INDIA

                 The country is expecting its one billionth citizen
                 this week even as it grapples with the strain of a
                 growing population on its resources

                 NEW DELHI -- India is set to mark the birth of its
                 billionth citizen this week amid fears that depleting
                 natural resources will be inadequate to sustain the
                 population boom.

                 According to the official countdown, based on the
                 1991 census, the one-billion ceiling will be breached
                 at around noon on May 11. United Nations experts
                 say the milestone was reached months ago.

                 Various studies forecast that India will have surpassed
                 China as the world's most populous nation by 2040.

                 All this is cause for great alarm, experts say, warning
                 that the country's foodgrain stocks and water
                 resources will not sustain the projected growth.

                 Mr Michael Vlassoff, country head of the United
                 Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), said India's
                 current drought crisis pointed to a very bleak future.

                 "Water is the key and the most important of future
                 constraints. The water table is going down and it is a
                 perennial problem.

                 "India's grain bowl, comprising the northern states of
                 Punjab and Haryana, are fully irrigated and cultivated
                 and there is nowhere agriculture can be expanded.

                 "Nutritional levels are stagnating, if not going down,"
                 Mr Vlassoff said.

                 UNFPA will conduct a joint event with the Indian
                 government on Thursday to mark the passing of the
                 one-billion mark.

                 India was the first country in the developing world to
                 initiate a state-sponsored family planning programme
                 in 1952 and, on the surface, official figures suggest no
                 small measure of success.

                 Since independence in 1947, the fertility rate has been
                 cut from six births per woman of child bearing age to
                 3.5, while the birth rate has declined from 40 per
                 1,000 in the 1960s to 28 in 1995-96.

                 A declining death rate has seen India's population
                 grow by 2 per cent annually since the 1960s.

                 According to the US-based Worldwatch Institute,
                 India's population is already running ahead of its
                 natural resource base.

                 "The government of India, overwhelmed by sheer
                 numbers, is suffering from demographic fatigue ... its
                 leaders worn down and its fiscal resources spread
                 thin," said Worldwatch President Lester Brown.

                 India's population currently grows by 30 a minute,
                 1,815 per hour and 1.3 million per month. -- AFP

                        Adapted from The Straits Times, 8 May 2000.