According to this new report released by WHO on July 10, 2014 at the United Nations General Assembly, 38 million people die each year from NCDs (28 million in developing countries), mainly from cardiovascular diseases, cancers, chronic respiratory diseases, and diabetes.
The urban heat island (UHI), a common phenomenon in which surface temperatures are higher in urban areas than in surrounding rural areas, represents one of the most significant human-induced changes to Earth’s surface climate. Even though they are localized hotspots in the landscape, UHIs have a profound impact on the lives of urban residents, who comprise more than half of the world’s population. A barrier to UHI mitigation is the lack of quantitative attribution of the various contributions to UHI intensity (expressed as the temperature difference between urban and rural areas, ΔT).
The paper assesses the impact of overall inequality, as well as inequality among the poor and among the rich, on the growth rates along various percentiles of the income distribution. The analysis uses micro-census data from U.S. states covering the period from 1960 to 2010.
In June 2012, the Planning Commission constituted an Expert Group under the Chairmanship of Dr. C. Rangarajan to review the methodology for Measurement of Poverty. On June 30th 2014, Dr. C. Rangarajan, Chairman of the Expert Group has submitted the Report.
This fifth edition of Global Strategic Trends (GST 5) aims to describe possible futures to provide a strategic context for policy- and decision-makers across Government. Thirteen broad thematic areas have been identified,
This new report by PricewaterhouseCoopers analyses the scale of current infrastructure investment and also assesses the prospects for future investment from now to 2025 across 49 of the world’s largest economies including India. Says that India will add another 500 million to its urban population over the next four decades and will have to spend significantly on infrastructure development in major sectors as energy and telecommunications.
The South Asian summer monsoon directly affects the lives of more than 1/6th of the world’s population. There is substantial variability within the monsoon season, including fluctuations between periods of heavy rainfall (wet spells) and low rainfall (dry spells). These fluctuations can cause extreme wet and dry regional conditions that adversely impact agricultural yields, water resources, infrastructure and human systems.
With limited land resources, inadequate energy supply, and growing water stress, South Asia faces the challenge of providing enough water and energy to grow enough food for the burgeoning population. Using secondary data from diverse sources, this paper explores the food, water, and energy nexus from a regional dimension, emphasizing the role of Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) ecosystem services in sustaining food, water, and energy security downstream.
Scientific and business communities increasingly recognize that climate change is causing weather extremes and precipitating natural disasters, such as the European heat wave of 2003, the drought in East Africa in
Water scarcity severely impairs food security and economic prosperity in many countries today. Expected future population changes will, in many countries as well as globally, increase the pressure on available water resources. On the supply side, renewable water resources will be affected by projected changes in precipitation patterns, temperature, and other climate variables.
