Development

Early childhood programmes have long been shown to create improvements that last a lifetime. Whether by instilling good habits or by encouraging a passion for learning, early exposure to learning cuts drop-out rates in later schooling, and generates measurable improvements to the productivity and income of adults.

Em todas as culturas, ter um filho é considerado uma das coisas mais gratificantes que uma pessoa pode fazer na vida. No entanto, um coro de activistas, cientistas e jornalistas sugere que toda a gente deve pensar duas vezes antes de procriar.

A emissora pública de rádio dos Estados Unidos, a NPR, pergunta: "Deveríamos ter filhos na era das alterações climáticas?

Some policies seem so altruistic that it is almost impossible to imagine any objection to them. For example, lending small amounts of money or writing off debts to help the extreme poor are intended to help the most vulnerable, and both approaches seem entirely sensible. However, scrutiny reveals these well-intentioned policies to be misguided.

Access to electricity is critical for a modern economy, and a key driver of social and economic development. Lighting, health, education, productivity, labour participation, enterprise development and income generation, all improve when households are provided with access. In India, rural areas had electrification rates of 74% compared to 97% in urban areas in 2016.

Cities are, in many ways, the future of India. The number of metropolitan cities with a population higher than one million jumped from 35 in 2001 to 50 in 2011, and is expected to reach 87 by 2031. Today, 40 crore people call an Indian metropolis home. That will double by 2050. 

This swift growth places huge pressure on infrastructure. A March 2011 report by a high-powered expert committee chaired by Isher Judge Ahluwalia (goo.gl/r5ZLM3) found that the duration of water supply in Indian.

Bjørn Lomborg tænkte, »det var satans«, mens han læste artiklen »The Doomslayer« - dommedagsudrydderen - i magasinet Wired i 1997. Han var grebet af historien om en økonom, der siden barndommen afskyede vedtagne sandheder og altid søgte fakta

V vseh kulturah velja vzgoja otroka za najbolj osrečujoče dejanje. Toda zbor aktivistov, znanstvenikov in novinarjev opozarja, da bi morali pred spočetjem otroka dobro razmisliti. Javna radijska postaja NPR iz ZDA se sprašuje, ali naj bi v času podnebnih sprememb sploh še imeli otroke? V časopisu The Nation želijo vedeti, kako se odločiš za otroka, ko podnebne spremembe spreminjajo življenje na Zemlji? The Guardian bralcem svetuje, naj se proti podnebnim spremembam bojujejo tako, da imajo manj otrok. New York Times pa opozarja, da je rojevanje otrok najslabše možno dejanje za okolje.

Die diesjährigen 1.-August-Feiern verliefen ungewöhnlich still. Fast alle Kantone hatten ein Feuerwerkverbot verhängt. Grund war die ausserordentliche Trockenheit und die damit verbundene Gefahr, dass Raketen, Vulkane und Böllerschüsse Brände auslösen. Die Schweiz ist dieses Jahr bisher von Waldbränden verschont geblieben. Nicht so andere Länder: Besonders hart getroffen wurde Griechenland. Dort rollte im Juli eine Feuerwalze über ein Dorf und zerstörte es völlig. 

n 2014, GoI set out to improve housing conditions for the urban poor, and launched the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban), a housing for all (HFA) by 2022 scheme. There are three possible paths to achieve this goal, some approaches stronger than others. Analysis by Amitabh Kundu of the Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS), New Delhi, and Arjun Kumar of the Institute of Human Development (IHD), New Delhi (goo.gl/hBHskT and goo.gl/pGp8F6) also prompt the broader question as to whether non-housing policies may better help the urban poor.

Air pollution kills more than 16 lakh people in India every year — more than smoking, malnutrition or even a lack of water and sanitation. And while the toxic soup of outdoor air pollution over Delhi and many other cities rightly gets a lot of attention, indoor air pollution from household cooking and heating with biomass fuels kills almost as many, or about eight lakh people, every year. A majority of rural households continue to use biomass (such as wood and cow dung) as their primary cooking fuel.