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January 1, 2025 -The Indian Banking
sector is keen on supporting the Manufac-
turing & Housing Sector by reducing Inter-
est payments in the current fiscal, as per ex-
ternal sources. As the accumulated size of
the Banking Industry stands tall at $30 tril-
lion, major Indian Banking institutions look
to support the upcoming GDP booster (i.e.
Manufacturing) which currently contributes
30% to the GDP of India.
Banks such as HDFC, ICICI, Axis
Bank & SBI have confirmed the possibility
of taking a further cut in interest rates to
support Steel, Refineries, Automobile and a
few more undisclosed sectors to increase
capacities and output to further help
increase exports in the same Industries.
They are also looking at reducing inter-
est rates on Housing loans to encourage
Individual long-term borrowing. This,
as per the RBI Governor Balaji
Venkataraman, will address the long
pending Government concern of setting
higher standards of living among the
lower middle and middle class of the
economy. The Interest rates are specu-
lated to be reduced by as much as 32%
to bring in a sense of urgency in avail-
ing these loans and owning of houses.
January 1, 2025 - A new McKinsey & Com-
pany report has found out that the world’s con-
suming class has nearly doubled over the last
13 years, with an estimated 1 billion new city-
dwelling consumers injecting $US30 trillion
into the global economy.
According to the report, Urban world: Cities
and the rise of the consuming class, about 440
emerging market cities have provided 47 per
cent of global GDP growth between 2010 and
2025 amid a wave of urbanisation in develop-
ing countries.
Indian Banking Sector to ease Interests to Housing &
Manufacturing
The count of consumers in world touches 4.2
billions
ET W IS HES I T S RE A D ER S A HA PPY N E W Y E A R
www.economictimes.com
The Economic Times
WEDNESDAY, 1 January 2025
Bangalore Price: Rs. 6
B E N N E T T , C O L E M A N
& C O . L T D .
“An economist is
an expert who will
know tomorrow
why the things he
predicted yester-
day didn't happen
today.”
Laurence J.
Peter
2025
IMF Announces
GloCurr- New
Global Currency
J a n u a r y 1 , 2 0 2 5
Washington DC :
The meeting held
about the concerns of
global currency last
month has put to rest
the rumors of Yuan
becoming the global
currency. Yesterday it
came as a surprise to
the world about new
currency’s name as
GloCurr.
Economy >> 9
ET INSTA POLL
How large is the
potential demand of
wide variety of
products that con-
sumers can order
online?
Large (58%)
Small (31%)
Virtually non exis-
the key to achieve the ambitious objectives of the
Manufacturing Plan which was a dream for coun-
try’s ambitious stand in the world. India is praised
all over the world for its clean and green tech-
nologies as manufacturing processes and skill de-
velopment facilities.
India has done immense hard work for this mas-
sive transformation with the help of CII
(Confederation of Indian industries) to roll out the
flow of materials, skills, Information, Cash and
finance, land use and flow of prosperity across
social tiers. The manufacturing plan for India
seems to be optimistic but implementation needs
to be carried out with the challenges that it faces
now in this competitive world. India’s infrastruc-
ture is better compared to a decade ago but needs
to be looked at greater depth.
New Delhi - India’s manufacturing sector which is
contributing 28% to GDP is growing strong to cap-
ture the best of the world’s technology. The leap in
this sector which was started with more than a dec-
ade ago with National Manufacturing Policy (NMP)
and with its National Investment and Manufacturing
Zones (NIMZ).
Minister of heavy industries Dr. Sahil Sinha
announces the manufacturing plan for next decade
which depicts India as one of the pioneering nation
for industrial applications and its contribution to the
GDP as 36%. There has been great enhancement in
this sector when it all started long ago and looks
strong enough for the nation with its economic
growth of 7.9% last year and industrial growth of
12.7 %. He also said,” the development of rail and
water-based transport needs to be looked in depth to
achieve the target”.
India on this journey has so far created 250 million
jobs in this sector in more than a decade and is still
going rapidly. This development has been tough for
the years and would not be smooth even for the
years to come, but the growth in manufacturing in-
dustries like Steel, Power, Nuclear energy, refiner-
ies, etc took India to its much needed growth to lev-
erage the dynamics of globalization.
The advancement in ‘value addition’ of the products
in the manufacturing and its self growth in design
field has led to use the equipments making India
competitive worldwide. The talent pool from rural
immigrant and urban poor has given impetus to this
growth. Enhancement of global competitiveness of
Indian manufacturing has been possible by appropri-
ate policy reforms. Ensuring sustainability of
growth, particularly with regards to environment is
the effect for this development.
The innovation in the country in almost each and
every sector has done great things to take the tech-
nology global. The quality of the process of interac-
tion amongst stakeholders in the course of formula-
tion of policies and their implementation has been
Mumbai - India's GDP for last year was greater
than Japan's, making India the third largest econ-
omy in the world after the US and China.
The growth rate of India's GDP has been exceed-
ing Japan's for many years, mainly due to the
higher population growth in India, becoming the
world's most populous country 2 years ago, reach-
ing a total of 1.5 billion people by the end of last
year. This could be compared to Japan where the
population has decreased over the last 30 years by
about 5 percent. This has given India a young
workforce to drive the economy.
China is closing in on the US to become the largest
economy in the world, due to a higher GDP
growth rate and is projected to surpass in the near
future, maybe already within 5-10 years.
Manufacturing leads India to New Heights
Indian Economy on the
Rise
2 National www.economictimes.com
Indian Economy – Will it beat US Economy in 2035?
India’s GDP contribution to world is around 13% and
that of USA is 18%. Indian economy is 70% of that
of USA. The technological advancement and FDI in-
flows and many political reforms has led to this
golden years. India’s GDP in 2023-24 fiscal year was
$ 4.8 trillion and is expected to cross $ 5.2 trillion in
2024-25.
The speculation about the budget which is to
be opened next month keeps on going and areas to be
focused is the concern for this pacing Indian econ-
omy. The technological is the brightest prospect for
India to look for is the experts believe.
The size of middle class has grown to more than 1.1
billion people. Growth, education, home ownership,
formal-sector jobs, and better economic security are
the causes and consequences of this expanding mid-
dle class. The labor force for the last decade is
growing on year on year basis, last year it was
12.5 million. India’s working population is much
younger as compared to China and USA and this
will continue for a decade, according to the
sources of CPD.com majorly doing research on
population.
India’s contribution from industries is 28%,
Services contributes around 55% and Agriculture
contributes to around 17%. India has undergone
the much needed growth in the infrastructure –
ports, transport, and communications – to take
advantage of trade. The shift away from agricul-
ture and into industry and services has not made it
happen but it is also about the transformation into
higher-quality goods and services.
3 National www.economictimes.com
January 1, 2025 - All the member countries agreed to
sign and abide by to the Beijing Protocol . Under this
agreement, the industrialized nations will reduce their
collective emissions of greenhouse gases by 25% as
compared to that in last 5 years. The representatives
from the developed nations including India, China, Ger-
many, US, UK and Japan were present during signing of
the protocol.The African countries have been given sub-
sidies and have been allowed to cut the emissions by
14% only.
The protocol aims at reducing the overall emissions of
the greenhouse gases over the next five years from 2025
to 2030. National targets range from 18% reductions for
the European Union and some others to 22% for the US,
6% for Japan, 0% for Russia, and permitted increases of
8% for Australia and 10% for Iceland.
I-Phone 9s hits the market
Beijing Protocol shows a
New Ray of Hope
Hydrogen Hybrids:
Revolutionizing World
4 International www.economictimes.com
January 1, 2025 - According to the latest sta-
tistics presented this week, 1 million hydro-
gen-fueled cars have now been sold in the
US. The figures for last year show an increase
in sales by 50% from 2024.
The hydrogen fleet is still dominated by hy-
drogen-hybrids even though several fuel cell
models have been introduced in the market
during the last couple of years.
The price for a hydrogen-hybrid
is still about 20% higher than for a regular
gasoline-hybrid, which make it more expen-
sive to own and drive. The reason for the sale
increase is more related to the hydrogen hype
for environmental purposes, although mainly
all hydrogen is produced from fossil fuels,
like natural gas.
The latest environmental effort is the
introduction of the Re-Hydro label last year to
stimulate the production of hydrogen pro-
duced through electrolysis, based on a source
of 100% renewable energy. The production is
still quite limited and it is only available at
selected stations. The current price is about
10% over the regular price for hydrogen, and
will most likely not have a major impact until
more producers switch from regular produc-
tion to Re-Hydro.
The transition to hydrogen in the US is mov-
ing slow compared to a country like Iceland
where already 80% of the car fleet runs on
hydrogen. They are planning to set a date of
when to shut down the last gasoline pump on
Iceland, and it looks like it will be around the
year 2030. When that day arrives in the US it
will mean a lot to the global environment.
January 1, 2025 - I-Phone 9s boasts of new software
which is similar to siri which was originally seen in I-
phone 4s back in 2012. The speech recognition software
recognizes any language and then can translate any
speech of your into any language you want. Apple
shares have risen by 2.8% after the CEO announced the
launch of 9s with these latest features.
This software is expected to bridge the communication
gap between different county’s people and is expected
to create a rage among people who travel to different
countries frequently and often travel to countries whose
language is alien to them.
“Unlike original version of siri which had problems rec-
ognizing the accent of people using it, this is totally de-
veloped and creates joy for the customer” says Ra-
jashekar Kanumuri who is the mastermind behind creat-
ing this software and who currently heads R&D and is
seen to be visionary as Steve Jobs.
ACL version 1.0 launch as D-tech turns 10
since day of inception
D-tech launches
Active Contact Lenses
January 1, 2025 - Deepinder Singh, CEO, D-tech
launched Active Contact Lenses(ACL) last week in
New Delhi to mark 10 years of completion of D-
tech. To mark the historic day, D-tech also an-
nounced the launch of their revolutionizing product ,
D-vision by the end of 2025.
Established on February 1, 2015 in Chandigarh, In-
dia and incorporated on July 20, 2017, the company
has had successful journey in the field of consumer
electronics. D-tech became one of the largest elec-
tronics company of the world toppling Samsung and
Apple by the end of previous year in terms of reve-
nue and profit. This year has been a year of new
product launches for D-tech.
ACL can be fitted in human eyes like ordinary ones,
but have three tiny lasers and a micromirror to scan
the beams directly onto the retina, creating images in
as high resolution as the eye can see.This can make
all other forms of display superfluous. The lenses
deliver a full 3-D totally immersive perfect resolu-
tion experience. They also let one watch movies or
read messages even without opening the eyes. There
is no need to wear a wristwatch,have a mobile
phone, tablet or TV but you could still have them
visually.
5 Technology www.economictimes.com
CROSSWORD 5115
control with my mind. I
can even go out of my
apartment, take the elevator
down and go for a tour
downtown, without anyone
assisting me. With the ro-
botic hand at my chair I
can open the freezer, take
out the food I want, and cook it myself." However,
how well this work of course differs from individual
to individual and some criticism has been heard that
the BCI is given to people who could not benefit
from it for different reasons.
The developing of the BCI software and the experi-
ence from the increasing number of users now gives
hope that legs and arms can be activated by thought
only. Tests are currently made on people with BCI
and if the result is positive a solution can be on the
market in the near future.
Even though improvements have been made towards
cloning of human organs scientists agree that there
are still some years left for them to successfully help
a person with spinal cord damage to walk again.
January 1, 2025 - More than 20,000 quadriple-
gics around the world have now got a BCI, a Brain
Computer Interface. It gives them the ability to con-
trol their environment, from driving their own elec-
tric wheelchairs outside their house, to make their
own dinner.
The BCI consists of an internal sensor to detect brain
cell activity and external processors that convert
these brain signals into a computer-mediated output
under the person's own control. The sensor is im-
planted on the surface of the area of the brain re-
sponsible for movement, the motor cortex, and is
then wireless connected to a computer. The first suc-
cessful implanted BMI was BrainGate for more than
10 years ago, which then gave the patient the ability
to move a cursor on a screen and play a simple com-
puter game.
BCI is mainly for people with severe motor impair-
ments from spinal cord injury, ALS (Amyotrophic
Lateral Sclerosis) or other motor neuron diseases .
Jatesh Rathore, a patient from Maharashtra,India has
had his BCI for 3 years: "It definitely changed my
life, after being completely stuck in my chair for
several years after the accident. We have connected
everything in my apartment to the software that I
BCI – A New Dimension to Healthcare
“It definitely changed my
life, after being
completely stuck in my
chair for several years
after the accident. “
- Jatesh Rathore,patient
6 Healthcare www.economictimes.com
US Medicare Costs Now 7.5% of GDP January 1, 2025 - The US administration announced that Medicare costs for this year will be 7.5% of GDP.
This is the highest number ever and almost three times as much as 30 years ago. The reason for the increase is
of course the aging population.
Five years ago, the youngest people born during the baby boom (a period of time with exceptional birth rates,
from 1946, after the end of the Second World War, to 1965) reached age 65 and became eligible for Medicare.
This year, Medicare provides coverage for 83 million people who are 65 and older or disabled.
The Medicare costs will continue to increase in the future, with another 10 million eligible by year 2055, with
a total of 9.8% of GDP.
The Elevator components such as
nanotubes ribbon, tether, Steel ball,
rollers, and technology are all ready
for constructing. The legal regulation
has also been passed for the much
awaited space Elevator. It marks a new
era for countries involved in this , this
has also increased a strong relationship
between countries . The economic
owth has contributed this massive de-
cision which could change the rela-
tionship among other countries to for
the benefits of the people in their
country.
Construction of Space Elevator in the US
NASA deploys terrestrial planet finder
7 Space Exploration www.economictimes.com
January 1, 2025 New York - The golden year 2022, when Stairway to
heaven, Inc (Private partners with US Govt.) and Third world ven-
tures (India and UAE Govt.) came together for the making of
space elevator has now given the new dimension to it for building
it in USA. The construction would start in early September of
2025. All the regulations between countries have been passed and
is ready to begin a new era in space exploration.
The Space Elevator will consist of a large steel ball in
space, attached to this is a tether which spans some 100,000 kilo-
meters to Earth. As Earth spins around, the steel ball tries to fly off
into space but is held back by tension in the tether, this pulling be-
tween the tether and the steel ball keeps the tether taut. On the
tether is an elevator bearing loads, or loads of people. It then pro-
ceeds to elevate them in the same way as a ski lift, a series of roll-
ers against the tether spin and pull the elevator up.
The building of the space elevator was a tough decision as it
was speculated that it would be built in India, but the material flow
and other benefits to countries was more in USA. It was all started
in 2020 when India , UAE and USA came together for mutual
benefits and their strengths transformed into a huge Economic
benefits . The countries would be benefiting from the cheaper
launch costs by atleast an order of magnitude in launching and
maintaining Earth orbiting satellites and solar power satellites. The
space exploration -manned or robotic and asteroid mining would
become cheaper too. This would also benefit from the handling of
delicate cargos and human space tourists. Overall this would make
the travel less risky between earth and space.
NASA - US is going great in the space ex-
ploration firstly in Mars exploration when
it came out with traces of microorganisms
in 2017, then its collaboration with India
and UAE for space elevator in 2022 and
now deploys a terrestrial planet finder
which would provide a wealth of data on
Earth-like planets in other star systems
like the ‘Xena galaxy’ which was founded
in 2019 which will also include ability to
detect evidence of life.
The path finder will use a system of tele-
scopes to directly image and study plan-
ets, at a distance up to 50 light years
It will also analyze their
atmosphere for presence of
carbon dioxide, water,
ozone, micro-organisms and
human beings. Thus, detect-
ing evidence of life on these
exoplanets.
These many advancements
in space in the last decade
have put a step towards
world’s economy and hope
to continue the same. People
now are planning to tour space for
amazement, fun and sense of pride
for space exploration when the
space elevator gets ready by 2030.
Economy has always reaped bene-
fits from technological advance-
ments and had revolutionized the
world. Could we see coming more
from other parts of the world and
technology becoming the most im-
portant driver of economy.
As recently as a decade ago, the prospect of India
becoming a developed country any time soon seemed
a distant possibility. Since then, however, there has
been a sea change in our own and the world’s percep-
tion about our future.
India, which accounts for 80 percent of the South
Asian regional economic output, has shown double
digit growth rates in 2025. Consequently, South Asia
is growing rapidly, primarily due to India. Growth is
being propelled higher by young demographics, im-
proved governance, risen middle class and the glob-
alisation. There is democracy, for the first time since
independence, in all countries in the region. Young
demographics has resulted in nearly 20 million more
people joining the labour force, every year, for the
last decade.
Almost a billion people have joined the ranks of the
middle class. India’s middle class is well-educated,
enterprising, innovative, more demanding of better
services, products and governance.
The region is enjoying benefits from the wave of
globalisation in services, and increased international
migration and human mobility. The infrastructure,
administration and security services have seen a tre-
mendous growth in past few years.
As visible, India has been successfully listed among
the top developed nations in the world and it has a
long way to go.
8 Editorial www.economictimes.com
Letter to the editor From Mr Advait Bhobe
Sir,
Following your feature article on India’s current water
crises, and the ongoing “water wars”, I would like to
make the following points. Disputes over India’s wa-
ter resources are far from new—for example, the Pun-
jab assembly, supported by both the ruling and opposi-
tion parties, passed a resolution in 2004 to annul all its
water treaties with its neighboring states.
Moreover, it was already clear in the early 2000s, that
there was a problem of monumental proportions devel-
oping. Already at that time, more than 75% of India’s
rural population (approx. 520 million people) did not
have access to a public water supply; fewer than 40%
of urban population enjoyed sanitation coverage. Per
capita fresh water availability had dropped at an
alarming rate: from 5,177 cu.m in 1951 to 1869 cu.m
in 2001, and it seemed clear that the threshold of 1000
cu.m would be reached.
It did, a few years ago, faster than anyone thought in
2005! People have under-estimated then how fast
water demand would increase, and in those heady days
no one cared about preserving water resources in the
pursuit of growth. Unfortunately, there has been a
drought of action. There remained excessive depend-
ence on the monsoon—and over-exploitation of
ground water such that several states such as Pun-
jab,Haryana, etc. had already permanently exhausted
their reserves. More recently, competitive pressure for
global investment and jobs has inhibited the will and
ability of local authorities to impose and enforce regu-
lations. Most water intensive industries, e.g. thermal
power plants, pulp and paper, etc. are migrating to
more water-abundant locales, causing severe eco-
nomic and social disruption and widening the existing
disparity between states and regions. Scarce resources
and migrating industries are worsening social discon-
tent.
I believe the worst is yet to come. Monsoons are be-
coming increasingly unpredictable, while decline in
winter rainfall is leading to more frequent droughts
during the dry summer months in many states of India.
Add to this the fact that rising average temperatures
may change the timing of snow and glacier melt, caus-
ing the melt-water flows to become more unpredictable
and affecting the Indus, Ganga and Brahmaputra, and
BUSINESS HUMOR
INDIA – The new entry in the
developed nations league
9 Economy www.economictimes.com
From page 1 : “At a time when mature economies
were facing the challenges of deleveraging and
aging, the urbanisation wave in emerging markets
acted as a positive force for global growth,”
McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) director said in
an interview.
“The urban shift has changed the balance of the
world economy, and government, investors and
businesses need to ensure that they understand and
respond.”
Among the report’s findings, MGI says the
world’s consuming class has soared to 4.2 billion
people at the start of 2025, up from 2.4 billion in
2012 and 1.2 billion in 1990, and that the rate of
urbanisation in countries such as China has been
proceeding at more than 100 times the speed of
the UK’s industrial revolution.
The urban consumers are approximately injecting
around $US20 trillion a year, for the last decade,
in additional spending into the world economy,
according to the report.
The reports authors note that the rise in the
world’s consumer classes carries challenges and
that rising wealth could put further upward pres-
sure on the global investment rate and resource
prices.
China has poured countless billions into building a mas-
sive trans-Asia pipeline and funding Iran’s exploitation of
the world largest percent natural gas field at South Pars in
the Persian Gulf which has made china the largest con-
sumer in the world. Under heavy economic pressure in the
past London agreed to cancel the U.S. lease on its Indian
Ocean island base of Diego Garcia, while Canberra, pres-
sured by the Chinese confirmed Washington that the Sev-
enth Fleet is no longer welcome to use Fremantle as a
homeport, effectively evicting the U.S. Navy from the
Indian Ocean making a great impact on oil consumption
of USA.
The elements that a decade ago thought to assure the
United States limitless supplies of low-cost oil from the
region — logistics, exchange rates, and naval power —
evaporated which made it to lose the plot. At this point,
the U.S. can still cover only an insignificant 10 percent of
its energy needs from its nascent alternative energy indus-
try.
The oil shock that following for past 5 years is hitting the
country like a hurricane, sending prices to startling
heights, making travel a staggeringly expensive proposi-
tion, putting real wages (which had long been declining)
into freefall, and rendering non-competitive whatever
American exports remained. With thermostats dropping,
gas prices climbing through the roof, and dollars flowing
overseas in return for costly oil, the American economy is
paralyzed. With long-fraying alliances at an end and fiscal
pressures mounting, U.S. military forces finally begin a
staged withdrawal from their overseas bases.
IMF Announces GloCurr- New Global Currency
From page 1: This has raised speculations all over the world and the stock markets today would be interesting
to see for different countries. India, Japan has changed the scene of the world in terms of growth, prosperity
for their country and would be hoping to see their growth manifolds when the global currency comes into exis-
tence.
Experts say that this currency would come into effect around oct.2028 and India and China would benefit the
most. The global currency will benefit to countries in terms of rapid integration of global trade and capital
flows, better ties among different parts of the world. There’s the big question in everyone’s mind how it would
fare for USA and its economy which would decrease as percentage share that of the world. Experts all over the
world see that USA’s downturn has started and would become worse in matter of years. USA’s banking sector
is now behind China and India is on rising. MR. Samunkht Carlos the Finance expert believes “the end is near
for USA and European nations while a driver for World will be Asia.
The count of consumers in
world touches 4.2 billions
Oil Shock –The America’s downfall
10 Environment www.economictimes.com
Wind Power sees another
Great Year
January 1 , 2025 - This year shows strong
growth for wind power when the total global in-
stalled capacity added a record 62,000 MW, mak-
ing the total capacity more than 680,000 MW.
Wind power is by far the renewable source with
the largest growth in worldwide capacity during
the last decade.
The US was quite slow adopting wind power
compared to many European countries, but
passed Germany as the biggest producer of wind
power in the world in year 2008. Then China
passed the US in 2010. US now has a capacity of
141,000 MW compared to 92,000 MW for Ger-
many. China was the country with the strongest
growth related to the total capacity, adding an-
other 20% with 154,000 MW installed.
US is though behind Europe when it comes to
wind power as part of the total electricity de-
mand, serving only 6%, compared to 12,7% for
Europe. Denmark is with 40% still the country
with the highest share of wind energy, most
likely reaching 50% within the next five
years. Even though wind power as a renewable
resource has its environmental advantages, the
increasing demand for wind power is related to
the low cost for the energy output, pressed down
with more efficient larger wind turbines and the
maturity of the market.
The trend in the last decade of wind energy has
been towards more offshore sites. In Europe, off-
shore now counts for about 11% of all wind
power capacity, compared to less than 2% 15
years ago. The already projected wind farms give
a forecast of about 50% of the total European ca-
pacity to be offshore by year 2030.
Developing Countries witness
piling up of Auto Scrap
January 1, 2025 - Even though the major carmakers are
very conscious about recycling their vehicles already dur-
ing the production, the auto scrap in the developing coun-
tries are now 478 million tons. This number has tripled
during the last 20 years.
The introduction of End-of-Life Vehicle programs 15
years ago, where the producer of the car also is responsible
for the recycling, is the reason that the recycling rate is
now about 95% in the developed countries. Unfortunately,
the developing countries are still to follow. The main issue
for them is how to handle non-ferrous metals, plastics and
rubber that are more difficult to recycle than steel and iron.
Although the high oil price, the number of vehicles world-
wide has increased with more than 80% over the last 20
years to more than 1.4 billion, projected to pass 2 billion in
next 5 years.
Pine Plantations Continue to
Spread
January 1, 2025 - In the southern US states pine planta-
tions now cover an area of 45 million acres. This increase
of 58% in the last 30 years is mainly because of the de-
mand of paper products. Pine plantations now account for
almost half of southern timber volume growth.
During this same period of 30 years, all 13 southern states
have lost acreage of natural forest, a total of 25 million
acres, due to the increase of pine plantation expansion and
loss of forest to residential and urban uses. Florida has had
the greatest loss with almost 58%, South Carolina with
35% and North Carolina with 30%. More than 270 million
acres of forest have been harvested in the southern states
since 1995. The most pine plantations are found in Georgia
with a total of 9.3 million acres, with Alabama as second
with 7.5 million acres.
11 Freedom from Economics www.economictimes.com
The World's Largest Cross-Country Skirace is
Cancelled Forever
January 1, 2025 - Due to the global warming and higher temperatures for the last years, the arrangers of the
world's largest annual cross-country skirace, Vasaloppet in Sweden, has decided not to continue. They have
had problems for several years to make enough snow for the 89 kilometer race and it has been cancelled now
and then, the first time already in 1990.
The skirace started in 1922 and the arranger say that they are pleased that they have been able to keep the tra-
dition alive for more than a century. More than 600,000 people have during the years been skiing from Sälen
to Mora, the same route that the Swedish king-to-be, Gustav Vasa made in 1521 on his way escaping from
Danish soldiers to Norway .
Gay Marriage touches the mark of
One Million in the US
January 1, 2025 - On Saturday, Jane Wilson and Darla
Schwartz will get married in front of their 28 guests at
a church in their hometown Stockton, California. Their
wedding will however attract some extra attention,
since it will be the one-millionth gay marriage in the
US.
Same-sex marriages were first allowed in the state of
Massachusetts already in 2004, but since the marriages
did not get federal recognition, the happy couples were
not entitled to the federal benefits. But since the bill
passed seven years ago with the federal support of gay
marriages, they have the same rights as any other mar-
riage couple.
Currently there are 20 states that recognize same-sex
marriages, where about 140,000 wedding certificates
were filed last year. Another 12 states allow civil un-
ions, of which some most likely will accept marriages
in the near future. The statistics is not that precise to
know exactly where the millionth gay marriage will
take place so Jane and Darla's wedding is more a sym-
bolic choice based on estimations by gay organiza-
tions.
Jane and Darla have been seeing each other for five
months and are looking forward to the Saturday wed-
ding to be followed by a couple of weeks off to Ha-
waii. "It was meant to be a nice little wedding with our
closest friends but of course we are happy to be a part
of the progress of gay rights", says Darla.
Worldwide death count from
HIV reaches 180 millions
January 1, 2025 - The total number of deaths from
HIV/AIDS worldwide is now said to have passed 180
million people, since it was recognized 50 years ago.
The most infected are to find in sub-Saharan Africa
and Asia.
AIDS is the worst pandemic ever to have hit man-
kind, and have caused more deaths than the Spanish
Flu in 1918-1919 and the Black Death in the 14th
century combined. Well, you can add the deaths
caused directly by the two world wars during the
20th century too, and AIDS will still outnumber them
all. More than half of the deaths from HIV originates
from the sub-Saharan Africa, where there now are
14% fewer inhabitants than it would have been with-
out the occurrence of AIDS.
Even though the deaths are tragic, living with the dis-
ease put a lot of strain on the average household. The
affected families are losing income, as well as get
higher expenditure for medical treatment, which im-
poverish households even further in an already poor
part of the world. This forces many families to re-
duce the consumption of food, which results in mal-
nutrition for all members of the family.
The efforts to raise awareness among the most af-
fected populations have been quite successful during
the last decades, as well as lowering the cost for the
medicine needed to treat the disease, but there is still
no definite cure in sight.
Submitted by:
Deepinder Singh
Chandrashekhar Jindal K. Rajashekhar Advait Bhobe
Nakul Mallikarjun
Group-7
Section-B
MBA (2012-2014)
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