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)