Sarkari Naukri

29 October 2021 Current Affairs:“The World Bank recently published the Changing Wealth of Nations 2021” Report, and South Asia suffers the most due to loss of human capital because of air pollution.

Highlights:
♦ The latest edition of the report has measured wealth creation and distribution among 146 countries, covering 20 years from 1995 to 2018.
♦ The World Bank included:
Gross domestic product.
Human capital.
Human-produced capital.
Natural capital such as renewable & non-renewable natural resources to measure the wealth.
♦ According to the bank, human capital is defined as “earnings over a person’s lifetime.”
♦ Human capital was the largest source of worldwide wealth, and in 2018, it comprised 64 per cent of total global wealth.
♦ Middle-income countries increased their investment in human capital, which resulted in a share of global human capital wealth growing significantly.
♦ In South Asia, human capital accounts for 50 per cent of total wealth in the region. 

Concerns:
♦ As per the report, air pollution was impacting this significant wealth generator. 
♦ The South Asian region was most severely affected by estimated human capital loss because of air pollution.
♦ Wealth in South Asia has increased since 1995, but its per capita wealth is among the lowest worldwide due to population growth.
♦ About 80 percent of wealth in the region was attributed to men.