Indian cities are undergo inequality trend: State of the World’s Cities Report 2008/9 of UN-HABITAT.

Indian cities are undergoing an inequality trend as a result of economic liberalisation and globalisation, says the : State of the World’s Cities Report 2008/9 :Harmonious Cities. In 2002, the income gain of the richest 10 per cent of the population in India was about four times higher than that of the poorest 10 per cent, adds the report, released on Thursday by UN-HABITAT. This, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, is the U.N. agency for human settlements.

The report puts the current ecological footprint of humanity as 2.2 hectares per person, while the earth’s biocapacity remains at 1.8 ha. China and India have ecological footprints that are twice their biocapacity. In other words, what the population consumes in a year, their area of earth will take two years to produce. Other challenges facing cities are mobility, waste management and environment. The report says a number of cities in Asia have a high rate of car ownership. In this context, it cites the World Health Organisation’s estimates that more than a billion people in Asia are exposed to air pollution levels that exceed its guidelines. more

Global crisis threatens to undo all UN’s work: Ban Ki-moon

Global crisis threatens to undo all UN’s work: Ban

UNITED NATIONS (Agencies): UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned his top lieutenants on Friday that the global financial crisis jeopardized everything the United Nations has done to help the world’s poor and hungry. “It threatens to undermine all our achievements and all our progress,” Ban told a meeting of UN agency chiefs devoted to the crisis. “Our progress in eradicating poverty and disease. Our efforts to fight climate change and promote development. To ensure that people have enough to eat.” At a meeting also attended by the heads of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, Ban said the credit crunch that has stunned markets worldwide compounded the food crisis, the energy crisis and Africa’s development crisis. “It could be the final blow that many of the poorest of the world’s poor simply cannot survive,” he added, in one of his bleakest assessments of the impact of the financial turmoil. In a statement after the meeting, Ban picked up a theme he has stressed since the crisis erupted last month, that it should not be allowed to hit hardest “those least responsible” the poor in developing countries.  more

U.N.'s mid-year economic projections:grim

UN: World economy "teetering on brink"

UNITED NATIONS (AP): The U.N. says the world economy is ``teetering on the brink'' of a severe downturn and will grow by only 1.8 percent in 2008.

That's down from a global growth rate of 3.8 percent in 2007.

The U.N.'s mid-year economic projections released Thursday blamed the downturn on further deterioration in the U.S. housing and financial sectors in the first quarter.

The U.N. said the U.S. problems are expected to continue to be ``a major drag for the world economy'' into 2009. It forecast global economic growth of 2.1 percent next year.

But developing countries won't suffer as badly. The U.N. said they should reach 5 percent growth this year, compared to a robust 7.3 percent in 2007.