'it's not just youth in India who are left behind because of their inability to find jobs; nearly two-thirds of Indian women of working ages do not participate at all in the paid labour force.'
India remains a young nation, but it will not get younger in future. India has not managed to noticeably improve education. Nor has it managed to create employment opportunities, observes Devangshu Datta.
India has entered a 'demographic sweet spot' with half of its population being under the age of 29. This 'demographic dividend' is likely to last for 2-3 decades and provides the government a unique opportunity to harness the vast potential of India's youth, points out Raj Kishore Mishra, the former civil servant turned development professional.
Rural and urban regions present different labour participation and employment levels. These differences also are not tuned to India exploiting its demographic dividend, says Mahesh Vyas.
No country has grown without educating its people. India's shameful lag in primary and secondary education has persisted for several decades, and the crisis in higher education is now threatening a social and political calamity, says Ashoka Mody.
Less than half of all graduates were employed, with 48.8 per cent reporting some form of work.
Perhaps half-way through India's demographic transition, what is the outlook for the future?
'India cannot speak of a demographic dividend if half its young women are unable to participate in paid work.'
Can change happen? Not unless the changemakers themselves want it since they benefit the most from the status quo, warns Biswajit Dasgupta.
'At the first sign of real trouble, that money will move. There will be a run.'
'... for two reasons: the poor quality of education, and the low rate of female participation in the labour force.' 'Unless something is done quickly to remedy these problems, India will just have a large population of low-skill, low-wage, males trying and failing to feed their families adequately.'
Budget 2026 is an intentional and ambitious one - From manufacturing growth to services supremacy, from technology consumption to AI-powered transformation. This is the blueprint for a $7 trillion economy built on intelligence, not just scale.
'We will give Rs 25,000 to parents having a second child or more at the time of delivery itself.'
Internet subscribers, income growth, literacy and dependency ratio are the biggest drivers of growth.
We cannot simply have a 60-65 per cent import dependency in LPG, the bulk of which comes from just one volatile region -- West Asia, points out R Jagannathan.
Global risks include a potential delay in the US-India trade agreement, the possibility of a sharp correction in US equity markets, and renewed geopolitical tensions.
This election is different. It is no longer simply about governance or welfare. It is about identity, fear, and who belongs. The BJP has successfully shifted the terms of the debate from what the government has delivered to who the real Bengali is and who is an outsider, points out Ramesh Menon.
A large-scale international study published in the journal, Molecular Psychiatry, has been tracking over 7 lakh individuals and has shown that 34.6 per cent of mental disorders begin before the age of 14 years, 48.4 per cent before 18 years and 62.5 per cent by the age of 25 years.
On average, Indian women are having fewer children than needed to maintain the population size from one generation to the next, without migration.
'Given that the population is almost evenly split, the Indian economy cannot grow without women participating in the workforce.' 'While women's participation has increased, it is still well below 40 per cent,' says Kartik Narayan, CEO of the professional networking and jobs platform, Apna.
India's equity markets may have expanded rapidly, but initial public offerings (IPOs) are increasingly becoming exit vehicles for early investors rather than as engines for raising long-term capital, a shift that undermines the spirit of public markets, Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran warned on Monday at a CII event.
India's housing finance sector is riding a wave of post-pandemic revival, driven by policy support, digital innovation, and growing demand from younger homebuyers in emerging cities.
What is currently perceived as a massive, low-tech liability could become a high-value, export-oriented economic engine, points out Ajit Balakrishnan.
'We are expecting investment, public and private, of around Rs 40 trillion by 2029.'
'The more educated a young person is, the higher the chances of him or her remaining unemployed.'
India is not reaping the benefits of demographic dividends, former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan said on Tuesday, emphasising that there is a need to focus on improving the human capital and enhancing their skill sets. "I think we are in the midst of it (demographic dividend), but the problem is we are not reaping the benefits," Rajan said at a conference on "Making India an Advanced Economy by 2047: What Will it Take" at the George Washington University in Washington DC. "That's why I said 6 per cent growth.
'We don't know which bus is coming next. I know for sure whatever bus comes next, it will miss that too.'
Employers in India are planning to outpace global adoption in certain future technologies as companies operating in the country are heavily investing in technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), energy technologies, robotics, and autonomous systems, said the World Economic Forum (WEF) in its latest "Future of Jobs" report released on Wednesday. The report, released days before the WEF annual meeting in Davos from January 20-25, notes that 35 per cent employers in India think that adopting semiconductors and computing technologies (compared to 20 per cent globally) will transform their operations while 21 per cent employers think that adopting quantum and encryption technologies (compared to 12 per cent globally) will also transform their operations.
'Don't look at Russia only as a place to earn quickly and then leave.' 'Try to build experience in serious companies, skills and certifications that will serve you anywhere in the world.'
'...then preparing oneself for the long haul is also essential.' 'Identifying and holding onto values gives you strength to withstand the difficulties enroute.' 'Taking care of your physical, mental, and intellectual well-being gives you the strength to stay the path.'
Any industrial policy is only as good as how it is applied and the other reforms that support it. This was as true 40 years ago as it is now, points out Debashis Basu.
'The top 10 per cent of the population should adopt and handhold the bottom 20 per cent of the population as a social responsibility.'
Invest in these funds through the SIP route with at least a seven-year horizon.
'Our attempt to honour the taxpayer has been since 2014 and more actively since 2019-2020 onwards.'
State-run Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has committed Rs 600 crore for its digital transformation journey, Sunder Krishnan, chief risk officer said on Wednesday. The insurance giant is also aiming to become completely "paperless" in two years. "We have hired a large system integrator for more than Rs 400 crore, a consultant for digital transformation for Rs 100 crore, and Rs 100 crore for agency transformation.
India will need to grow at an average 7.8 per cent to become a high-income country by 2047, a World Bank report said on Friday. To achieve this goal India would require reforms in financial sector as well as in land and labour market, the World Bank said in its India Country Memorandum titled 'Becoming a High-Income Economy in a generation'.
India's rapid economic progress over the past two decades masks its abysmal performance on social indicators.
'Is India going to miss some more of its potential demographic dividend?' 'If so, it would be for two reasons: The demographic dividend can be fully exploited only if the people in the working age are actually working.' 'And second, if those working have proper education and skills, making them productive in the workplace.' 'On both counts, the country has fallen short,' points out T N Ninan.
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