1950. However, in African nations like Zimbabwe and Botswana the situation is very different. Life expectancy has been dipping …
By October 12 the world will be home to six billion people, according to the United Nations World Population Report for 1999 titled 6 billion: A Time for Choices . By 2050 this figure will reach the 8.9 billion mark, if women's education and environmental resource management continue to be …
Cities are known to generate a lot of waste and contribute in a major way to water and air pollution. They have become a major source of concern in the 20th century. City authorities will have to be particularly vigilant in the next millennium. According to Worldwatch Institute estimates, Mumbai …
As Parties to the Climate Convention EU Member States have opted for a joint fulfilment of post-2000 greenhouse gas emission reduction obligations. No agreement could be reached on a joint EU target before the distribution of the burden of emission reductions among Member States had been agreed upon. This paper …
NEVER before have birth rates fallen so low and for so long in Europe as at present, except in times of plague, war and deep economic depression. There is not a single country in Europe where people are having enough children to replace themselves when they die. Recently, Italy became …
Many countries in sub-Saharan Africa are at a critical turning point in their effort to address the problems of rapid population growth and poor reproductive health, says a study of Population Action International (pai). The economic growth of countries such as Kenya, South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe largely depend on …
THE southern state of Kerala has performed extraordinarily in the areas of public health, education, family welfare and adult literacy. Its success in areas other than population control are easier to understand, but its miracle in bringing down birth rate below replacement level without any significant advance in economic field …