Fiinovation - World Population Day - 7.2 Billion and climbing

What more can be said about the world population which is adding approximately 2 lakh per day it is estimated to reach 9 Billion by 2050. It took 10,000 million years untill 19th century to reach 2 billion and another 200 years to add 5 billion to the world population count. And if we continue like this we will end our planet. But it the question still remains what happened between 1800s to 2000s that there was huge surge of population. 

By increasing the population at this great pace we are putting enormous pressure over the resources available on earth. David Attenborough says "Instead of controlling the environment for the benefit of the population, maybe we should control the population to ensure the survival of our environment." In order to live sustainably and give future generations around the world a fair chance of living good lives, we must stabilize and then reduce population, and the more affluent in the world must reduce our levels of consumption.

World Population Day is an annual event, observed on July 11 every year, which seeks to raise awareness of global population issues. The event was established by the Governing Council of the United Nations Development Programme in 1989. It was inspired by the public interest in Five Billion Day on July 11, 1999 approximately the date on which the world's population reached five billion people.

This year the theme is on Adolescent Pregnancy which is cause of concern as about 16 million girls under the age of 18 give birth each year. Another 3.2 million undergo unsafe abortions. As much as 90 percent, a vast majority of pregnant adolescents in the developing countries are married. The fact is much more astonishing is that for far too many of these girls, pregnancy has little to do with informed choice. Often it is a consequence of discrimination, rights violations (including child marriage), inadequate education or sexual coercion.

"When we devote attention and resources to the education, health and well being of adolescent girls, they will become an even greater force for positive change in society that will have an impact for generations to come. On this World Population Day, let us pledge to support adolescent girls to realize their potential and contribute to our shared future." - Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

On 2013 WorldPopulation Day, we raise awareness of the issue of adolescent pregnancy in the hopes of delivering a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe, and every young person’s potential is fulfilled.

  

The World's Most Populous countries are:

1.      China - 1,354,040,000 (19.08% of World Population)

2.      India - 1,210,569,573 (17.06% of World Population)

3.      United States - 316,218,000 (4.46% of World Population)

4.      Indonesia - 237,641,326 (3.35% of World Population)

5.      Brazil - 193,946,886 (2.73% of World Population)

6.      Pakistan - 183,629,000 (2.59% of World Population)

7.      Nigeria - 173,615,000 (2.45% of World Population)

8.      Bangladesh - 152,518,015 (2.15% of World Population)

9.      Russia - 143,400,000 (2.02% of World Population)

10.  Japan - 127,320,000 (1.79% of World Population)

Fiinovation - Role of Cooperatives in the Indian Economy - 6th July International Day of Cooperatives

The role of cooperatives in the Indian economy has been there since a long time mostly in Agriculture and allied sectors. The cooperative movement was found by farmers to be a striking mechanism for gathering their resources for solving common problems relating to credit, supplies of inputs and marketing of agricultural produce. Cooperatives became an integral part of five year plans for faster removal of poverty and faster economic growth. India has a large number of cooperatives in various sectors but the scenario is not a pleasant one and very few especially in Dairy sector have been a success. 

The cooperatives are more focused in welfare rather than being business oriented. They are mostly controlled by the state and are more arms of the state than business enterprises. The failures which attributed to the downfall of this movement are dormant membership and lack of active participation of members, increasing overdue in credit, lack of mobilization of internal resources, over-dependence on government assistance, lack of professional management, bureaucratic control and interference in the management and political interference. 

Cooperatives and other various forms of community enterprises are already present in the economic structure, especially in the developing countries. Nevertheless, the benefits of co-operatives cannot be realized without giving due importance to gender inequality. Developing cooperatives of women groups helps in building membership, capacity of the women in the rural areas and is essential for increasing work participation. The regions where programs are being implemented for empowerment of women, they should be made aware of the benefits of creating women cooperatives or becoming members of existing ones. The members of the cooperatives should be made aware of the rights, roles of members and they should be sensitizing cooperative members and leaders to issues pertaining to women rights. 

The prices of commodities are rising day by day and women find it necessary to form cooperatives to address the problem of inflation and also the problem of adulteration which is an emerging social danger. The utilization of women workforce for productive purposes under the cooperative movement in India, this will definitely boost the National Income and help our nation achieve social development.

 

The way forward will be giving this movement suitable legislation and policy support like centralization of the cooperative act. NGOs should take cognizance about the prevailing situation and take necessary steps to improve the condition of the cooperatives. Decreasing the dependency on government assistance and making way for private donors who will create an effective business environment. Bringing in technical expertise and professional management into the cooperatives will boost the sales and decrease their credit overdue. It will strengthen the concept of cooperatives when private donors take the center stage and decrease the bureaucratic control and interference. 

Fiinovation - Sneak peek into the sectors - Education

Despite significant gains during Eleventh plan, education in India faces several challenges. The country's mean years of schooling at 5.12 years is significantly lower than the other emerging market economies such as China (8.17 years) and Brazil (7.54 years) and well below the average for all developing countries (7.09 years). School-wise analysis based on District Information System for Education (DISE) 2009-10 indicates that 46 % of primary and 34 % of upper primary schools have poor pupil-teacher ratio. The biggest concern in elementary education is the poor level of student learning. Evidence suggests that learning outcomes for children in Indian schools are far below corresponding class levels in other countries. Annual Status of Education Report (2011) illustrate that over half the children in class V are unable to read even at class II level. The Twelfth plan needs to address these challenges in an integrated and holistic manner. 

An  overhaul of the system and reforms in education need to be brought in so as to address the problems mentioned above.

Certain areas of  intervention focus at the moment in the education sector:

·         Effective linkages between  adult education programmes and  Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.

·         Improving educational indicators like enrolment ratio, teacher pupil ratio, dropout rate, teacher's appointment and ensuring quality training.

·         Vocational education, improving generic courses for pre-vocational education workable through out the country, but different as per the area requirements.

·         Empowering and developing the disadvantaged groups / sections of society through specific programmes for backward States/regions/areas, special education for differently abled groups/Communities.

·         System-wide focus on holistic development of children by improving learning outcomes and other non-scholastic areas.

·         Redefining literacy and a paradigm shift from basic literacy to lifelong learning, with a focus on both non-formal education and establishing strong linkages with the formal system with mechanism for recognizing prior learning and accreditation.

·         Combining access with affordability and ensuring high-quality undergraduate and post graduate education.