Cement, Energy and Environment

• that the effect of the recent financial crisis on industrial growth was severe for the industrialized countries, but relatively mild on the developing countries. China's share of the global total of manufacturing value (MVA) is at 15.6 per cent, slightly higher than Japan, which stands at 15.4 per cent. While China has a lead in absolute amount of production, the UN report also points out that Japan is still the world's most industrialized country. Courtesy: The Statesman, March 5, 2010. ' INDIA HAS ACCESS TO ONLY 4% OF WATER RESERVES' New Delhi : Water may not be the point of entry into the debate on climate change but that it is at the heart of the issue was widely accepted at the World CEO Forum held during the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit 201 0. Acknowledging the subject as an important part of climate change, water resources minister PK Bansal said. "The reducing per capita availability of water and the poor maintenance of existing facilities are just some of the concerns we are faced with in the Indian region." Launching the Regional knowledge Hub for Water and Climate Change Adaptation in South Asia at The Energy and Research Institute (TEAl), Bansal emphasized the centrality of water to economic growth and life. Voicing concern about depleting water reserves and emphasizing the urgency of efficiency in water management. Bansal added that while India fed 17% of the world's population, it had access to only 4% of the world's water reserves. While Bansal took up cause of water management in India and its neighbouring regions, other issues discussed at the CEO forum ranged from creating a VISIOn document for sustainable development and pushing the agenda of building a green economy. Courtesy: The Times of India, February 5, 2010. MORE ACCESS TO MOBILES THAN TOILETS IN INDIA: UN New Delhi: Far more people in India have access to a mobile phone than to toilet, according to UN study on how to improve sanitation levels globally. India's mobile subscribers totalled 563.73 million at the last count, enough to serve nearly half of the country's 1.2 billion population. But just 366 million people - around a third of the population had access to proper sanitation in 2008, said the study published by the United Nations University, a UN think– tank. "It is a tragic irony to think in India, a country now wealthy enough that roughly half of the people own phones," so many people "cannot afford the basic necessity and dignity of a toilet," said UN University Director Zafar Adeel. Adeel heads the UN University's Institute for Water, Environment and Health, based in the Canadian city of Hamilton, which prepared the report. Courtesy: The Times of India, Apri/16, 2010. r TO MAKE CITIES LIVABLE: INDIA NEEDS $2TN OVER 20 YEARS Report says funds will be required to sustain a population of 590 Million by 2030 ,. ·~ ~. New Delhi: liid1a will need to spend an additional $2 trillion or almost one-and-a-half times its entire current GOP - over the next 20 years to provide basic services to its urban population, says a new report on India's urbanization by the global consulting firm Me Kinsey. Half of this will be needed to wipe out the deficit in services and half to cater to future growth: the report projects an urban population of 590 million by 2030, 40% of the country's total projected population. India currently has an annual capital expenditure of $17 per capita on urban infrastructure, far below China's $116 and New York's $292. Transportation and affordable housing will be the two sectors needing most of the capital. The report recognizes the depth of the urban housing crisis and says that government will be required to directly construct 60% of the affordable housing stock, while 40 per cent can be cross– subsidized by the market. McKinsey's prescriptions on funding this scaling up of infrastructure, however, are likely to be controversial. The report proposes that 76 per cent of the over $1 trillion operating expenditure for new infrastructure be raised through user charges, while by Me Kinsey's by Me Kinsey's calculations, 36 per cent of the 67