Urbanisation will lead to the
creation of one billion new city consumers by 2025, according to a study
by McKinsey Global Institute (MGI). The study said these will live in
some 440 dynamic emerging market cities (the ‘Emerging 440’), that are
set to generate close to half (47 per cent) of expected global GDP
growth between 2010 and 2025. Among these, 36 cities are from India.
The report says that while China is right in the middle of its
sweeping urbanisation, India is in the early stages of the process.
The study pointed out that growing consumer classes will
accelerate growth in demand for many goods and services. It explained
that many large emerging economies, including China and India, were
seeing higher shares of their populations moving into income segments
where the consumption of many goods and services takes off rapidly.
Indian cities alone are expected to contribute nearly 10 per cent of
global growth in residential and commercial floor space demand to 2025.
To cater to their new urban consumers’ needs, cities will have
to invest heavily in infrastructure. “Cities will require annual
physical capital investment to more than double from nearly $10 trillion
today to more than $20 trillion by 2025.”
By 2025, municipal water demand in large cities is expected to
have to rise by 40 per cent from today’s level—a rise of almost 80
billion cubic meters, more than 20 times what New York consumes today.
The top two cities by expected growth in municipal water demand between
2010 and 2025 globally are Mumbai and Delhi.
The report said companies need to take a more scientific
approach to locating the most promising markets for their businesses and
then allocating resources pro-actively to capture the opportunities
they offer. Identifying fast-growing segments in emerging cities not
currently on the radar will be a necessary skill.
Drug abuse kills two lakh people a year
Some 27 million people worldwide are problem drug users, with
almost one percent of them dying every year from narcotics abuse,
according to the 2012 World Drug Report of the UN Office on Drugs and
Crime (UNODC).
Global production and use of illegal drugs remained relatively
stable in 2011, the report found. However, this masked shifts in
trafficking and consumption that were “significant and also worrying...
because they are proof of the resilience and adaptability of illicit
drug suppliers and users,” the UNODC warned.
Cannabis remained the most widely used drug with up to 224
million users worldwide, although production figures were hard to
obtain.
Europe was the biggest market for cannabis resin, most of it
coming from Morocco, although Afghanistan is becoming a major supplier
and domestic production in Europe is also rising.
Opium production in Afghanistan, the world’s biggest producer
with 90 percent of the global share, meanwhile jumped by 61 per cent in
2011, to 5,800 tonnes, from 3,600 tonnes in 2010, when the crop was hit
by disease.
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