India loses about a quarter of its electrical power output due to problems in its transmission and distribution infrastructure. It is one of the worst loss rates in the world, although it pales in comparison to Botswana, where almost 80% of power output is lost.
India is not the only country where businesses suffer significant losses due to power failures. Nepalese firms report that they lose an astonishing 27% of annual sales due to electrical outages. Check our Value lost due to electrical outages indicator for more details.
Fascinating look into the work of Lieutenant Colonel Jenns Robertson, who compiled a database of every single bomb the US has ever dropped.
Transparency International conducts an annual cross-country survey where they collect the general public’s view on, and experiences of, corruption. How did your country fare in the latest survey? Do you agree with the results?
For someone living in a country where corruption is widespread, it is very easy to cite examples of corruption, bribery, graft, traffic of influences, nepotism, etc. Measuring corruption in a systematic way is, in contrast, a much more difficult task. Going through the database of World Bank indicators we found two indicators directly related to corruption:
Click on the links above to find out where your country ranks in terms of corruption. Note though that the World Bank does not have data for all countries.
For a far more comprehensive effort at measuring corruption, you may want to check the web site of Transparency International and its annual reports on corruption.
India is a country with extraordinary problems due to the size of its population. At the same time, it has extraordinary potential which may be realized if it can implement some major changes best identified in a paper released by Goldman Sachs in 2008 (PDF). According to the study, there are ten key areas where reform is needed:
I believe the only controversial item in the list above may be number six, given the disastrous effects that financial market deregulation had in the US in recent years. Nevertheless, the nine other recommendations are still highly relevant and fundamentally sound. Do you agree?
We recently came across the results of a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project. According to the survey, the top problems in Mexico as reported by Mexican citizens are:
Do you agree with the ranking above? Are there any problems that you believe are more important?
We just launched the beta version of our new commodity news section. We hope you find it useful.
Today is World Malaria Day, a day for recognizing the global effort to provide effective prevention and treatment of malaria. We currently have two thematic maps which help illustrate the impact of malaria on the population of our planet:
Learn more about the fight against malaria at the Roll Back Malaria site.
