I wrote earlier:

> The United Nations Population Information Network is one of many
> organizations that creates timetables for estimated population growth. In
> this case, the "scheduling" organization is POPIN, and that's the one I
> quoted. I'm sure that it will be in all the newspapers tomorrow.

That information is in error. I misread the bulletin I got this afternoon,
and as long as we're striving to keep the world safe for accurate
information, the correct information would be this: The United Nations
Development Program actually estimated that India exceeded the 1 billion
population mark eight months ago, on August 15, 1999.

It is the Government of India's own census organization that calculated that
it will exceed one billion people tomorrow and has a population clock up at:

     http://www.censusindia.net/

At the time I'm writing this, the clock is 30,000 shy of a billion people,
but India adds 42,000 people a day to its population. The national Government
has decided to commerate the event tomorrow, on May 11, as a day of both
celebration and reflection.

If India's growth continues as is, it is "scheduled" to overtake China as the
most populous nation on the planet in 2045.

Wirt Atmar