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India is expected to surpass China to become the world’s most-populous nation in 2023, four years ahead of an earlier estimate by the United Nations, Economic Times reported.

The UN expects global population to hit 8 billion on Nov. 15 and grow to 8.5 billion by 2030. More than half the projected rise between now and 2050 is expected to be in just eight countries: Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and Tanzania, according to a report titled World Population Prospects 2022.

China is expected to experience an absolute decline in its population as early as next year, the report said. A Chinese official had earlier this year estimated that the country’s population may peak as early as 2022 as its population of 1.41 billion grew at the slowest pace since the 1950s, according to government data. An earlier report projected India surpassing China by 2027.

Lower mortality rates and demographic changes may ensure that central and southern Asia become the world’s most-populous region by 2037. Numbers in sub-Saharan Africa may almost double by late 2040s to cross 2 billion. Population growth rates in Europe and Northern America were almost zero in 2020 and 2021, data show, according to Economic Times.

The global population is expected to grow to 9.7 billion in 2050 and 10.4 billion in 2100, lower than the UN’s 2019 estimate of 11 billion. In India, the total fertility rate may decline to 1.29 births per woman by 2100 instead of the UN’s earlier estimate of 1.69 births, according the report, which cites data from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

Women and men are expected to be equal in numbers by 2050 as the current global count of 49.7% women compared to 50.3% men is expected to be inverted, the report said. Sustained high fertility and rapid population growth present challenges to achieving sustainable development, it said, Economic Times reported.

Nepal reported 168 new Covid-19 cases on Monday.

According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 1, 834 swab samples were tested in the RT-PCR method, of which 129 returned positive. Likewise, 1, 168 people underwent antigen tests, of which 39 were tested positive.

The Ministry said that no one died of the virus in the last 24 hours. The Ministry said that 37 infected people recovered from the disease.

As of today, there are 770 active cases in the country.

The Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has sought suggestions for the monetary policy.

The NRB sought the suggestions from the stakeholders for the monetary policy as per NRB Act, 2058 for the fiscal year, 2079/80.

Clause 44 of Section-5 under the NRB Act has given full authority to the NRB to formulate and implement the monetary policy. For this, the economic investigation department at NRB has said anyone can furnish (email) the suggestions at [email protected].

Earlier, the NRB had made public the monetary policy for the existing fiscal year on July 13, 2021. Generally, monetary policy is made public after a month of the budget announcement.

Multiple Chinese cities are adopting fresh COVID-19 curbs, from business halts to lockdowns, to rein in new infections, with the commercial hub of Shanghai bracing for another mass testing campaign after detecting the BA.5 Omicron subvariant, Reuters reported.

As China sticks to its "dynamic zero-COVID" policy of promptly stamping out all outbreaks, the strict curbs by local governments come despite low caseloads, at a time when much of the world co-exists with the virus.

The central government has said curbs must be as targeted as possible to reduce damage to the world's No. 2 economy, after this year's major disruptions clogged global supply chains and hit international trade. 

The highly-transmissible BA.5, which is driving outbreaks in many countries outside China, has shown signs of greater ability to escape vaccine-triggered antibody reactions than some other Omicron subvariants, health officials have said.

The discovery of one such infection in Shanghai could add pressure to quickly limit a nascent outbreak and avert more disruptive measures similar to the lockdown in April and May that roiled the global economy and markets.

Shanghai, China's most populous city of 25 million, has told people in several districts to get tested twice in another round of mass screening from Tuesday to Thursday, similar to last week's.

Its residents are already testing every few days to secure access to various locations and public transport.

Daily counts of locally transmitted infections in Shanghai increased to several dozens since July 5, up from single digits earlier this month, but are still tiny by global standards, according to Reuters.

Most of its recent cases have been among those already in quarantine. 

NEW CURBS ELSEWHERE

Mainland China reported 352 new domestically transmitted COVID infections on July 10, 46 of these symptomatic and 306 asymptomatic, the National Health Commission said on Monday.

In the central province of Henan, the town of Qinyang has almost completely locked down its nearly 700,000 residents from Sunday, with one person from each household allowed out every two days to get groceries.

In some areas, people have been told not to leave home at all. 

Four major districts in the northwestern city of Lanzhou, in Gansu province, and the southern cities of Danzhou and Haikou in Hainan province, are under temporary curbs for several days, with entertainment and cultural spaces shut. 

About 6 million people in the three cities are affected by the rules. 

The city of Nanchang in southern Jiangxi province, with 6.3 million residents, shut some entertainment venues on Saturday, although the duration of the curbs was not specified.

In the northwestern province of Qinghai, the city of Xining kicked off a mass testing campaign on Monday after one person tested positive on Sunday, Reuters reported.

Several major districts in the southern metropolis of Guangzhou also began mass tests on Monday.