But the fact remains that the clocks at ISBT and near All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) record only a birth every second, a calculation that has no basis. The only good thing about the figure being that it is moderate and less alarmist.

But what happens when the clocks stop? And worse still when it is brought back to life, usually after weeks, it skips the time and the corresponding births it had missed.

The clocks installed in 1992 by the Union Health Ministry are maintained by HMT. The company's deputy general manager, marketing, J.V. Mudaliyar says that the digital system gets automatically updated no matter how many weeks it is still. But it remains a fact noticed by clock-watchers that it does not catch up on skipped births when rectified.

A private agency hired by HMT maintains the clocks. But the personnel of this agency are not stationed in Delhi and hence when the clocks stop they take many days to get reactivated.

Asked about the whereabouts of the watch-repair man, Mudaliyar says: ``He is now gone to Lucknow where the agency has population clocks''.

On the accuracy of the clock's figures, social worker Iqbal Malik says it may not be scientifically accurate but it serves its purpose which is a kind of shock therapy. Anupam Mishra of Gandhi Peeace Foundation, however, begs to differ on the uses of the clock. He says that in certain places in Rajasthan the population was just five persons per square kilometres. But the places have not been any better for that. Had they been so wouldn't other parts of the country have quickly emulated the example?'' Which sure is food for thought.

Yet as the population clock near the AIIMS shows 9,83,922,105 around 2 pm on Friday this week there is even more food for thought.