Showing posts with label UN. Show all posts
Showing posts with label UN. Show all posts

Thursday, March 28, 2013

The Potential of Water Market

The world bank Forecasts that by 2025, two-thirds of the World’s Population will run short of Drinking Water. The World Health Organisation, in its vision 21 report, Estimates that $47 billion per year over the next 25 years will be required for Universal Water access. B&E analyses The Global Water Market.

The looming water stress

In the 20th century, the world’s population tripled while the use of renewable water resources grew six folds. The World Water Council estimates that in the next fifty years, the global population will increase by another 40-50%; and this population growth, coupled with industrialisation and urbanisation will result in an increasing demand for water. Globally, 10% of water flow into domestic use, 70% into agriculture and 20%into industrial production. UN forecasts that by 2030, almost 60% of the world’s population will be living in urban areas. In contrast to agriculture and urban water management, where consumption is steadily rising, the situation is slightly positive for industrial water use. It is unlikely that water can be made available for all application in the future at the same low cost.

Growing Health Awareness

The Global Bottled Water Market 2010 report by Beverage Market Corporation states that North America leads the world in bottled water use accounting for 29.8% share by volume. In case of the developed countries, water, apart from being a basic commodity, is also a lifestyle product. According to IDM, Germany, consumers can choose from about 500 different domestic water brands – all of which are different in terms of taste and origin, apart from mineral water imported from abroad. However, in many other countries, people rely on bottled water driven by contaminated and unsafe drinking water. Other factors influencing the growth of bottled water are availability of convenience packaging and inability of the governments to provide safe drinking water.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

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Thursday, November 29, 2012

The State of the World: Hunger, Conflict & Death

Ban Ki-moon, Secy. General, UN on how member states must work together. A B&E exclusive...

We all recognize today’s perils. A global financial crisis. A global energy crisis. A global food crisis. Trade talks have collapsed, yet again. There are new outbreaks of war and violence. Climate change ever more clearly threatens our planet. We say that global problems demand global solutions.

And yet, do we act? In truth, today, we also face a crisis of a different sort – the challenge of global leadership. New centers of power and leadership are emerging – in Asia, Latin America and across the newly developed world. In this new world, the challenges are increasingly those of collaboration, not confrontation. Nations can no longer protect their interests, or advance the well-being of their people, without the partnership of the rest.

Yet I see a danger of nations looking inward rather than toward a shared future. I see a danger of retreating from the progress we have made, particularly in the realm of economic development and fairness in sharing the fruits of global growth. Yes, global growth has raised billions of people out of poverty. Yet if you are among the world’s poor, you have never felt poverty so sharply. Yes, international law and justice have never been so widely embraced. Yet those living in nations where human rights are abused have never been so vulnerable.

Yes, most of us live in peace and security. Yet violence is deepening in many nations: Afghanistan, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, and Sudan. Their problems are part of the development emergency we face. Over the past year, the price of fuel, food, and commodities rose alarmingly. Wealthy countries worry about recession, while the poor can no longer afford to eat.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
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Wednesday, September 5, 2012

THE WORLD: MDG

UN can’t do it alone, MDG requires a cumulative and concerted effort
 
There were 1.4 billion people (25% of the world population) living below the poverty line in 2005 ($1.25 a day), a marked improvement from 1.9 billion people (50% of world population) in 1981. But much of this betterment was purely of Chinese citizens. Female literacy rose considerably from 60% to 74% for age 15 years and over, between 1990 and 2004. In the same period, male literacy grew to 86% from 77%. There was an improvement in sanitation too, with 1.2 billion more people gaining access to it in the period. However, 2.6 billion people were still deprived of it as of 2004! Recently, Obama said that poor countries should not depend on foreign aid. Indeed, China’s poor have reduced to 278 million from 452 million over the past decade, and not due to foreign aid! Sub-Saharan Africa remains at the same level as it was 10 years ago – poverty there has reduced by only 1% despite gigantic aid from US and EU.

Annan initiated MDG, but slowly and surely, not only is this term becoming submerged into the background of global issues, the fact also is that the UN itself doesn’t seem to be quite serious in forcing developed nations openly to contribute towards achieving the goals. Clearly, this should be an issue more important for the UN than environment.
 

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
 
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face
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