Here’s something the pope should definitely mention in his next encyclical:

Ghulam Nabi Azad, the Health and Family Welfare Minister, has called for the country to redouble its efforts to bring electricity to all of its huge rural population.

The introduction of the electric light and television sets to those vast areas that still did not have them would discourage procreation, he argued.

“If there is electricity in every village, then people will watch TV till late at night and then fall asleep. They won’t get a chance to produce children,” Mr Azad said. “When there is no electricity there is nothing else to do but produce babies.”

He added: “Don’t think that I am saying this in a lighter vein. I am serious. TV will have a great impact. It’s a great medium to tackle the problem . . . 80 per cent of population growth can be reduced through TV.”

India’s population has trebled since independence in 1947 to about 1.2 billion after an agricultural revolution, which helped to banish famine, and developmental progress extended life expectancy. The country, whose population is growing by about 1.6 per cent a year, accounts for about 17 per cent of the world’s people but occupies less than 3 per cent of its land area.

India’s population is expected to exceed that of China in the next 20 years and experts are warning of violent internal conflicts over resources unless urgent action is taken.