India has more mobile phones than toilets

Far more people in India have access to a mobile phone than to a toilet, according to a UN study on sanitation.

A sadhu uses a mobile phone during Maha Kumbh Mela at Prayag in Allahabad Photo: EPA

India's mobile subscribers totalled 563.73 million at the last count, enough to serve nearly half of the country's 1.2 billion population.
But just 366 million people - around a third of the population - had access to proper sanitation in 2008, said the study published by the United Nations University, a UN think-tank.

"It is a tragic irony to think in India, a country now wealthy enough that roughly half of the people own phones," so many people "cannot afford the basic necessity and dignity of a toilet," said Zafar Adeel, the UN University director.
Mr Adeel heads the UN University's Institute for Water, Environment and Health, based in the Canadian city of Hamilton, which prepared the report.
Worldwide, an estimated $358 billion (£230 billion) is needed between now and 2015 to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving the proportion of people with inadequate sanitation from 2000 levels.
Proper sanitation "could do more to save lives, especially those of young people, improve health and help pull India and other countries in similar circumstances out of poverty than any alternative investment," Mr Adeel said.
Poor sanitation is a major contributor to water-borne diseases, which in the past three years alone killed an estimated 4.5 million children under the age of five worldwide, according to the study.
The report gave a rough cost of $300 to build a toilet, including labour, materials and advice.
The world could expect a return of up to $34 for every dollar spent on sanitation through improved productivity and reduced poverty and health costs, said Adeel.
He said improving sanitation was "an economic and humanitarian opportunity of historic proportions."

Jobs unveils iPhone OS4

Afp, California

Apple unveiled next-generation software for its popular iPhone on April 8, which gives users the ability to run multiple programs at once and to quickly move between them.
"We weren't the first to this party but we're going to be the best," Apple chief executive Steve Jobs said of the multi-tasking feature in version 4.0 of the hot-selling smartphone's new operating system.
In addition to the much-called-for multi-tasking function, Jobs said iPhone OS 4.0 -- which will be available as a software update for iPhone and iPod Touch users this summer -- includes over 100 new features.
Among them is an iBooks reader that will allow users to download electronic books online and transfer them between their iPhones and iPads, the touchscreen tablet computer which went on sale in the United States last week.
A new iPhone Game Center includes a matchmaking feature that will hook users up with similarly skilled partners for multi-player games.
Other new features include the ability to create playlists on the phone, a 5X digital zoom for the camera and folders to organize and access applications.
Improved mail functionality lets users funnel incoming mail from multiple e-mail accounts into a single inbox.
The new operating system also features a spell check function and will allow users to buy applications and gift them directly through their iPhones.
Among seven "tent pole" innovations introduced by Jobs was iAd, a mobile advertising system that is built into the phone.
The iAd system will allow developers and ad agencies to build advertising directly into their applications, compete with the emotional impact of television ads and earn money beyond selling their applications, Jobs said.