The International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking observed across the globe.

Objective: The day is observed each year to disseminate awareness about the harms and problems that illicit drugs cause to the society.

The theme for 2012 – : “Global Action for the Healthy Communities Without Drugs”.

To mark the day, various functions and events were organized across the globe to generate awareness about the devastating effects of drugs.

International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking:-

• A United Nations International Day against drug abuse and the illegal drug trade.
• Held since 1988 on June 26 every year.
• June 26 was the date chosen to commemorate Lin Zexu's dismantling of the opium trade in Humen, Guangdong, just before the First Opium War in China.
• The observance was instituted by General Assembly Resolution 42/112 of 7 December 1987.

• The Centre is progressing on a new law for ‘Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation’, and revising the current Schemes for Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers and Total Sanitation Campaign.
• It is also planning a new scheme for conversion of insanitary latrines in urban areas.
• Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Mukul Wasnik urged the states to devise a time-bound action plan to ensure abolition of insanitary latrines and rehabilitation of remaining manual scavengers on priority basis

Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has notified new rules for ownership and governance of stock exchanges to encourage the establishing of new bourses and facilitate exchanges to get listed. The amendments were announced following the legal battle b/w the regulator and MCX Stock Exchange, which had earlier sought approval to launch an equity platform.

As per fresh norms:

• The recognized stock exchange should have a minimum net worth of Rs 100 crore at all times and at least 51 % of stake has to be held by public
• The ownership of a single investor is capped at 5% with an exemption for stock exchanges, depositories, insurance and banking companies and public financial institutions, which has been allowed to posses up to 15 %. 
• The shareholders who possess stake in excess of the new limits would have to observe the new norms within a period to be decided by SEBI and such period could be of up to 3 years.
• Stock exchanges are allowed to list on any recognized stock exchange other than itself and its associated stock exchanges, within 3 years of starting operations
• Direct and indirect exposure to any stock exchange will be taken into account while calculating the preThe new scribed shareholding limit.
• For a stock exchange that is not listed, an FII may acquire shares through transactions outside of a recognized stock exchange provided it is not an initial allotment of shares.
• For listed bourses, the FIIs can transact through the exchange where the shares are listed.

The market regulator had earlier approved amendments to the Manner of Increasing and Maintaining Public Shareholding (MIMPS) in recognized stock exchanges.

As per a study report by McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) India faces a new challenge as it needs to retrain at least 285 million working citizens who lack secondary education. Out of these, 150 million have not even completed primary education. Imparting job-relevant vocational skills to these workers is a mammoth task before India.

Some of the excerpts from the Report:

• India would replace China and developing economies of South Asia and Africa as the new global source of new workers (middle level workers with secondary education).
• However, India and younger developing countries may have around 58 million surplus low-skill workers in 2020.
• Due to slow pace of high school enrollment and completion, India could have 13 million too fewer such workers; younger developing economies could have 31 million fewer of them.
• India trails behind China in generation of higher value-added manufacturing and export-oriented jobs. 41 % of India’s job creation in the past decade was in low-skill construction, compared with 16 %in China.
• The Indian labor force was around 260 million in 1980 which grew to approximately 470 million in 2010, and India created millions of non-farm jobs—but much fewer than what China accomplished.
• India also has trails behind China in enhancing the skills of its workforce.
• While the numbers of workers with a tertiary education in both China and India are competitive, the share of people with secondary education in India is less than half the ratio in China and many other developing economies.

India ranked 6^th on Inclusive Wealth Index (IWI) per capita that listed top 20 selected countries on the basis economic performance assessed between 1990 and 2008. The focus on this new measure gained attention in Rio+20 as it emphasized on the “Green Economy”.

As per the IWI report:-

• 4.3 % per year GDP per capita during this placed India 2^nd only to China, which registered high growth of 9.6%. India also stood next to China in the HDI, with an average 1.4%per head annually. However, it ranked 6^th in the ‘Inclusive Wealth Index per capita’ with 0.9 % per year 
• The 20 countries together responsible for around 3/4^th of global GDP during this twenty-year time. This was disclosed by the United Nations University and UN development Programme in the run-up to Rio+20.
• Despite having GDP growth, China, the US, South Africa and Brazil were found to have considerably eroded their natural capital base. This includes both renewable and non-renewable resources, such as fossil fuels, forests and fisheries. Natural resources per capita declined in the US and in China by 20% and 17 % respectively.
• Of the 20 countries surveyed, Japan was the only country which did not registered decline in its natural capital base, due to significant increase in forest cover/
• If only GDP is considered, China and the US grew by 422 % and 37 % respectively. Once the IWI was applied, the corresponding figures decline to 45 %and 13 % respectively
• India is among the high population growth countries, including Nigeria and Saudi Arabia, which have shown considerably lower IWI growth. This negative trend will keep on going unless steps are taken to enhance natural the capital base or cut population growth.
• Six countries who witnessed decline in their inclusive wealth are Russia, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Colombia, South Africa and Nigeria.

Inclusive Wealth Report 2012:-

• The Inclusive Wealth Report 2012 is the first of a series of biennial reports on the sustainability of countries. It looks at the productive base of economies, based on capital assets – produced or manufactured capital, human capital, and natural capital.
  The IWR 2012 is a joint initiative of the United Nations University International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (UNU-IHDP) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), in collaboration with the UN-Water Decade Programme on Capacity Development (UNW-DPC) and the Natural Capital Project.

Inclusive Wealth Index (IWI)

• The IWI is a more holistic measure which considers full range of assets such as manufactured, human and natural capital, which shows a country’s actual wealth and sustainability.
• The Inclusive Wealth Index (IWI) seeks to measure the social value of capital assets of nations beyond manufactured capital. The index is inclusive in the sense that it accounts for other key assets as important components of the productive base of the economy, such as natural capital and human capital. The total value of capital assets – or wealth – is concretely measured by adding up the social worth of each capital type of a nation, where the social (or shadow) prices per unit of capital form act as a weight in its index of inclusive wealth.Further, the index measures changes in wealth (or per-capita wealth) over a period of time. Thus, changes in wealth – or inclusive investment – are measured by assessing the changes in the physical asset base of a nation over time, and subsequently adjusted for population.

What is the role of natural capital in inclusive wealth?

• Natural capital represents an essential pool of resources that can induce the building of other capital assets, such as education, health or manufactured capital.

The report, which will be produced every two years, makes the following specific recommendations:

• Countries witnessing diminishing returns in natural capital should invest in renewable natural capital to improve their IWI and the well-being of their citizens. Example investments include reforestation and agricultural biodiversity Nations should incorporate the IWI within planning and development ministries to encourage the creation of sustainable policies Countries should speed up the process of moving from an income-based accounting framework to a wealth accounting framework Macroeconomic policies should be evaluated on the basis of IWI rather than GDP per capita Governments and international organizations should establish research programmes to value key components of natural capital, in particular ecosystems.

Source:

• Inclusive Wealth Report 2012 - “Measuring progress toward sustainability”

Tables:-

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