7,000,000,000

On 31st October 2011 when I saw the newspaper in the morning the headline on page 1 had a huge number 7,000,000,000. The world population has reached that magical number of 7 billion and is expected to reach the next billion by 2025.

While the number is a staggering number and does pose a lot of questions in our mind I thought it is time for all of us to ponder over the Opportunities and Threats that this huge number will pose over the coming years.

There was a followup article in Gulf News on 1st November 2011 which gave more data and interesting information on the population growth over the years and how the trend will be over the next several decades. The most interesting information was the annual growth in population which has been the highest in 1963 at 2.2% (the year in which I was born in this world).

It took 122 years from 1805 to 1927 for the world population to grow from 1 Billion to 2 Billion. The last One Billion was added in only 12 years. Now to grow from 7 Billion to 8 Billion it is estimated to take only 14 years.

The opportunities that are coming our way is huge as we need to provide for Water, Food, Clothing and Shelter for additional 1 Billion people worldwide within the next 14 years. The infrastructure needs of the world particularly in under developed and developing nations poses a huge opportunity.

China and India contribute 37% of the world’s population and 60% of the global population is in Asia. Over the last 10 years the focus has been on Asia and it will continue to be the major attraction as it poses huge opportunities.

There is an existing gap in the developing and under developed countries as regards infrastructure. This gap will widen with the rapid growth in population if the infrastructure development is not taken up at rapid pace.

Apart from providing infrastructure (Housing, Healthcare, Education, Airports, Roads, etc.) there is also huge opportunities for the companies that are manufacturing commodities. We should all be happy that there are plenty of opportunities that are available for us over the next several years.

While the opportunities are very exciting and interesting we need to also look at the threats. The increase in population poses threats that are seemingly insurmountable. We are having depleting water table and trees are being felled whereby forests are becoming deserts. The environmental changes over the last 10 years have posed severe threat to the living beings in the world. We need to create better awareness globally and at the same time use the technological advancements to maintain the ecological balance. It is entirely in our hands to make this a livable and lovable globe.

T.P.Anand
5th November 2011, Dubai, U.A.E.