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| World Facts |
| Here is an assortment of global and national facts that point to where the world, as also India, was in 2006 and to what they were headed. |
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39.5 million people, according to United Nations, were living with HIV and nearly 3 million died in 2006 alone. |
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Every day, 14,000 people are newly infected worldwide with AIDS and half are young people under the age of 25. |
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Women constitute almost half of all international migrants worldwide — the number being 95 million. |
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Some 350 million couples still do not have access to a range of effective and affordable family planning services, and demand for these services is expected to increase by 40 per cent in the next 15 years. |
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There is an estimated shortage of almost 4.3 million doctors, midwives, nurses and support workers worldwide. |
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The year 2006 is set to be the world’s sixth-warmest year since records began 150 years ago. The World Meteorological Organization says the 10 warmest years have all occurred in the last 12 years. 1998 was the warmest year. |
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In China, it was the worst year in a decade for tropical cyclones, which claimed more than 1,000 lives. |
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The US body count in the Iraq conflict touched the 3,000 mark in 2006. |
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In Sri Lanka, at least 3,500 people died in clashes between the military and Tamil Tiger rebels in 2006 |
| India Facts |
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The Indian economy grew at a growth rate of 8.7 per cent in 2006. |
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The Indian economy grew by over 9 per cent in the quarter ended September 2006. |
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India emerged as the largest economy, according to World Bank, in the South Asia region with GDP expanding by an estimated 8.7 per cent in 2006. |
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Japanese companies invested $2.15 billion in India between 1991 and 2006, which is about 6 per cent of total FDI inflows into India. FIIs from Japan made a net investment $2.26 billion during the last financial year. Bilateral trade between the India and Japan was $6.8 billion in 2005. |
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India’s trade with the Middle East has risen three-fold in the past five years to $25 billion. |
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Large aircraft manufacturers Airbus and Boeing clinched 22 deals in India in 2006 for Airbus Corporate Jetliner (ACJ) family, which includes the A318 Elite, Airbus ACJ and A320 Prestige models, making it the best year for them. |
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Private equity funding more than doubled in 2006 with cash-rich investors from the US and Europe investing in the booming market. |
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The total investments by private equity players soared to $5.4 billion in the first nine months of 2006 compared to $2.2 billion in the whole of 2005, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers' (PwC) study. As many as 246 deals were amde in 2006 as against 169 in the whole of 2005. The largest deal was the $900-million buyout by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Co, one of the largest PE funds in the US. While Farallon invested $143 million in Indiabulls Financial and Warburg Pincus acquired 27 per cent stake in Lemon Tree Hotels. |
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The Reserve Bank tightened its monetary policy in 2006 to curb inflationary trends in the economy. It at the 2006-end announced 0.50 per cent hike in banks' cash reserve ratio that would curb liquidity by Rs13,500 crore. |
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The Indian middle class is estimated to have grown by 15-20 per cent in 2006. |
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UNICEF report released in December 2006 said 10 million girls have been killed by their parents in India in the past 20 years before they were born or immediately after. The report said 7,000 fewer girls are born in the country every day than the global average, largely because female foetuses are aborted after sex determination tests but also through murder of new borns. |
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According to the 2001 census, the national sex ratio was 933 girls to 1,000 boys, while in the worst-affected northern state of Punjab, it was 798 girls to 1,000 boys. The ratio has fallen since 1991, due to the availability of ultrasound sex-determination tests. |
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As many as 35.11 lakh railway passengers were caught for ticketless travel during 2006 (up to October) and Rs 128.02 core fine was recovered from them. |
